RAMCAP Plus^SM represents the most current stage of the continuing development of Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection (RAMCAP^{SM 1}). The development was initiated in response to the recommendation of a 2002 White House conference of more than one hundred senior executives from the private sector concerning the protection of the Nation's critical infrastructure. The executives' highest priority was an objective, consistent and efficient method for assessing and reducing infrastructure risks in terms directly comparable among the assets of a given sector and across sectors. The RAMCAP process allowed rational allocation of finite resources to protect the most important and vulnerable infrastructure assets. At the same time, the executives recognized that no universal process would fit the wide range of industries defined as critical infrastructures without some tailoring to fit the respective industries.

To achieve the necessary consistency and comparability while recognizing the differences among industries, the RAMCAP approach was conceived as having two levels: a high-level and general method, periodically updated in a publication such as this, and as a series of Sector-Specific Guidance (SSG) documents, expressly tailored to the technologies, issues and cultures of the respective sectors and subsectors. The SSGs - and adaptations of other tools - would be “RAMCAP-consistent” if they met explicit criteria derived from the then-current approach. This assured that the results of applying SSGs would be directly comparable, regardless of the industry to which they were applied.

The RAMCAP Plus process consists of seven steps (defined later in this publication) that are practical and robust rather than esoteric or overly theoretical. The goal is an efficient, straightforward process that can be carried out by on-site professionals within a week or less, with a modicum of special training. This design requirement dictates many of the specific trade-offs within in the RAMCAP Plus process.