The terrorist attacks of September 11th reshaped the governments focus on the domestic security of the United States and its citizens. Established after the terror attacks of September 11th the DHS combined multiple agencies into one agency which reports directly to the President of the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) faces the daunting task of protecting the continental United States from terrorism threats. After the attacks the government set out to ensure the US would never face another situation or attack like the one that had occurred. In order to do so the government had to transform the way it handled one major component, Intelligence. The government was accustomed to keeping its gathered intelligence secret.
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The IA/IP is responsible for intelligence/information gathering and sharing, analyzing data, and the recommendation and development of a comprehensive plan for protecting critical infrastructures and key resources which it executes through utilization of a specialized risk management approach. The DHS implements attack scenarios to prepare the 18 critical infrastructure areas for potential hazards. Subject matter experts from various departments of the IA/IP come together and determine specific vulnerabilities based on the potential scenarios. This allows the DHS to plan for necessary resources required to react in the event of a disaster or attack on one of the elements of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The attack scenarios are modified annually based on new terrorist trends or attacks that have happened around the world. This allows the DHS to utilize real world intelligence and scenarios to adapt their techniques to changing threats and continuously reassess their strengths and vulnerabilities (National Research Counsel, …show more content…
It is a daunting task to comb through and compile all of this intelligence into an effective means of communicating threats. To ensure stakeholders at all levels are engaged in information sharing the DHS has created fusion centers. These are centers which compile DHS, state, and local resources in an attempt to respond to terroristic and other potential threats. Law enforcement agencies at the local and state levels take the lead in running fusion centers however, DHS personnel play a critical role in funneling federal intelligence information into the fusion centers. As each fusion center is ran by state and local entities there are no standard operating guidelines in place which may pose a potential problem as best practices are not being shared from fusion center to fusion center. In 2009 personnel working in fusion centers stated they had difficulties accessing federal information and processing the heavy volume of new and repeated intelligence information they had received (Nojeim, 2009). Although there has not been another terror attack at the same scale as 9/11 recent terror attacks have shown the continued need for information sharing. The attack on an Orlando night club by Omar Mateen who had been previously screened as a potential terror suspect raises many concerns. Could there have been better information shared from the federal level down to the local level which
The IA/IP is responsible for intelligence/information gathering and sharing, analyzing data, and the recommendation and development of a comprehensive plan for protecting critical infrastructures and key resources which it executes through utilization of a specialized risk management approach. The DHS implements attack scenarios to prepare the 18 critical infrastructure areas for potential hazards. Subject matter experts from various departments of the IA/IP come together and determine specific vulnerabilities based on the potential scenarios. This allows the DHS to plan for necessary resources required to react in the event of a disaster or attack on one of the elements of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The attack scenarios are modified annually based on new terrorist trends or attacks that have happened around the world. This allows the DHS to utilize real world intelligence and scenarios to adapt their techniques to changing threats and continuously reassess their strengths and vulnerabilities (National Research Counsel, …show more content…
It is a daunting task to comb through and compile all of this intelligence into an effective means of communicating threats. To ensure stakeholders at all levels are engaged in information sharing the DHS has created fusion centers. These are centers which compile DHS, state, and local resources in an attempt to respond to terroristic and other potential threats. Law enforcement agencies at the local and state levels take the lead in running fusion centers however, DHS personnel play a critical role in funneling federal intelligence information into the fusion centers. As each fusion center is ran by state and local entities there are no standard operating guidelines in place which may pose a potential problem as best practices are not being shared from fusion center to fusion center. In 2009 personnel working in fusion centers stated they had difficulties accessing federal information and processing the heavy volume of new and repeated intelligence information they had received (Nojeim, 2009). Although there has not been another terror attack at the same scale as 9/11 recent terror attacks have shown the continued need for information sharing. The attack on an Orlando night club by Omar Mateen who had been previously screened as a potential terror suspect raises many concerns. Could there have been better information shared from the federal level down to the local level which