An Earthquake Scenario And How It Affects The Energy Sector

The cybersecurity simulation rounds in UMUC?s Cybersecurity Master 's degree capstone are an integral part of the learning program. The simulation rounds expose students to real world incidents in a cyber representation of the US. In this environment students are provided a chance to gain experience in a setting where mistakes are far less impactful than those made in the real world. The environment includes five critical infrastructure sectors; DTL Power, Federal Government, Hytema Defense, Mistral Bank and Avisitel Telecom. The control decisions made by each have the potential to impact other groups operating within the environment.

Have you ever been in a deadly earthquake? In 2013, the people of the Philippines experienced one. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake that affected around 43,000 people with 2,211 aftershocks that ended up killing a total of 185 people. Earthquakes are known as one of the most dangerous natural disasters. This horrific event happened October 15th, 2013. The earthquake hit hardest in the central Philippines, it was reported to be caused by the East Bohol Fault. People act in a response to a natural disaster by gathering resources, spreading word, and government aid.

Enrich partnership among Protective Security Advisors, all levels of government, and the private sector to protect critical infrastructure

It is essential to understand America’s critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) and National Infrastructure Protection Program (NIPP) to ensure survivability of its critical assets, while maintaining security for America. “The plans are carried out in practice by an integrated network of Federal departments and agencies, State and local government agencies, private sector entities, and a growing number of regional consortia (DHS, 2009, p. I).” Several agencies work together to mitigate attacks on CIKR to protect public safety and security of the nation. A terrorist may stop at nothing to carry out an attack on CIKR. If an attack or natural disaster does transpire, each agency working together to restore the damage must be timely. Additionally, NIPP helps to identify hazards associated with the various sectors, and provides necessary security measures to harden resources (DHS,

One of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) most important missions is protecting critical infrastructure. Assessing CI vulnerabilities is critical to strengthening their capabilities and ensuring resiliency. Since most of them are privately owned, the Department partners with the private sector in conducting voluntary, non-regulatory vulnerability assessments (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). According to Homeland Security (2015), vulnerability assessments are the foundation National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) which outlines how the government and the private sector work together to manage risks to achieve security and resiliency goals (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). Protecting America’s electrical power grid is especially complicated because all of the other CIs depend on the energy sector’s

The tragic events of 9/11, have drastically added to the myriad of recognized risk types and threats as well as the security recommended and required to counter those threats. The Security Manager must be aware of current threat trends, as well as mitigation strategies for the risks identified by the stakeholders. The mitigation strategies vary depending on the type of asset, location, threats and level of risk. These risks can include the spectrum of natural events and disasters, human-caused events as well as the secondary events spawned by primary events. This paper will examine special event security, its purpose, and when such security is recommended.

Presidential Directive 21 lists sixteen critical infrastructure sectors. Of these sectors, all of which are important, I chose financial services and the food and agriculture as being the two that are currently most at risk.

The National Response Framework is a guide designed to assist local, State, and Federal governments in developing functional capabilities and identifying resources based on hazard identification and risk assessment. It outlines the operating structure and identifies key roles and responsibilities. It established a framework to identify capabilities based on resources and the current situation no matter the size or scale. It integrates organizational structures and standardizes how the Nation at all levels plans to react to incidents. The suspected terrorist attack will have health, economic, social, environment and political long-term effects for my community. This is why it is essential that local government’s

United States’ national infrastructure are resources that are vital to keep commerce operating. Technology have allowed the governments and the private sector to share vital information with them. The nation well-being depend on each of the critical infrastructures, the big question is on how to maintain all of our infrastructure sectors operative without any problem. There a big wave of threats to our nation and if one of this threads go through, it can created a multidimensional problem to the infrastructure system of the country. The main concerns that exist in protecting the U.S. against any attacks to any U.S. infrastructure and in the same time on how to have a system that work well with other agencies. For example; is important to

Creating a security plan for a specific type of transportation infrastructure begins with understanding the infrastructure. This can be accomplished by conducting a risk assessment. The risk assessment process, regardless of the model used, will establish several things including vulnerabilities of the infrastructure, the likelihood of a vulnerability being attacked as well as the consequences of an attack. Much like the objectives of security, these aspects of a risk assessment are distinct, however, when taken together a systems view of the infrastructure begins to emerge and potential methods to mitigate the effects of an

Wheeler Dam, Wilson Dam, and Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant are all located in North Alabama and are all TVA power-producing facilities. The work of Johnston (2010) states that threats include considerations including "Who might attack against what assets, using what resources, with what goal in mind, when/where/why, and with what probability." (Johnston, 2010, p.1) Threat assessment involves "attempting to predict the treats. This may involve using intelligence data and information on past security incidents." (Johnston, 2010, p.1) Proactive security makes a requirement of "anticipating threats that have not yet materialized." (Johnston, 2010, p.1) The following illustration shows the three locations in the Tennessee Valley Region of North Alabama.

When we talk about nuclear infrastructure we understand the importance of the protection of such an infrastructure. We understand how critical it is that we have an emergency plan in case of a disaster or attack. Without these emergency plans in place we face an exponential number of casualties. In order to avoid or contain such a situation if it were to ever occur, we shall be using two types of tools to identify the appropriate measures necessary to avoid such a situation. The first tool is a Risk Matrix which will clearly identify what our most serious risk is, the second is a stakeholder matrix which will show us the importance of our resources

“The National Protection Framework describes what the whole community should do to safeguard against acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and other threats or hazards” (FEMA 2014).The 11 core capabilities described in the National Protection Framework are Planning; Public Information and Warning; Operational Coordination; Access Control and Identity Verification; Cybersecurity; Intelligence and Information Sharing; Interdiction and Disruption; Physical Protective Measures; Risk Management for Protection Programs and Activities; Screening, Search and Detection; and Supply Chain Integrity and Security (FEMA, 2014).

Below we outline the core elements of such a successful national strategy for infrastructure resilience.

Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.