Homeland Security Threats

Cebula defines “sanctuary cities” as cities, “…that enact statutes not requiring public officials, especially police, to report suspected undocumented immigrants to federal officials.” Cebula explains that sanctuary cities, “…afford greater personal freedom for undocumented immigrants because they can experience a significant degree of protection from being detained, incarcerated, processed, and potentially then deported.” President Trump’s Executive Order 13768 seeks to bring an end to sanctuary cities by cutting federal grant money to those cities unless they work together with ICE and comply with their detainer requests. Further, President Trump has enabled ICE to deport more immigrants by increasing the Department of Homeland Security’s

The missions held by homeland security and homeland defense are vital to the protection of the country against acts of terror. While relatively young programs, much has been achieved in the homeland security and homeland defense missions. To continue this success, the programs must evolve as the world evolves, and more specifically, the terrorists. To stay relevant, the Department of Homeland Security, its subordinate agencies, and the Department of Defense must evolve with the threats in a way that does not impede on civil liberties.

Currently, there are many challenges for the homeland security enterprise. So, what does challenge mean? Challenge is an objection or query as to the truth of something, often with an implicit demand for proof. Within the homeland security world, both parts of that definition are extremely important. This is because not only do you chase down the truth of something, but you hunt down the terrorist (query) responsible for the need of homeland security. America faces several current challenges when fighting terrorism today, mainly because terrorism can come in so many ways. You have lone wolf, domestic, foreign, cyber-attacks, mass casualty. The challenging part isn’t putting boots on the ground to prevent attacks, the number

In the years since 9/11, homeland security has turn out to be frequently and generally identified as both a word and as a Federal department. However, a large amount has been learned since 9/11 concerning the array of further challenges we face. Hurricane Katrina strongly illustrates the general impact of weak preparedness and response in the face of severe natural disasters. Widespread international cyber attacks from some of the most sophisticated denial-of-service efforts to persistent and rising attacks on U.S. Government cyber systems reflect the increasing

At the same time, in light of information leaked by Edward Snowden [4], privacy and protection of civil liberties has become a hot topic. It stands to reason that any security or intelligence measures implemented by federal agencies

I do not believe the United States is in a better position since the passage of the Homeland Security Bill for a catastrophic event. The attacks that occurred on 9/11 involved the hijacking of jumbo jet aircrafts and using them to cause a catastrophic event. Under the Homeland Security Bill, this directly led to the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) (Cordner, 2016). Recently, in 2015 the TSA failed miserably when tested to find weapons and explosives at an abysmal rate of 96% of the time (Sasse, 2015). The FBI has publicly stated that there are potential ISIS recruits in all 50 states (Sasse, 2015). The NSA was dialed back from what data they could collect in a fight over constitutional rights versus homeland security (Sasse, 2015).

There have been advanced studies and research conducted to determine what best techniques and practices can be implemented by the Department of Defense to effectively protect against cyberwarfare. 3 key components have been put in place to reach this objective:

The DHS missions include among others the protection of the Homeland from the threat posed by cyber-attacks. In this computer age, almost every aspect of society, business or personal operations are computerized. Some critical infrastructures such as power supply system, supply chain systems, national security information, banking and financial systems, educational and their academic and intellectual properties, health systems, and so on, depended on the information technology (Brooks, 2010). Our bridges, highways and tunnels, electric grids, nuclear facilities, transportation (air, sea and rail) system, even sports centers are susceptible to attacks, therefore need adequate attention. However, data breaches at U.S. contractor that conducts background checks for the Department of Homeland Security, together with the breach at Office of Personnel Management (OPM), has cast doubt among the Information Security experts about the readiness and the ability DHS to protect the nations’ critical infrastructures (including the seaports) from the threat posed by the cyber- terrorists. The U. S Government Accountability Office (2015) pointed out that the actions taken so far by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and two of its component agencies, the U.S.

Risk management can be very beneficial to providing security of the homeland. Examining how risk management is used by the homeland security enterprise will be the primary focus. A team effort to protecting the homeland security enterprise is essential. The team effort mentality, according to DHS (2010) the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) refer to as the homeland security enterprise—that is, the Federal, State, local, tribal, territorial, nongovernmental, and private-sector entities, as well as individuals, families, and communities. This is important to understand because safety and security of America depends on a cumulative effort. DHS has a huge role in risk management because the outcome can bring about prioritizing resources to protect the homeland. Lundberg and Willis (2015) stated that properly aligning capabilities to risks can save both dollars and

I enjoyed reading your post, it was very brief and interesting to read. Terrorism is definitely a top threat to homeland security and it should be at the top of the list in all homeland strategic documents that deal with homeland security. Even The Strategic National Risk Assessment in Support of PPD 8 and The 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, which are two important publications that deal with homeland security, they both recognize that terrorism is the number one threat to homeland security (Department of Homeland Security, 2011) (Department of Homeland Security, 2014). One of the reasons is because the occurrence of terrorist attacks around the world have significantly increased in recent years. Moreover, a terrorist attack is

Given the extreme variance of threats presented across the United States as well as its territories and the expensive nature of securing and protecting everything from citizens to critical infrastructure, a system has been developed in order to determine how to best manage risks and allocate resources to protect such elements. This system is composed of formula that has been devised in order to determine the risk to a potential target and the effects of various types of attacks. This formula will be broken down into its individual parts and analyzed. Once the formula has been broken down, the discussion will move to how that formula effects the operations of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Further discussion will show how the DHS allocates its numerous resources in order to provide the best protection and security while minimizing cost and potential effects of an attack.

The rise of terrorism in the United States reveals one of the biggest challenges our nation faces today. Since the terrorist assault that occurred on September 11, 2001, the view on terrorism has changed radically across the world particularly in the United States. Clearly, it woke people up to that idea, and not just did concerns come up. Despite of the ascent in terrorism, securing our country has requested at a a huge concern for protection at different levels. Protecting the people from terrorist attacks is the most important thing right now, and is the reason why the Department of Homeland Security was developed; the future success of the Department of Homeland Security depends on the ability of agencies to cooperate, and share pertinent

The literature on the threats to Homeland Security talk about vulnerabilities on many different levels, some are small, invisible to the public, large, etc. Depending on the geographical location determines what those vulnerabilities are and what those countries have at their disposal to combat those threats. Through reading many journals and articles the major threats are cyber and ISIS (terrorist) driven attacks. This is where most countries should look at ensuring that their resources are going to in order to combat or diminish the threat. The only bad thing is that most of the articles on those topics summed up that it takes a large amount of resources to tackle such threats. It does not mean it cannot be done but it means that it

The human dependence on technology has been increasing rapidly because humans are trying to incorporate technology in every aspect of life. The increasing dependence on technology in today’s world has led to an increased level of vulnerability of the private information of the people. Most of the technology being used today is open to attack and can be hacked. According to CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, 80 percent of the U.S. companies have been hacked successfully [PHYS ORG, website]. Thus, cyber-security is a major concern in today’s world. One of the major causes of vulnerabilities found in cyber-security is the acts done by people either performed deliberately or accidentally.

The current threats Homeland Security faces ranges through a variety of topics, however, it is believed that the biggest threat to homeland security is currently cybersecurity. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines cybersecurity as measures taken to protect a computer or computer system against unauthorized access or attack. From this definition, it can be noted that computer systems have become an essential in our day to day lives. There are now computer systems integrated into most of our daily used items, such as cars, smart phones, smart TV’s, gaming consoles, refrigerators, and many more. For this reason, it is crucial that cybersecurity be constantly monitored and protected. If cyber security is not monitored and protected sufficiently, a cyber incident/attack may occur. A cyber incident is an event occurring on or conducted through a computer network that actually or imminently jeopardizes the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of computers, information or communication systems or networks, Physical or virtual infrastructure controlled by computers or information systems, and Information resident thereon (FEMA, 2017)