Impact And Probability Chart Analysis

The Government Accountability Office has pointed out that the important practice of effective risk management is a challenge for the Congress and the administration. Risk management is a strategic process of helping policymakers to make decisions about assessing risk, and having limited allocating resources in taking actions under conditions of uncertainty (GAO, 2008). However, with the policymakers recognizing the risk management, it helps them to make informed decisions, while Congress and the administration have charged federal agencies to use a risk-based move to prioritize resource investments. In addition, the federal agencies often do not have enough comprehensive risk management strategies that merge well with the program, budget, and investment decisions (GAO, 2008). Between combing the approach of risk management, the process of decision-making is very difficult for any organization. In addition, it has been reported that the GAO says it is particularly difficult for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be given its diverse set of responsibilities. Homeland Security is responsible though for all hazards in the homeland security risk from natural disasters, industrial, and terrorist attacks. Experts have provided the history of natural disasters with the extensive historical data used to assess risks (GAO, 2008).

As we move into a new era were a more robust and urgent homeland security program is needed, it is important to talk about how officials are managing all of the risk. There are a multitude of threats; from terrorism, where tactics are all the more unconventional an unpredictable, to climate change, with extreme weather conditions causing severe droughts or other catastrophic storms. The risk accepted by federal officials must be weighed and prioritized in a manner that is conducive to the longevity of the nation but also eliminates political or other personal agenda. To ensure a standardized approach the Department of Homeland Security adopted a risk management. The following will look at defining what risk management is as well as an example of how it is being incorporated within the homeland security enterprise and how doing so is of benefit.

The Department of Homeland Securities 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) identifies six prevailing strategic challenges for the United States for the next several years. Those challenges are; the threat of terrorism, cyber threats, transnational criminal organizations, natural hazards, nuclear terrorism, and biological concerns. These threats represent challenges not only for the local communities, but the nation as a whole. There are a number of ways for states, local communities, and tribal organizations to prioritize and assess the greatest risks applicable to them, and the means in which to implement mitigating measures to reduce the risk from identified threats and hazards.

When one thinks of security, they tend to think of being protected, free from harm or danger. There are various security threats that the world faces today. Threats could range from a series of cyber threats to terrorist attacks. We are incessantly encountered with catastrophic man-made and natural diseases. The Department of Homeland Security measures the nation 's vulnerabilities, meaning it takes initiative in leading and evaluating vulnerabilities and coordinating with other federal, state, local, and private entities to safeguard the most effective response. The creation of the country’s 15th Cabinet Department marked the largest reorganization of government since the Truman administration.

values, building security partnerships, and building a culture of resilience (President 2011, 4). The DHS has shown progress in building security partners through the department’s efforts in information sharing efficiency as demonstrated in fusion centers. Building a culture of resilience entails the DHS mission of understanding and reducing the vulnerability of the nation, and mitigating the damage from an attack. Evaluating the DHS’s progress in this task is difficult, because it is uncertain how much of the nation’s resilience is inherent, and how much is a product of the DHS’s actions. Future terrorism projections state that weapons of mass destruction and explosive devices will be more accessible to terrorists and organizations (West 2012, 4). A suggested strategy to combat this forecasted threat is to develop stronger relationships with foreign governments and other stakeholders. The DHS will need to build a stronger relationship with other government departments in order to access the resources and intelligence to build the suggested relationship with foreign governments and stakeholders to meet this future threat.

Managing these risks involves developing approaches that result in sound, scenario-based consequence and vulnerability estimates as well as assessments of the likelihood that the suggested threat will occur (“Executing A Critical”, n.d.). Risk is influenced by the nature and magnitude of a hazard or threat, the vulnerabilities to the threat or hazard, and possible consequences (“Executing A Critical”, n.d.). The threat landscape of the electric utility subsector includes physical attacks/theft, cyber-attack, natural disaster, and nuclear attacks (“Addressing Dynamic”, 2014). In addition to these threats and vulnerabilities, the subsector has identified other key issues and risks such as workforce capability and human errors, equipment failure and aging infrastructure, and evolving environmental, economic, and reliability regulatory requirements (“Energy Sector”, 2015). Electricity assets are numerous including residential homes, commercial offices, utility companies, transmission lines, etc. and their locations vary across the

The Quadrennial Homeland Security review suggest six strategic challenges that will drive the overall risk to the nation over the next five years. These six risks include: the terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards (DHS, 2014). The terrorists threat is, arguably, the most publicized and popular of the six risks the DHS lists. The particular risk is unique in the fact that although it can be planned for and mitigated against by state and local governments, it is primarily a federal responsibility, or at least perceived so by most entities. The DHS itself was established due to the events of September 11th 2001 and it has since been a consistent

With the events that happened on September 11, 2001, the American people and all government leadership realized that the U.S. was fight a whole new other type of war. The U.S. has dealt with foreign terrorist networks abroad and the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. With the tragic event of 9/11, it became something of a nightmare because no American in history had the knowledge to deal with this kind of attack. Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) wants nothing more than to destroy America and the threat of another attack is imminent but, when? Every year these FTO’s will evolve and want to use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons (CBRN).

The Senior Management of the Defense Logistics Information Services (DLIS) has decided to update the previous risk management plan with a developing, new risk management plan. This new risk management plan will not only minimize the amount of risk for future endeavors, but will also be in compliance with regulations such as the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Control Objects for Information and Technology (COBIT), and Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated that it will apply risk management principles to homeland security operations and has stated “Ultimately, homeland security is about effectively managing risks to the Nation’s security” (DHS 2010, pg. 2). This is much easier said than done. There are many difficulties that must be sorted out. As with anything and everything, money comes into play, conflicts between national and local priorities, and societies opinion.

Since the September 11, 2001 events, the United States of America gravitated towards a more aggressive approach in its security. The result of the tragic events was the establishment of homeland security. The White House, the federal government and the Congress joined together to establish it. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush issued an executive order 13228 to establish an Office of Homeland Security within the White House and assigning the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge as its Director (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2013, p. 4). Ever since, the United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security diversified and evolved the way it is today. The Homeland Defense was also integrated into Homeland Security to protect the U.S. soil and its territories. However, what are Homeland Security and Homeland Defense? This paper will address those question as well as covering their missions/goals, tasks, duties, and responsibilities. In addition, a section of this paper is the assessment of the critical infrastructure protection programs of the U.S. The assessment will also include the overall capability of the nation’s critical infrastructure protection program to ensure the survivability of its critical infrastructure.

The ability of the Department of Homeland Security to effectively manage risk is vital to national security. Risk in general, is something that is permanent but because this is known, strategies can be used to mitigate situations as they present themselves. Government managers must manage risk in a complex environment taking into consideration the diverse missions and multiple objectives of public agencies (Hardy, 2014). The role of risk management within the homeland security enterprise was managed by best and worst case scenario planning. This is something that is inevitable as we are faced within a definite variety of threats. One way to grade or rank threats is through worst-case analysis. As this analysis can be used for worst-case scenarios the federal government cannot leave out lower ranking situations (Roberts, 2007). Since the Department of Homeland Security is charged with managing risk within the enterprise, a basic equation is used to help figure out different variables and how they would be affected.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States, a series of risk management evaluations were created by the US Federal Government to assess the future risks the homeland was going to face. When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was officially created in 2002, more effective risk management assessments were re-designed to evaluate the past and present dangers, prevent them and respond successfully to more terrorist attacks. Since 2001 until 2007, a development of risk assessment has been divided in phases to be able to reach a better formula that would analyze the risk within the homeland security and provide the appropriate fund to homeland security enterprise.

Now, they must look and prepare for situations never previously considered. Mass shootings, chemical and nuclear attacks, and suicide bombers are just a few of the possibilities. The reality is that today there are many dangers that have not been previously imagined. The best that can be done is to plan, re-plan and plan again.

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.