Proposed Development Of Policy For Qualified Cyber Security Professionals Essay

The defense, security, and safety American citizens enjoy each and every day is a result of dedicated professionals committed to Homeland Security and Homeland Defense. These broad initiatives require well-defined missions, organized and focused tasking, and finally, clearly understood duties, responsibilities, and operations. Organizations charged with these responsibilities must be better resourced than those of the enemy. Success in each of these objectives requires a well-organized infrastructure with clear mission sets. The afore mentioned areas of responsibility, related planning, and resource/personnel management are fluid (rightfully so) and are constantly reevaluated, restructured, and/or reinforced to best counterattack our Nation’s vulnerabilities before they become casualties.

Highly trained Coast Guard Crypto/Cyber personnel’s technical prowess, perishable skills and experience are not currently being fully utilized and a corrective course of action is required to develop, sustain and retain a workforce needed for our services complex, global missions. Intelligence Specialists (IS) and Information Technician (IT) have a wide range of potential billets and specialties within their individual rate they may receive assignment to throughout their careers, but that doesn’t provide the Coast Guard a highly trained professional workforce within the Crypto/Cyber field. The Coast Guard must create a Crypto/Cyber enlisted rate.

Physical security can be very complex, as the evolution of technology changes on a daily basis. The dual role concept is a dilemma that poses a constant struggle within the agency. The ability to maintain consistency with technological advancements utilizing physical security practices of the past is a significant challenge that FPS faces. Another area of concern is the complexity of security and the deficiency of training. Advancements in technology necessitate training advancements. From the initial understanding of basic alarm theory covering the simplistic concept and design of an intrusion detection system (IDS), to a system that is virtually state of the art in capability and technical

The unified training for all levels of law enforcement ensures a common focus and standard are obtained, and that the necessary information is being transmitted to those who need it. As technology continues to advance, the threat of cyber attacks continue to rise as well. The stability of a nation's physical and electronic infrastructure is vital to the success of a nation. The efforts of both of these sections of the Department of Homeland Security are essential to the overall mission of keeping the nation

The article “Defending America in Cyberspace” in the journal The National Interest authored by Keith Alexander, Emily Goldman, and Michael Warner taught me much about how the Department of Homeland Security handles America’s cyber threats. The Department of Security is the lead agency in protecting America from domestic cybersecurity incidents. It stated how America fights Cyber crime and security threats. In this day and age, countries are very vulnerable to skilled hackers. Some of them not even under the age 18.

One key issue in Homeland Security and Emergency Management is the threat to cyber security. Terrorism has evolved over the years to more sophisticated and planned out attacks. Some of the attacks are stopped before the plans are carried out thanks to our nations Homeland Security experts, but many attacks go unnoticed by the public and security professionals, this is because of the method of cyberterrorism. Cyberterrorism can be described as varied as stealing data and hacking, planning terrorist attack, causing violence, or attacking information systems (Foltz,2004). The act of cyberterrorism leaves many people and our nation vulnerable if the terrorist is successful at stealing critical

DHS was given the goal to strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure by increasing the volume and timeliness, as well as improve the quality of, cyber threat information shared between the Federal Government and private sectors. The “sharing of information”

The homeland security system of the United States has a seemingly impossible task of preventing all attacks on each and every aspect of our country. It is an extremely dangerous world we live in with countless number of people that want to destroy our way of life. There have been several improvements made to our security system. To fully critique the capabilities of the homeland security system of the United States, I’m going to evaluate the performance, identify the shortcomings, and then lastly suggest some improvements to prevent future challenges.

• Authored cyber defense and awareness, social engineering, and cover training content for the Executive Office of the President

The United States boasts of having the best-trained security personnel in the world, the government ensures that both homeland security and homeland defense have enough resources to train their personnel. Both homeland security and homeland defense have the necessary machinery that enables it not only to prevent an attack but also to appropriately respond to any threat against the United States (Hanning and Weal, 2004).

In his statement to House Committee on Homeland Security, Transportation Security Subcommittee, Administrator Neffenger, identified a need to address vulnerabilities that were uncovered during findings from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), some of the findings included lack of training proficiency on critical equipment (Neffenger, 2015). Using risk management the TSA identified a vulnerability in their daily operations by uncovering the lack of training and led them assign a risk priority for it based on the consequence (weapons being smuggled onto aircraft) and the threat of it being used by an adversary. Training is critical resource in risk management. When a risk is identified it is important to decide if funded training will help mitigate the risk to a negligible level. There is no point to having the most cutting edge technology in support of homeland security if the qualified personnel are not in place to use them. If an agency has been allocated the newest 2017 model piece of equipment and it has been deemed essential to mitigate new threats. How important is that piece of equipment if all the staff members are only certified and proficient on the 2015 model? With both resources being allocated and qualified personnel in place a new threat has emerged in the information age.

Homeland security was created by the Bush administration in 2001 as a result of the September 11th events. It is an independent agency in the United States whose mission is to protect the nation from potential terrorist attacks. Together the agency is made up of twenty two agencies and 180,000 employees. Their main focus is “intelligence and warning; boarder and transportation security; domestic counterterrorism; protecting critical infrastructure; defending against catastrophic threats; and emergency preparedness and response” (Whitehouse 1). The agency could not carry out these important tasks if it were not for the latest in computer technology.

Establishing an effective Information Technology Security Policy Framework is critical in the development of a comprehensive security program. The purpose of the Information Security Policy Framework is to insure your organization will be able to provide the minimum security level necessary to maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information it collects and uses.

Americans are becoming heavily dependent on modern day technology, which produce more vulnerability to cyber-attacks such as security breaches. Cyber security, also known as information technology security, is information security as applied to computers and computer networks. It is designed to protect networks, programs, computers and data from attacks. These attacks can lead to damages or unauthorized access to data. Computer security also includes protection from unplanned events and natural disasters. Cyber security main function is to guard computers, networks, programs and data from unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction.

The distinction between homeland security and homeland defense is pivotal in gaining a better understanding of how these agencies work and how they correlate to our nations infrastructure. We must understand the designated missions set forth for both these agencies while learning how they meet the tasks appointed to them and resources utilized to accomplish the mission. Learning the fundamentals of our nations infrastructure information must be provided to showcase how these agencies utilize the appropriate resources to guarantee the security of these critical infrastructures. Offering an opinion in the definition of homeland security and how resources are being utilized to fix vulnerabilities is vital to showcase what is being distributed and learned on a researchers and readers level. Homeland security and homeland defense play a pivotal role in ensuring our borders are protected.