Assignment 2: Critical Infrastructure Protection
Benard Braxton, Jr.
Dr. Bouaffo Kouame
CIS 502 – Theories of Security Management
May 17, 2015

The Department of Homeland Security’s vison is to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards (DHS, 2015). To achieve this vision there are three key concepts that creates the foundation of our national homeland security strategy. They are security, resilience, and customs and exchange (DHS, 2015).
These key concepts drive wide-ranging areas of action that the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review process describes as homeland security missions. These missions are not restricted to the Department of Homeland Security. These objectives and goals says what it means to prevent, to protect, to respond, and to recover. They also shows how build in security, to ensure resilience, and to facilitate customs and exchange (DHS, 2015).
There are thousands of people from across the all over the country who are responsible for executing these missions. These are the people who interact with the public, are responsible for security and public safety, operate our country’s critical services and infrastructures, develop technology, perform research, watch, prepare for, and respond to emerging disasters and threats (DHS, 2015).
The five homeland security core missions are to prevent terrorism and enhancing security; secure and manage our borders; enforce and administer our immigration laws; safeguard and secure cyberspace; ensure resilience to disasters; and focus on maturing and strengthening the homeland security enterprise (DHS, 2015).
The responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security is to ensure the security and safety of the United States against terror attacks and disasters. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Department of Homeland Security has focused on preparations to deal with terrorism as well as to manage emergency management, customs, and border security (Wallechinsky, 2015).
Without money, food, drinking water, or electricity, society would shut down. So emergency and intelligence services, business enterprises, and public bodies are working together closely to protect these needed services, goods and processes. They increase the knowledge about how important sectors are interdependent, improve security against theft or sabotage, organize for a flu pandemic, continuity plans help critical sectors continue operating; cooperate more closely with current sectors and the police and safety regions (Protecting critical infrastructure, 2015). The Department of Homeland Security conducts evaluations on communities and infrastructure to help local government officials and businesses make decisions about the location of resources to improve security before an incident and recovery after an incident. The Department of Homeland Security also works with communities and businesses with limited resources to offer training and other tools to instruct the broader community on the need for critical infrastructure resilience and security, and to improve their current efforts (What We Do, 2015).

Our country’s safety relies upon resilient and secure critical infrastructure. The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) outlines how private sector and government participants in the critical infrastructure community collaborate to achieve security, manage risks and resilience outcomes (National Infrastructure Protection Plan, 2013). NIPP offers a modernized approach to critical infrastructure resilience and security, focuses on integration of physical and cyber security efforts, a closer arrangement to national preparedness efforts, focus on cross jurisdictional and cross sector coordination to achieve better results, integration of information-sharing as an important element of the risk management framework, identifies the key role and knowledge of critical infrastructure operators and owners, integrates hard work by all levels of government, nonprofit, and private sectors by offering an inclusive partnership framework and identifying exclusive capabilities each participant brings to the national effort, replicates today’s integrated all-hazards environment, grounded in existing policy and business principles, and pushes action in the direction of long-term improvement (National Infrastructure Protection Plan, 2013).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a federal agency under the sponsorship of the Undersecretary for Technology. It is concerned with developing technology and maintaining measurement standards to improve promote commerce, productivity, and improve the quality of life in the U.S. NIST oversees four major cooperative programs. The NIST Laboratories advances the national technology infrastructure. The Baldridge National Quality Program was created to boost distinction among United States manufacturers, health-care companies, service providers, and educational institutions. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership is a network of local centers that helps small manufacturers. The Advanced Technology Program function is to promote development and research of new technologies in the private sector (Knight, 2004).

Recreational hackers. For an unknown amount of people, attaining unauthorized access to communication systems and information is a most captivating and challenging incline. Often they purposely organize for their activities to be seen even while hiding their exact identities. While their drives do not include actual disturbance of service, the tools and techniques they perfect among their community are accessible to those with hostile intent (Sikich, 2008).
Criminal activity. Some are interested in personal monetary gain through manipulation of financial information, credit accounts or stealing services. In comparison to some hackers, these criminals usually hope their actions will never be detected, much less accredited to them. Organized crime groups may be interested in direct financial gain, terrorism, or acquiring national intelligence (Sikich, 2008).
My three suggestions to improve protection of the critical infrastructure would be to test, train and implement. The U.S.’s critical infrastructure, should be tested regularly to ensure that the proper countermeasures are taken in the event of a catastrophic disaster. Another option would be to get the appropriate personnel training. By having more individuals aware of the signs leading up to a disaster, this can in turn prevent disasters from happening. The last option would be to implement necessary improvements to the infrastructure. Each day there are more threats being created as well as improvements. By staying up to date and making implementations as new challenges arise allows users to be ahead of many attacks and adaptable to the newer threats.

References
DHS (2015) Our Mission. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from: http://www.dhs.gov/our-mission
Knight, Judson (2004) NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), United States Retrieved from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/National_Institute_of_Standards_and_Technology.as px
National Infrastructure Protection Plan (2013) U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from: http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NIPP-Fact-Sheet- 508.pdf
Protecting critical infrastructure. (2015) Retrieved from: http://www.government.nl/issues/crisis-national-security-and-terrorism/protecting- critical-infrastructure
Sikich, Geary W. (2008) Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability: Retrieved from: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byauth/sikich/elements.html
Wallechinsky, David (2015) Department of homeland security. All Gov Retrieved from: http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-homeland- security?detailsDepartmentID=571
What We Do (2015) U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from: http://www.dhs.gov/what-we-do