Department of homeland security and critical infrastructures protection (Essay Sample)

Assignment Title: Department of homeland security and critical infrastructures protection Student’s Name Course Title Instructor’s Name Date Introduction Following the terror attack in the USA on September 11th, USA discovered that protecting its citizen from outside the country alone was not enough. The protection was prone to vulnerabilities that could adversely affect the country. This move compelled the president at that time to create the department of homeland security. This department aimed at mitigating attacks from within the borders of USA and helping the country prepare for possible risks. The department got created on November 25th, 2002. Discussion Department of homeland security: This body has five primary missions which form its responsibilities too. First, it has a task of protecting the civilians and government of the USA from attack by terrorists. This mission is the top priority and ensures that it actively identify and mitigate threats due to terror. Terrorists are unpredictable, and hence this body sets counterterrorism goals to curb any threat to the population. These goals reduce risks of the USA coming under biological, chemical or nuclear weapons that may emanate from within the country. They also ensure that the critical resources of the nation are not vulnerable in case these is an attack in the USA (Lewis, 2014). The second mission is that the body bars illegal immigrants from finding their way into the USA. Thirdly, this body secure the country’s borders to block unlawful activities such as drug trafficking (Schoenholtz, et al, 2014). Fourth, this organization helps the government of USA protects its infrastructures against cyber-attacks. Such attacks are hazardous and could halt operations in the country. Lastly, this body trains new officers to inform them about new threats, and it responds to any threat to the country. The body operates on gathering data from different sources, analyzing it and taking action to mitigate any risk that they identify. Critical infrastructure protection initiatives They work to improve the operations in the country in case the country comes under attack. They help the country plan what to do, detect any threat, respond to the threat, and assist the state recover after such a disastrous assault. The CIP handles the threat through coordination between the private sector, local and state government, and the federal government as a whole. The information gets shared across all departments through ACAMS system. This system holds details about assets that exists across the local and state sectors. Critical assets, in this case, include the national power grid which can get destroyed through a cyber-attack. The department ensures that such events do not occur by sharing information through ACAMS system. Security advancement Distinct differences exist between infrastructure protections from NIPP and NIST approach. However, the NIPP’s CIP plan is active. It gives a precise detail on how the state should handle threats that emanate. The method also provides a clear guideline on how to protect critical assets. This approach clearly defines agencies that should get involved and the consequences of such an attack. On the other hand, NIST’s CPP mainly aimed at addressing. Key aspects discussed in this approach was authentication and the framework. Its primary concern was in offering infrastructure training and management. It also primarily got concerned with access to automated devices by different people and passwords needed to access such devices. This approach failed to state which agencies were concerned or the approach to use in case the risks occurred. Vulnerabilities that are of concern The Homeland Security Department has been unable or mostly unwilling to collect accurate information about threats in a consistent manner. This approach has made it hard for them to quantify and analyze key risks that could face the United States of America. The failure to consistently follow the guidelines for tracking risks as written under NIPP CIP can be fatal as it implies that such institutions are unable to track the threats. Another vulnerability is a lack of a standard tool across all agencies to collect data makes it hard for the department to monitor and analyze threats promptly. As an IS professional, such threats should concern me. This fact is because there is a need to gather data from different sources and organize it into a form that can get easily used together. Improving protection of USA The department of homeland security ought to take steps intended to improve the safety of all USA citizens. They should create a single that they can use to track and detect vulnerabilities and make it available for use in both private and public sector (Kettl, 2013). This move will make it easy for the department to share data across different agencies hence mitigating attacks. This step will make it possible for the department to gather data, which will help them determine when an attack is occurring. This move will ensure that all data gets integrated into a single location. Secondly, the department ought to create an agency within it that will handle all information sharing with outside organizations in other countries. This department will also deal with information assessment. The current system relies on agents on the field to relay data to the command center. This approach will help the...