Vulnerability assessments

Introduction The Homeland Security Act of 2002 provides the primary authority for the overall homeland security mission in the United States. This act charged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the responsibility for developing a comprehensive national plan to secure critical infrastructure (CI) and key resources and recommended “the measures necessary to protect the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States.” This comprehensive plan is the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), first published by the DHS in June 2006 and updated in 2009 (DHS, 2006). As defined in the 2009 NIPP, CI are the systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital that the incapacity or destruction of such may have a debilitating impact on the security, economy, public health or safety, environment, or any combination of these matters, across any federal, state, regional, territorial, or local jurisdiction (DHS, 2009). Key resources are publicly or privately controlled resources essential to the minimal operations of the economy and government. The NIPP provides the unifying structure for integrating a wide range of efforts for the protection of CI into a single national program. Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-7, Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection, was established as a national policy for federal departments and agencies to identify and prioritize United States CI and to protect them from terrorist attacks (White House, 2003). The NIPP provided the follow-up plan to implement HSPD-7. The NIPP called out the need to conduct risk assessments to deter threats, mitigate vulnerabilities, and minimize consequences.