New National Infrastructure Protection Plan Released

A new version of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) was released yesterday.

I’ve extracted and attached the full Table of Contents (4 pages) and the Executive Summary (6 pages) as separate documents. Both are worth reading, if only to identify the parts of the full document you may want to read more closely. For a super-compact summary, I’ve included a short excerpt from the Preface, and a list of the major sections of the document in this post.

FEMA’s relationship to DHS drawing attention and debate

One of the big decisions President-elect Obama will face when his administration takes over DHS is whether to leave FEMA as a part of DHS, or remove it from DHS and make it a cabinet-level agency, as it was before DHS was formed. Members of Congress, stakeholders, and prominent organizations are taking sides on the issue, but it’s not clear yet what stancethe Obama administration will take.

Expect changes in U.S. approach to cybersecurity

The U.S. approach to cybersecurity is likely to change significantly under the Obama administration, although it’s not clear yet exactly what priorities will be sacrificed to make room for the increased focus, or how the changes will all play out. But there’s agreement about our vulnerability from the front-line stakeholders through Congress and the White House, so expect some major changes in both leadership and policy. Increases in funding should also be expected, though whether funding comes as new expenditures or shifting of funding from other areas remains to be seen.

Reports of potential Bush administration “Burrowing” at DHS

There have been a number of articles and posts drawing attention to possible attempts at “burrowing” by the Bush administration, with DHS getting repeated special mentions.
“Burrowing” is a time-honored political tradition where the positions of political appointees are converted to career public service positions before the end of an administration, enabling those political appointees to [...]

GAO report on NAO disputes Chertoff claims of compliance

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released its full public report on the status of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Applications Office (NAO) compliance with current legal, privacy and civil liberties standards.
On April 9, 2008, in a letter to Members of Congress, DHS secretary Michael Chertoff certified that the NAO complies with [...]

Bush administration disregards reporting law

From the New York Times:
The Bush administration has informed Congress that it is bypassing a law intended to forbid political interference with reports to lawmakers by DHS. The August 2007 law requires the DHS chief privacy officer to report each year about Homeland Security activities that affect privacy, and requires that the reports be submitted [...]

DHS cybersecurity proposals more modest than DNI comments suggested

From HS Daily Wire:
Earlier this year Director of U.S. National Intelligence Mike McConnell said the government would require broad powers to monitor all Internet traffic in order to secure the U.S. critical information infrastructure; DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff outlines a more modest approach.
Earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the New Yorker [...]

House Homeland Security chair faults DHS for unfinished scenarios

From HSToday:
In a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff on Oct 9., Congressman Bennie Thompson, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, charged that DHS has failed to draft national planning scenarios for specific threats as ordered in a presidential directive nearly five years ago.
The letter states that Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 ordered DHS [...]

Chertoff urges caution on potential of new cybersecurity laws

Possibly in response to recent calls for changes and an upcoming report, Michael Chertoff urged Wednesday for policymakers and Congress to “proceed in a measured way” as they consider passing new laws or granting new authorities aimed at improving cybersecurity.

Full article

DHS and Congress at odds over cargo scanning mandate

A war of words has broken out between the House Homeland Security Committee and DHS over the mandate to screen 100 percent of U.S.-bound cargo at foreign ports.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson sent Secretary Michael Chertoff two letters in recent months chastising DHS for not living up to the mandate.
On Oct. 3, Chertoff responded [...]