Emergency Management and Response - Information Sharing and Analysis Center

Infogram 3-08: January 24, 2008

This INFOGRAM will be distributed weekly to provide members of the Emergency Services Sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. For further information, contact the Emergency Management and Response - Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) at (301) 447-1325 or by e-mail at emr-isac@dhs.gov.

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Protection, Resilience or Both?

Considering the potential increase of hazards (e.g., floods, wildfires, gang activity, avian flu) throughout the United States, the Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) comprehends the imperative reasons to protect hometown critical infrastructures. Among the vital local critical infrastructures are the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) department and agencies that must remain intact and operational to successfully perform assigned missions.

The leaders, owners, and operators of ESS organizations are responsible to ensure their personnel, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems (i.e., internal critical infrastructures) will continue to operate during and after man-made or natural disasters. The EMR-ISAC proposes that there are three approaches to accomplishing continuity of operations in an all-hazards environment:

Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) focuses on using available resources to protect truly indispensable infrastructures from degradation or destruction prior to any catastrophe. Simply stated, CIP is all about preventing the loss of crucial services by protecting the critical assets that provide those services.
Critical Infrastructure Resilience (CIR) addresses and resolves the protection gaps" in critical infrastructures. Recognizing that scarce resources limit protective (CIP) measures, CIR actions provide redundancy for that which cannot be protected. CIR strategies ensure that unprotected infrastructures can restore essential operations and services shortly after an all-hazards attack. CIR is a cost-effective alternative to CIP, particularly when critical infrastructures cannot be adequately protected because of insufficient resources. At its core, CIR refers to the ability of an organization to expeditiously recover and reconstitute fundamental services with minimum disruption to personnel, processes, procedures, information, and facilities. In other words, CIR facilitates a quicker recovery from man-made and natural disasters, and an earlier return to normal operations.
A combined CIP and CIR approach to critical infrastructures may be appropriate for the ESS, considering how both are complementary and together provide a comprehensive approach to sustaining basic services during and after a calamity. Collective CIP and CIR activities have greater potential to achieve continuity of emergency operations and mission success in a resource-restrained community.

In future INFOGRAMs, the EMR-ISAC will endeavor to provide any credible best practices or lessons learned regarding the disciplines of CIP and CIR. However, to consult on the applicability and advantages of CIP and CIR, contact the EMR-ISAC at emr-isac@dhs.gov or 301-447-1325.

National Response Framework Released

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released this week the National Response Framework (NRF), which becomes effective 22 March 2008. As the successor to the National Response Plan, the NRF is a guide that details how the Nation conducts all-hazards responses—from the smallest incident to the largest catastrophe. The document establishes a comprehensive, national, all-hazards approach to domestic incident responses.

The NRF identifies the key response principles, as well as the roles and structures that organize national responses. It describes how communities, states, the federal government, and private-sector nongovernmental partners apply these principles for a coordinated, effective national response. Additionally, it explains special circumstances when the federal government exercises a larger role, including incidents where federal interests are involved and catastrophic incidents in which a state would require significant support. It lays the groundwork for first responders, decision-makers, and supporting entities to provide a united national response.

The Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) verified that this issue of the NRF is written especially for government executives, private-sector business, nongovernmental leaders, and emergency managers. It is styled to make the serious work of incident management understandable for newly elected or appointed government officials, business executives, tribal leaders, and city managers.

In addition to releasing the NRF base document, the Emergency Support Function Annexes and Support Annexes will be released and posted to the NRF Resource Center, an online repository of the entire component parts of the NRF.

Gang Awareness Update

Research by the Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) confirmed that gangs continue to proliferate in cities and are moving to less urban areas. Multiple sources substantiated that the behavior of gangs in the United States threatens local critical infrastructures and presents a potential danger to internal national security. With violence, drugs, and other crimes, gangs diminish American quality of life by causing fear, economic loss, or worse. Furthermore, these hostile criminal groups adversely affect public safety, community image, and citizen morale. Some gangs have even directed death threats toward members of the Emergency Services Sector (ESS).

To enhance public safety, the National Alliance of Gang Investigators' Associations (NAGIA) was created to assist agencies with a national level and coordinated response to this threat. NAGIA activities include the consolidation and distribution of information, the standardization of training, and the creation of a close partnership among federal, state, and local public safety agencies. It is a cooperative organization currently composed of leaders from 16 regional gang investigator associations representing over 15,000 gang investigators across the country, as well as federal agencies and other organizations involved in gang-related matters. The NAGIA Web site includes Internet links to sites that feature regional gang-specific information and also gang prevention and intervention strategies.

The EMR-ISAC further examined the resources of two additional Web sites to help ESS members remain current about the national gang picture and the threat of gangs to their emergency operations. Gangs OR Us, sponsored by PoliceOne.com., is the originator of the state-by-state list of named gangs in the U.S., which also includes links to gang investigation units, bureaus, and task forces, where applicable. The site offers gang profiles and identifiers, downloadable articles, links, and a 30-minute Gangs, Guns and Violence" documentary.

The Gangs Across America Web site was developed by gang experts who offer information on problems such as officer safety, guns, drugs, and violence. One of the officer safety articles explains booby traps that ESS members could encounter at an incident scene; another outlines vehicle and driver indicators that aid in force protection.

Recognizing the threat from gangs, the EMR-ISAC believes information about individual gangs, the types of crimes they commit, their rivals and alliances, and identifying information such as symbols depicted in their tattoos and graffiti is valuable input for emergency organizations when identifying vulnerabilities, developing countermeasures, and protecting critical infrastructure assets.

Resource Inventory Management

Beginning In Fiscal Year 2005, the Department of Homeland Security mandated that Emergency Services Sector (ESS) organizations seeking federal preparedness funds must adopt and use the National Incident Management System (NIMS). In FY 2006, state, territorial, tribal, and local jurisdictions were required to categorize and describe their inventory response assets to conform to the 120 NIMS Resource Typing Standards. The purpose of resource typing using the standard definitions is to ensure responders have the information they need to request and receive the appropriate resources during an emergency or disaster. It also enables the selection of specific resources for mutual aid purposes based on mission requirements, capability of resources, and response time.

The Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) learned that the federal government developed two tools to undertake the NIMS inventory process. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Integration Center offers the Incident Resource Inventory System (IRIS), a free database management tool. Currently available is the basic tool to enter a community's typed" resources into a common database that can be housed locally. Future system functionality will assist in placing and mobilizing resource requests, GPS tracking of resources, and resource recovery. Links to IRIS Program Version 2.0, a fact sheet, user guide, and tutorial are available.

The National Institute of Justice developed the Critical Incident Response & Disaster Recovery Assistance (CIRDRA) program that is free to ESS organizations. CIRDRA is a forms-like software database that works as a universal rolodex" and bulletin board" for categorizing, indexing, locating, tracking, and sharing critical resources for purposes of emergency readiness, preparedness, response, and recovery. Like IRIS, CIRDRA uses the NIMS Resource Typing Standards. Nine buttons engage different functions, and templates for each resource type are provided. To acquire log-on credentials for the online demo version, contact CIRDRA's project manager, Captain Fred Davis, via electronic mail (fdavis@txsheriffs.org) or by telephone at (512) 413-0049. The CIRDRA Web site contains project information and the downloadable source code to the program itself.

Using either of the software tools to complete ESS resource inventories fulfills the mandatory NIMS Resource Typing requirement and offers a system to keep inventories up to date without the need to rely on hard-copy files or re-invent the wheel" by creating hundreds of similar systems throughout the country. The tools also help emergency personnel to better gauge their needs when applying for grant opportunities. Ultimately, complete standardized resource inventories for all ESS organizations will provide a more accurate nationwide picture of their readiness. Furthermore, a NIMS-compliant resource inventory system will help emergency departments or agencies identify vulnerabilities, apply critical infrastructure protection as appropriate, and acquire the resilience to restore normal operations during or shortly after a disaster.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This INFOGRAM may contain copyrighted material that was not specifically authorized by the copyright owner. EMR-ISAC personnel believe this constitutes "fair use" of copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material contained within this document for your own purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Reporting Notice

DHS and the FBI encourage recipients of this document to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to DHS and/or the FBI. The DHS National Operation Center (NOC) can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9685 or by e-mail at NOC.Fusion@dhs.gov.

The FBI regional phone numbers can be found online at www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm

For information affecting the private sector and critical infrastructure, contact the National Infrastructure Coordinating Center (NICC), a sub-element of the NOC. The NICC can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9201 or by e-mail at NICC@dhs.gov.

When available, each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people and type of equipment used for the activity, the name of the submitting company or organization, and a designated point of contact.

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