The overview of the document I received states “DHS and FBI request that the owners and operators of the nation’s critical infrastructure/key resource facilities (see Appendix below), provide reporting to the above offices on the following types of suspicious activities potentially indicative of pre-operational terrorist planning” The Appendix listed the following: CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES AND KEY RESOURCE FACILITIES
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IVING IN NEW YORK CITY HAS SENSITIZED ME to living with daily security alerts. Most of the country receives their information about the “Nation’s Security Level” from media reports. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established the color coded system and a color change merits the national news. As with the story of the boy who cried wolf, many of us become desensitized to the news. Either the lack of attacks or the government’s success in preventing attacks leads to a certain amount of complacency. It’s natural for folks to be less concerned when security seems to be working and we haven’t had a calamity which refocuses our concern. I have my own method of determining whether the threat level advancement is real. In NYC, we’ve been at “Orange” alert since they started the system. However, there are different shades of “Orange.” Everyday orange to me means the police officers are eyeballing incoming vans and trucks at the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Heightened orange is when I actually see them pulling trucks over and opening them up. Deep orange is when the machine guns are out, every truck is puller over and the police or national guard is actually eyeballing the driver of each and every vehicle entering the tunnel. What does this mean to our friends in Alabama, Kansas, Wyoming, Washington or the other states? We don’t have to go too far back to find a thwarted terrorist attack outside of the NYC-Washington, DC corridor. Our government foiled a plot to blow-up Seattle’s Space Needle in 2000. That’s about as far from NYC in the continental U.S. as you can get. Every state, county and municipal government must be vigilant. Our national infrastructure must be designed to
repel the types of attacks which would threaten our national psyche. Protecting the nation’s infrastructure is one area where our industry can contribute. I’m on the email distribution list for the DHS Daily Alerts. The August 3 RD briefing was entitled “Suspicious Activity Reporting Criteria for Infrastructure Owners and Operators”. It was an eye-opening briefing. It really brought the point home how each facility’s security organization is a critical component in protecting each and every one of us. We wonder what will stop the next major attack. My guess is an alliance of private and public eyes will do the job. It’s not enough to have our government working for our safety…we must all participate. Just think how different Sept. 11TH would have been if the government had formalized reporting procedure for unusual flight school activities. The private/public combination is our best bet. How can we contribute? As door and hardware professionals, one of our roles is to help secure the perimeter and critical areas within buildings. The second item on the report request from the joint FBI/DHS list is “Report any persons showing uncommon interest in security measures or personnel, entry points or access controls, or perimeter barriers such as fences or walls.” Surely we can help secure the entry points and provide access control systems which provide protection against forced entry! In the past we looked at the space utilization and other operating criteria in selecting doors and hardware for an opening. We must now add our knowledge of the need to protect the perimeters of critical infrastructure sites to the mix of selecting the right products and materials.
Critical Infrastructures • Banking and Finance • Chemical • Defense Industrial Base • Electric Power • Emergency Services • Food/Agriculture • Information Technology • National Monuments and Icons • Oil and Natural Gas • Postal and Shipping • Public Health • Telecommunications • Transportation (Rail/Mass Transit, Maritime, Aviation, Highway) • Water Key Resource Facilities • Commercial Facilities • Dams • Government Facilities • Nuclear Reactors/Materials The definition of CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES AND KEY RESOURCE FACILITIES under the Homeland Security Act is listed as “systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.” The Act defines ‘key resources” as “publicly or privately controlled resources essential to the minimal operations of the economy and government.” When specifying or detailing a job, it is incumbent upon all of us to make the extra effort and determine if we are working on a “key resource”. It is our obligation to identify these to the architect or owner and let them know we have done our part in to enhance our nation’s security.
The author has worked on security projects with local, state and federal agencies for over twenty years. Please feel free to contact him via email (mberger@securitech.com) if you would like to review any specifications.
Mark J. Berger, Securitech Group, Inc.
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DOORS AND HARDWARE • NOVEMBER 2004
NOVEMBER 2004 • DOORS AND HARDWARE
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