CFATS SSP Webinar

My thanks to Ryan Loughin’s (cfatssecurity) tweet pointing me at a webinar that ADT Security Services recently sponsored concerning the implementation of the CFATS SSP. The webinar was originally conducted on November 4th, but ADT is maintaining a free link to that webinar on their web page. The two webinar presenters were Marybeth Kelliher, Infrastructure Security Compliance Division, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Edward Clark, Senior Security Consultant, O’Brien’s Response Management. Ms Kelliher provided a concise overview of the CFATS program in general and the SSP implementation in particular. Mr. Clark (no connection to the Tom Clancy hero) provided insights on SSP implementation that could only come from someone that has consulted on such implementations. Both of their presentations were clear, concise and professional, making this a clearly worthwhile use of an hour and a half of one’s time. There are plusses and minuses to viewing this recording of an active webinar. The original participants were able to ask questions that were addressed at the end of the presentation (actually the last 30 minutes covers answers to these questions). People watching this recording do not have that option. Balancing that negative is the capability to stop the presentation at will and even go back to listen to something that was missed. DHS Outreach Program The participation of Ms Kelliher in this webinar is part of the continuing outreach effort being made by ISCD to engage those industries and facilities that are affected by the CFATS program. They also use these opportunities to provide updated information about the CFATS program. This webinar is no different; Ms Kelliher made the following points of interest to the covered community:

CFATS inspections to begin in January; Turnaround for SSP at DHS is 60 to 90 days; and Tier 4 Designation letters to be sent out by years end.

She also mentioned some new CFATS programs that are coming down the road. First she reported the development and impending deployment of a CSAT Corporate reporting tool to allow corporate management to track CFATS activities of multiple facilities from a single site. She mentioned on November 4th that it was due out “this month”. Since we have yet to see this I expect it to be fielded this month. The other program is designed to resolve a common complaint about the current CSAT applications. Once a facility submits a document (Top Screen, SVA or SSP) it is unable to pull that document up and make appropriate changes when submitting an update for that document. This means that the facility has to go through the entire time consuming process when they only need to add or subtract a single COI from the Top Screen, for instance. Ms Kehiller announced that ISCD intends to field a new CSAT Revision Tool in January to correct this problem. Webinar Recommended While I am well familiar with the CFATS program and the CSAT tools, I found this webinar a valuable use of an hour and a half of my time. Anyone working on a facility security team getting ready for their Site Security Plan preparation should invest the time necessary to watch this webinar. All you have to do to get started is to go to the webinar site and fill out the minimal registration form. Once the registration is submitted, you will be taken to the start of this valuable webinar. You won’t be disappointed. Many thanks to ADT Security Services for making this free webinar available on their web site.