Critical Infrastructure Protection Page Update 04-09-10

Late last week the Department of Homeland Security updated their Critical Infrastructure Protection landing page. While they have yet to make their planned change of adding a change date on the bottom of the page, they did add a number of new links to the page. Those links included: Bomb-Making Materials Awareness Program (BMAP) Protective Security Advisors Federal Building Security Bombing Prevention Training BMAP The Bomb-Making Materials Awareness Program is mainly addressed at retailers that sell chemicals that can be used to make improvised explosive devices. While this may not seem to have much to do with high-risk chemical facilities, I think that CFATS covered facilities that deal with production/sales of such commercial chemicals should ensure that any commercial distributors that they deal with are actively involved with this program. Protective Security Advisors Protective Security Advisors assist owners and operators of critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) by coordinating requests for Department-provided services such as training, grants, and vulnerability assessments. While this is not a substitute program for CFATS covered facilities, chemical facilities that are not covered under CFATS may find some assistance from this program. Bombing Prevention Training The Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP) develops and maintains the training and works with state homeland security officials and state training offices to coordinate course delivery. This web page states that “critical infrastructure owners and operators can request courses through the Department’s Protective Security Advisors”. It would seem to me that someone at the Department’s Infrastructure Security and Compliance Division should be coordinating the development/deployment of this type training for CFATS covered facilities, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.