ISCD Updates CFATS Knowledge Center – 9-24-14

Today the folks at ISCD added a short news item to their CFATS Knowledge Center web page announcing that they had made some administrative changes to the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) application used by facilities covered under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program to submit required information to DHS about their facilities.

That news item said:

“The Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) is a web based application that supports the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. Over the last year, the Department of Homeland Security focused on revising and improving the usability and effectiveness of CSAT. Learn about the various updates to CSAT highlighted in the “2014 Updates to the Chemical Security Assessment Tool” Fact Sheet.”

Further down the page there is a link to that document under the documentation heading. That one page handout briefly outlines some of the administrative changes that were made. There is nothing earth shattering listed; just the kind of changes that make peoples jobs just a little bit easier. These are the kind of changes that bureaucracies generally overlook. They include:

1. Adding page numbers to summary reports

2. Pre-populating SSP survey questions on resubmissions rather than making facilities re-enter previously collected

information

3. Allowing all CSAT user roles for a facility the ability to view and print surveys in the CSAT document folder

4. Eliminating the need for a facility to revalidate all RBPS after a SSP unlock is conducted

5. Adding commas to all numeric fields in surveys to reduce errors in quantities reported

6. Creating a Top-Screen Update function that generates a new Top-Screen survey pre-populated with all

information from a previous submission

7. Adding the Facility Authorizer to the CC line of CSAT email notifications