Review - CISA Announces ChemLock – Voluntary Chemical Facility Security

Today CISA announced the launch of their new voluntary chemical facility security program for chemical facilities that are not part of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. The new ChemLock program is an outgrowth of the CFATS program and the realization that facilities that are not considered at ‘high-risk’ for terrorist attack are at some risk of physical or cyber attack because of the chemicals stored, used or produced at the facility. The ChemLock program allows CISA to provide assistance to those facilities, based upon the long experience that the Office of Chemical Security has in overseeing the CFATS program.

Commentary

This is a voluntary chemical facility security program run out of the same office as the CFATS program. While this is not a program for facilities covered under that program, there are information sources available through this program that could be of use to CFATS facilities. Chemical facilities that are not covered by the CFATS program will find information and assistance here to determine what security measures may be applicable to their facility and how to implement those security measures.

The web site for this new program is hitting as a nearly fully formed information source for chemical facility security. The fold from OCS have used their long CFATS experience to address the basics of chemical facility security in an easy to access format. Assistance from experienced chemical facility inspectors is going to be a major selling point for this program.

Facilities that hold inventories of DHS chemicals of interest but are not currently covered by the program should certainly take a look at this program if there is any chance that there may be inventory or process changes in their future that may push them into the CFATS program. The resources available here could give facilities a head start on setting up a security program that could be readily morphed into a CFATS program site security plan.

I will be taking a closer look at this new program in future articles.

For more details about today’s announcement, including links to various pages within the new site, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/cisa-announces-chemlock - subscription required.