Yesterday DHS updated their National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) web page replacing the Bulletin that had been in effect since February 7th, 2022. The new bulletin continues to provide a broad stroke overview of the potential terrorist threats facing the United States. There are no actionable bits of information about suspected or known plans for terrorist attacks, such information would have triggered an Advisory instead of a Bulletin.
The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program includes a requirement {6 CFR 27.235(13)} for facilities to be able to escalate “the level of protective measures for periods of elevated threat”. Generally speaking, NTAS Bulletins do not constitute a warning of ‘elevated threat’, that would typically require an NTAS advisory. Facility owners should, however, read the new Bulletin and see if there is anything that might indicate a reason for increased concern at their facility. Additionally, facility owners might want to contact their Chemical Security Inspector to see if there is any additional information available from DHS that could affect their security posture.
The relatively new CISA ChemLock voluntary chemical facility program does not have anything in the way of requirements to address increased threats; it is after all a voluntary program, but the recommendation above for CFATS facilities would also apply to chemical facilities participating in the voluntary program.
If facility management sees anything in the Bulletin that
may raise cause for concern at their particular facility, it is probably time
to go into the enhanced security planning mode. I did a fairly
detailed posting on what that should entail back in 2011 and the advice
still stands today.
For more details about the Bulletin and some of its
supporting documents, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/dhs-updates-ntas-bulletin
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