Change to DHS SSP Webinar Schedule

This morning DHS updated their CFATS Knowledge Center page with information about a change in their CFATS Webinar schedule. The webinars will now only be held on Wednesday afternoon instead of twice on Wednesday.

The following Note now appears on the page replacing the old webinar note:

“Weekly CSAT-SSP Webinars are now only offered Wednesday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00 EST. As before, any CFATS facility with a pending SSP may register up to five persons to participate in one or more of these weekly webinars. See the Article ‘How to Register for a CSAT-SSP Webinar’ for registration information and requirements.”

The CFATS FAQ (# 1712) that addresses these webinars has been revised to reflect this change. The CFATS Article (# 1713) has similarly been changed. The updated versions of both are included in the downloadable CFATS Knowledge Center Issues Document that lists all of the FAQ and Articles.

DHS CSAT FAQ Update 11-26-10

Earlier this week the folks at DHS ISCD updated their CFATS Knowledge Center page with two new frequently asked questions (FAQ), a new article, and a ‘Latest News’ entry about the SSP webinars. The new article/.FAQs are:

• 1711: How can I make a change to a submitted Site Security Plan (SSP)?
• 1712: I am working on my facility’s Site Security Plan. How can I register to participate in a DHS SSP Webinar?
• 1713: How to Register for a DHS CSAT-SSP Webinar

The ‘Latest News’ piece is:

“Weekly CSAT-SSP Webinars are now open to any CFATS facility with a pending SSP. Webinars are held each Wednesday from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST and 2:00 to 4:00 PM EST. A facility may register up to five persons to participate in one or more of these weekly webinars. See the Article “How to Register for a CSAT-SSP Webinar” posted under “Articles” above for registration information and requirements.”

If you read FAQ 1712 and Article 1713 you are going to find that they are identical. This will be kind of surprising unless you understand the organization of the Knowledge Center page. Articles are listed on that page and their limited number (currently 7 articles) means that the title is always visible on that page. The large number (437) of searchable FAQs makes it very unlikely that any particular FAQ will be visible on the Knowledge Center when you first land on it.

SSP Webinar Registration

The key point of this whole update is disseminating the sign-up procedure for their two SSP webinars conducted every Wednesday (presumably absent any Federal Holidays). ISCD has farmed out the management of the registration process. To register you need to send an email to cfatsssp@absconsulting.com. The email must include the following information:

• Name
• Position
• Company Name
• Facility Name
• Facility Number
• SSP Due Date
• Number of Participants
• Names of Participants
• Session Preference (morning or afternoon)

Reservations are on a modified first-come-first-serve basis. DHS notes that “in the rare event that a webinar is fully booked, preference is given to facilities within 30 days of an SSP due date followed by those facility representatives that have not participated in a previous SSP Webinar”.

I haven’t seen this webinar, but the ones that I have seen put on by ISCD have provided valuable information. Once again I suggest that facilities book a conference room where they can get all of their CFATS team (including consultants) in the room to watch the webinar at one time. To be fair to other participants, you will need to manage the participation in the question answer period so that one person asks the questions for the group.

Data Set Download Note: The downloadable list of FAQ/Articles has been updated to include the items mentioned above. Still no way to identify that without downloading the data set, but it is current.

DHS CSAT Webinars

Today DHS updated their CFATS Knowledge Center page by adding a small, but potentially very important item to the ‘Latest News’ section of the main page. That note reads:

“Weekly CSAT-SSP Webinars will soon be open to any CFATS facility with an outstanding SSP, please refer to this site for an update to this announcement. Webinars are currently held each Wednesday from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST and 2:00 to 4:00 PM EST.”

I’ll be watching for the details when they become available. In the mean time, if I were having problems getting my head around my SSP, I would contact the CFATS Helpline (866-323-2957, Monday-Friday 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time) to see if you could get signed up for the next Wednesday webinar.

Ideally you want to get your CSAT team together in one place to observe and participate in the webinar. Get a conference room with a big screen or a digital projector, a conference phone and sign on to the webinar. Make sure you have one person asking the questions for the group at the end of the seminar, it will make things go smoother and ensure that the most important questions get asked and answered.

Without a doubt the question answer period at the end of these webinars is the most valuable portion of the presentation (though in my experience DHS puts out good information in their presentations).

If you don’t have an approved SSP then you need to take DHS up on this very valuable resource.

DHS-ACC Webinar – SSP

I was kind of surprised today to see a very brief notice in one of my daily SmartBrief® emails that DHS and ChemITC were collaborating on a webinar this week on “DHS CSAT Site Security Plan”. Neither the collaboration nor the webinar was surprising; but the very short notice was. The webinar will be held this Wednesday, July 29th at 11:00 a.m. EDT. If you are interested in registering for the free webinar, just click on this link. The presenters for the webinar will be two people from the Infrastructure Security Compliance Division of DHS. According to the ChemITC web page, David McCullin, a program Analyst, and Mat Davey, a consultant, will “provide information on the content and functionality of the CSAT SSP tool as well as important considerations to facilitate an accurate completion of the SSP”. I have been on the observer side of a couple of ChemITC sponsored webinars and have found them to be well worth the time and an exceptional value, especially since they are free. I have signed up and look forward to hearing what these two gentlemen have to say about the SSP submission process.