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CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION
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The five identified federal agencies (Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Justice, and Transportation and Federal Communications Commission (FCC)) have to varying degrees, coordinated cybersecurity-related activities with state and local governments. These activities included (1) supporting critical infrastructure protection-related planning, (2) issuing grants, (3) sharing information, (4) providing technical assistance, and (5) regulating and overseeing essential functions. However, except for supporting critical infrastructure planning, federal coordination of these activities was generally not targeted towards or focused on the cybersecurity of state and local public safety entities involved in handling 911 emergency calls. Under the critical infrastructure protection planning activity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) coordinated with state and local governments and other federal stakeholders to complete the Emergency Services Sector-Specific Plan. The plan is to guide the sector, including the public safety entities, in setting protective program goals and objectives, identifying assets, assessing risks, prioritizing infrastructure components and programs to enhance risk mitigation, implementing protective programs, measuring program effectiveness, and incorporating research and development of technology initiatives into sector planning efforts. It also addressed aspects of cybersecurity of the current environment. However, the plan did not address the development and implementation of more interconnected, Internet-based planned information technologies, such as the next generation of 911 services. According to DHS officials, the plan did not address these technologies, in part, because the process for updating the sector-specific plan will begin after the release of the revised National Infrastructure Protection Plan—a unifying framework to enhance the safety of the nation’s critical infrastructure. A revised plan was released in December 2013, and, according to DHS, a new sector-specific plan is estimated to be completed in December 2014. Until DHS, in collaboration with stakeholders, addresses the cybersecurity implications of the emerging technologies in planning activities, information systems are at an increased risk of failure or being unavailable at critical moments.
United States Government Accountability Office - Organizational Body
NONE
Management
English
January 2014
1-41
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