TISP Partners,

As 2008 gets underway, TISP is planning a series of key events that will build on our themes of regional disaster resilience and critical infrastructure resilience, culminating in a National Forum on Infrastructure and Regional Resilience (NFIR) in September 2008. The unofficial NFIR kickoff event featured an informative and candid presentation by MG Don Riley, Director of Civil Works, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) at the January 24, 2008 TISP Breakfast during which he emphasized the interagency initiatives being engaged by USACE to explore risk management and communication strategies and to examine the potential cascading consequences of major disaster events impacting critical navigation, hydropower and flood damage reduction infrastructure. MG Riley also emphasized the need to take a systems approach in examining risk and to engage a full array of key stakeholders in any study or analysis. His remarks are now available as a TISPCast on the TISP website at http://podcast.tisp.org/. The sold out breakfast event was a great success, thanks largely to the support of TISP Corporate Sponsor, Michael Baker, Jr., Inc. The breakfast event was immediately followed by another outstanding event, the 2008 TISP Corporate, Community, and Government Resilience Day. Planned and conducted by the TISP Corporate Sponsor Advisory Council and facilitated by Lt. Gen. Henry J. "Hank" Hatch, P.E., USA (Ret), the 50+ attendees explored a wide range of stakeholder needs, requirements, and capabilities towards addressing the Nation's infrastructure systems, business systems, and public facilities in an all-hazard risk framework. Several strategies and actions emerged from this workshop that will be carried forward into future workshop events. Presentations from the TISP Resilience Day are now available at:http://www.tisp.org/events/eventdetails.cfm?&eventID=1946.

As an immediate next step, TISP will be conducting a Federal Agency Workshop on February 21, 2008 in Washington, DC to address Federal agency resilience program progress and activities, and develop objectives/strategies that can be used to further develop the series of regional disaster resilience/critical infrastructure resilience workshops planned in 2008. Additionally, updates on the Upper Illinois and Columbia River infrastructure system risk assessment and management pilots being sponsored by DHS will be presented at the Federal Agency workshop.

The bottom line is that we have a very busy and productive year of resilience initiatives and activities planned and I am confident that TISP is having a very positive impact on this high priority national goal. The Regional Disaster Resilience (RDR) Committee held several productive meetings/calls towards establishing the objectives, content, and focus of the next edition of the TISP RDR Guide. More details will be provided in the near future. Note that TISP is seeking additional sponsors for the administrative and production costs of the updated Guide and all sponsors will be prominently recognized in the next edition of the Guide. For additional information about sponsorship opportunities, contact TISP at tisp@tisp.org.

As a reminder, the TISP Annual Award for Distinguished Leadership in Critical Infrastructure Resilience recognizes the exceptional leadership of individuals and/or organizations who have made significant and lasting contributions to further critical infrastructure resilience. Two awards are presented each year, one for outstanding contributions in the public sector and one in private industry. The deadline for nominations has been extended to January 31, 2008. Only electronic nominations submitted at http://www.tisp.org/award will be considered. Award winners will be announced and honored at the TISP Awards Luncheon at a date and location to be announced shortly. I strongly encourage readers to consider submitting nominations for individuals and/or organizations deserving of this national recognition for outstanding service.

The line-up of future TISP Breakfast events continues to feature "all stars" in homeland security and critical infrastructure resilience. Our next event is scheduled for February 21, 2008 with Dennis R. Schrader, P.E., FEMA Deputy Administrator for National Preparedness. Details are included in this eNewsletter. I look forward to seeing you at upcoming 2008 TISP events. Opportunities to get involved are vast, including service on a TISP committee. Those TISP members interested in serving on TISP committees may now complete the online application form.

Drop me a line if you have any comments or suggestions on TISP initiatives. As always, I welcome your feedback via email to edward.j.hecker@usace.army.mil

Best Regards,

Ed Hecker
TISP Chair

Learn more about TISP.

Sponsored by the ASCE Committee on Critical Infrastructure, this part webinar series with remaining sessions scheduled for February 1 and March 7, 2008 from 12:00-1:00 PM EST, will focus on long term disaster recovery challenges and lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina for effective long term recovery. Registration is based on a single site fee, with an unlimited number of participants eligible to attend at each registered site. Attendees earn 1.0 Professional Development Hour (PDH) per session.

Click here for additional information and online registration for the ASCE Webinars.

ASCE's Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) will be sponsoring a series of disaster management training workshops on Post-Disaster Safety Evaluations, in cooperation with the California Office of Emergency Services (OES) and the Applied Technology Council (ATC) on February 7, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV and May 12, 2008 in Honolulu, HI. Participants completing the entire training will earn 6.0 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) and those possessing a U.S. Professional Engineer's license will be eligible to be registered as California OES Safety Assessment Program (SAP) Evaluators.

Click here for additional information and online registration for the ASCE workshops.

The 3rd International Symposium on Tunnel Safety and Security (ISTSS) will be held at Foresta Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden on March 12-14, 2008. The event will bring together experts in the field of safety and security for 2+ days of presentations and exhibits. Education session topics will include emerging research, international regulations, and incident management.

Click here for additional information and online registration.

The Office of University Programs in the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is sponsoring a summit to showcase key research and education priorities of the DHS Centers of Excellence, the S&T Directorate, and DHS at large. Scheduled for March 19-20, 2008 in Washington, DC, the Summit will highlight the efforts of the Office of University Programs as it continues to rise to the challenges associated with helping to protect the Nation. Subject matter experts from academia, industry, government, and the international community will address the latest homeland security research and education issues in the following areas:

• Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events;
• Security of Agriculture and the Food System;
• Studies of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism;
• Preparedness and Catastrophic Event Response;
• Chemical and Biological Threats and Countermeasures;
• Emerging Threats;
• University Programs Homeland Security Education Initiatives; and
• International Homeland Security Research Challenges.

View additional information on the DHS University Network Summit.

Hosted by the Federal Facilities Council (FFC) of the National Academies and the Institute for Infrastructure and Information Assurance at James Madison University, with TISP as a co-sponsor, the Homeland Security Symposium, Fostering Public-Private Partnerships, is scheduled for Thursday, May 22, 2008 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. The symposium will highlight successful public-private partnerships at the local, regional, and national level as models and consider steps to develop and improve future public-private partnerships. Pre-registration is required to attend the event and attendance will be limited to the first 350 registrants.

Click here for additional information and online registration.

In an effort to safeguard the nation's electrical grid from disruption by cyber attackers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a final rule approving eight mandatory security standards that apply to all users, owners, and operators of the U.S. bulk power system. Deemed critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards, the documents are intended to protect against poor access control, software vulnerabilities, and other weaknesses in data-control systems. Developed in 2006 by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the CIP standards underwent a lengthy review and comment process before their final approval in January 2008. The eight CIP reliability standards address the following topics:

• Critical Cyber Asset Identification;
• Security Management Controls;
• Personnel and Training;
• Electronic Security Perimeters;
• Physical Security of Critical Cyber Assets;
• Systems Security Management;
• Incident Reporting and Response Planning; and
• Recovery Plans for Critical Cyber Assets.

Click here for additional information on the FERC standards.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published the National Response Framework (NRF), which will supersede the National Response Plan (NRP). The shorter and more user-friendly framework focuses on the national response to and short-term recovery from all-hazard disasters across all levels of government as well as private sector and non-governmental organizations. The NRF is based on the NRP, retains much of its content, and continues to build on the principles of NIMS. The documents, as well as a brochure, fact sheet, and frequently asked questions are available at the NRF Resource Center.

Visit the NRF Resource Center.

The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) recently issued a new online course, IS-706, NIMS Intrastate Mutual Aid - An Introduction. The course provides an introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) intrastate mutual aid and assistance and outlines the benefits of mutual aid and assistance. The course explains how to develop mutual aid and assistance agreements and mutual aid operational plans. Designed for State, local, and tribal emergency response and coordination personnel, the course takes approximately 2.5 hours to complete.

Click here for additional information about the NIMS online course.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security (FSSCC), and the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee (FBIIC) have released the in-depth results of the FBIIC/FSSCC Pandemic Flu Exercise of 2007. The report provides a thorough examination of the industry's plans during a pandemic outbreak. Results compare industry responses on issues including plans for telecommuting, stockpiling equipment and anti-virus medication, and other continuity measures. Most importantly, exercise results demonstrate that while there may be significant impacts to the financial services sector during a pandemic outbreak, the sector overall will continue to operate and cope with these impacts. The exercise, conducted in September-October 2007, was the largest pandemic exercise ever held for financial services industry. The exercise highlighted the need for organizations to include pandemic-specific focus in their overall business continuity planning efforts. The exercise simulated absentee rates at up to 49 percent across the country. Critical infrastructures that the sector relies on were also stressed resulting in notable service degradation.

Read the After-Action Report of the FBIIC/FSSCC Pandemic Flu Exercise.

Trust for America's Health (TFAH) recently released the fifth annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report, which found that while important progress has been made, critical areas of the nation's emergency health preparedness effort still require attention. In addition, the continuing trend of annual cuts in federal funding for state and local preparedness activities threatens the nation's safety. The report contains state-by-state health preparedness scores based on ten key indicators to assess health emergency preparedness capabilities. All fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia (DC) were evaluated based on data from publicly available sources or public officials in 2007. Thirty-five states and DC scored eight or higher on the scale of ten indicators. Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia scored the highest with 10 out of 10. Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Wyoming scored the lowest with six out of 10.

Download the TFAH report.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Ministry of Health of the United Mexican States recently agreed to strengthen cross-border coordination and cooperation in the surveillance, prevention, and control of infectious diseases for the protection of the health, well-being, and quality of life of their respective populations. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) commits the three countries to assist one another during a public health emergency, whenever possible, and sets forth examples of the types of aid the three countries may provide to and accept from one another during a public health emergency. As outlined in the MOU, all three countries agree to cooperate to improve their public health emergency preparedness and response efforts in activities such as border health, laboratory testing, diagnosis and treatment, epidemiological investigation, and the control of infectious diseases. The MOU also commits all to strengthen their operating procedures and processes for the sharing of laboratory information before and during an emergency; to continue the technical review and the sharing of assay methods, reagents and laboratory results; and to participate in trilateral or bilateral exercises to assess and strengthen public health emergency response plans.

Click here for additional information about the HHS MOU.

A seven-year extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was recently signed into law, ensuring that the U.S. Treasury will maintain through December 31, 2014, a $100 billion backstop to U.S. terrorism risks, with a 20 percent industry deductible and 15 percent insurer copayment. The December 2007 signing by President Bush followed passage of H.R. 2761 by the U.S. House of Representatives by a 360-53 vote. The Senate passed similar action a month earlier. The TRIA program, which calls for insurers to offer terrorism coverage to business policyholders, initially was established by Congress for three years in 2002 and was renewed for two more years in 2005.

Click here for additional information on TRIA.

This featured column highlights the latest information from TISP's academic partners, an important part of the TISP team. The TISP Educational Outreach Committee was established to promote academic research and to encourage the development of education and training programs related to critical infrastructure resilience; to recruit other colleges and universities to join TISP; and to work with secondary schools to promote interest in America's infrastructure and its resilience. Dr. Todd Stewart, The Ohio State University, currently chairs the committee.

National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security
A primary academic organization within TISP is the National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security. The Ohio State University established NACHS in March 2003 to encourage research, education, and training related to all aspects of homeland security; to facilitate collaboration among academic institutions; and to serve as an academic strategic partner to those government agencies and non-government organizations (i.e., TISP and its members) concerned with homeland security. One of the principal focus areas within NACHS is critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Currently, NACHS includes 362 universities and colleges, collectively representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Germany, Greece, Japan, and Singapore.

The Ohio State University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Team to Plan for a National Center for Campus Preparedness and Resilience
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded a grant to The Ohio State University to do the planning necessary to establish a National Center for Campus Preparedness and Resilience. The mission of the proposed center would be to assist colleges and universities prepare for, withstand, and recover from major disasters of all types, including naturally-occurring events, major accidents, and intentional attacks. This center will also conduct research to develop new technologies and capabilities to improve campus resilience. It will also serve as a "think tank," to advise state and federal government officials on developing policies, strategies, and programs to improve the safety and security of college campuses.

ASME Innovative Technologies Institute (ASME-ITI) Developing Risk-Analysis and Management Methodology for Higher Education
The Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection (RAMCAP) was developed by ASME-ITI, as a framework for analyzing and managing the risks associated with terrorist attacks against critical infrastructures. ASMI-ITI is now in the process of developing RAMCAP for Higher Education, as an application of RAMCAP tailored specifically to risk scenarios affecting colleges and universities. Earlier this month, an advisory panel, made up of members from a number of academic institutions, met with the ASME-ITI project team, to review progress and make recommendations to guide further development. This project recognizes the significance of the nation's post-secondary institutions, as an important sector of national infrastructure.

What's New?
The TISP Educational Outreach Committee wants to help "spread the word" about new academic research, education and training programs, conferences, and publications related to the protection of critical infrastructure and security of the built environment. We invite you to share your news with us, so we can let others know about your activities. Please forward input to Dr. Todd Stewart at The Ohio State University.

Read more about the TISP Education Outreach Committee.

This column features industry updates on TISP Corporate Sponsor activities and resources related to critical infrastructure resilience.

On January 24, 2008, the TISP Corporate Sponsor Advisory Council sponsored the 1st Annual TISP Corporate, Community, and Government Resilience Day. Facilitated by Lt. Gen. Henry J. "Hank" Hatch, P.E., USA (Ret.), the event attracted representatives from a wide range of operational resilience stakeholders. Held at the National Academies Keck Center in Washington, DC, participating TISP Corporate Sponsors provided Resilience Day attendees a spectrum of leading-edge, critical infrastructure and national resilience thought leadership and the professional expertise resident within TISP to operationalize resilience from hometowns throughout the homeland. Specific issues addressed and solutions offered by TISP Corporate Partners during the event included:

• Understanding and pragmatically addressing the environmental, national policy, political, and human factors clash between infrastructure renewal, sustainability, and security;
• the imperative for and a common, universally accepted, resilience definition, resulting policy transformation, and objectively measurable critical infrastructure and national resilience performance standards;
• understanding, assessing, and meeting current Federal compliance requirements;
• technical capacities available to anticipate, prepare for, and manage recovery efforts in the wake of all hazards events; and
• integrated security engineering support required to ensure the security and operational continuity of facilities and those required to build resilient businesses, communities, and by extension, a resilient nation.

Support TISP as a Corporate Sponsor.

TISP is grateful for the support of its paid FY08 member organizations:

Contributing Members
Air Force District of Washington
American Institute of Architects
American Public Works Association
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc.
American Society of Landscape Architects
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
American Water Works Association
ANSI Homeland Security Standards Panel
ASIS International
Associated General Contractors of America
Construction Industry Round Table
International Code Council
International Facility Management Association
Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research
NACE International
National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Fire Protection Association
National Institute of Building Sciences
National Society of Professional Engineers
Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management
Portland Cement Association
Society of American Military Engineers
Stony Brook University
Transit Standards Consortium
Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.
US Army Corps of Engineers
US Bureau of Reclamation
US Coast Guard
US Department of Homeland Security Sector Specific Agency Executive Management Office
US Department of Veterans Affairs
Water Environment Federation

State and Local Government Contributing Members
Pacific NorthWest Economic Region

Corporate Sponsors
Beck Disaster Recovery, Inc.
GovSec U.S. Law & Ready!
Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.
Parsons

Join TISP.

Relevant items, including events, breaking news, publications, case studies, and related sites for inclusion in future editions of the TISP eNewsletter or the TISP website should be submitted to tispnews@tisp.org.

The monthly TISP eNewsletter features articles on critical infrastructure resilience issues and initiatives as well as related resources. If this eNewsletter was forwarded to you from a friend and you want to receive future editions directly, click below to subscribe. If you received this eNewsletter directly from TISP, you are already subscribed and do not need to take any further action to continue receiving the eNewsletter.

Click here to subscribe.