Sectors and Partnerships Paper

Sectors and Partnerships Paper

Desmond Odunze

BSS/482

May 4, 2015

Vicki Jones

Sectors and Partnerships Paper

Introduction

        Protecting the critical infrastructure of the United States is vital to the Nation’s security, public health and safety, economic vitality, and the way of life just in general. Critical infrastructure are assets, systems, and networks, may they be physical or virtual. This paper will explore a department within the critical infrastructure and the responsibilities, along with any partnerships it may have. Also, this paper will explain what a national critical infrastructure is.

Department of Transportation

        The Transportation System Sector implements the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) it collaborates with sector partners which include Transportation Systems Sector owners and operators, and agencies covering all stages of government GCC (Government Coordinating Council). The GCC involves representatives of the two Sector-Specific Agencies; the agencies are Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard (Transportation Annex, 2008). The Department of Transportation is responsible for operating the national air space system; it also collaborates in controlling the transportation of hazardous materials by all means including pipelines.  

What is your position title? What are your job responsibilities? If you are an owner or operator, define your business and its involvement in protecting critical infrastructure.

As ESF Coordinator: the job responsibilities include Emergency Support Function (ESF) Transportation provides support to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by assisting Federal, State, tribal, and local governmental entities, voluntary organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector in the management of transportation systems and infrastructure during domestic threats or in response to incidents. ESF also participates in prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities (Transportation Annex 2008). ESF carries out the Department of Transportation statutory responsibilities, including regulation of transportation, management of the Nation’s airspace, and ensuring the safety and security of the national transportation system. It is important to acknowledge the ESF is not responsible for movement of goods, equipment, animals, or people according to Transportation Annex (2008).

What is national critical infrastructure, and how does it relate to your job position?

Critical infrastructure is the backbone of the nation's economy security and health. It's the power we use and the water we use in our homes and even the transportation that gets us to one place to the other. It is also the communication system that the people depend on to talk with the people we know and so on. It is the assets, systems, and networks, it can be virtual or physical, it is vital to the U.S., and if there was a break down or destruction it would be devastating to security, national economic security, national public health and safety or any combination thereof. If anything was to happen it would make us vulnerable; it is very important for the government to protect our infrastructure (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2013). As to affect our infrastructure it would have a huge impact on our nation making us look weak that could leave us vulnerable to attacks by terrorists (U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2013).