Addressing the vulnerabilities in today's critical infrastructure to natural disasters and terrorism, this practical book describes what public safety and other officials need to do to protect should be doing to pipelines, power plants, telecommunications, and other essential services before the unthinkable happens. The book explains how to maintain command and control in any disaster, and how to predict the probability of those disasters. Written by two highly regarded experts in the field, this one-of-a-kind guidebook shows how to simplify risk assessments and emergency response procedures to disasters affecting our critical national and local infrastructure.
Powerful Earthquake Triggers Tsunami in Pacific. Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in the Gulf Coast. Avalanche Buries Highway in Denver. Tornado Touches Down in Georgia. These headlines not only have caught the attention of people around the world, they have had a significant effect on IT professionals as well. As technology continues to become more integral to corporate operations at every level of the organization, the job of IT has expanded to become almost all-encompassing. These days, it's difficult to find corners of a company that technology does not touch. As a result, the need to plan for potential disruptions to technology services has increased exponentially. That is what Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is: a methodology used to create a plan for how an organization will recover after a disaster of various types. It takes into account both security and corporate risk management tatics.There is a lot of movement around this initiative in the industry: the British Standards Institute is releasing a new standard for BCP this year. Trade shows are popping up covering the topic.* Complete coverage of the 3 categories of disaster: natural hazards, human-caused hazards, and accidental and technical hazards.* Only published source of information on the new BCI standards and government requirements.* Up dated information on recovery from cyber attacks, rioting, protests, product tampering, bombs, explosions, and terrorism.
Every day in cities and towns across the Nation, emergency response personnel respond to incidents of varying scope and magnitude. Their ability to communicate in real time is critical to establishing command and control at the scene of an emergency, to maintaining event situational awareness, and to operating overall within a broad range of incidents. However, as numerous after-action reports and national assessments have revealed, there are still communications deficiencies that affect the ability of responders to manage routine incidents and support responses to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other incidents. Recognizing the need for an overarching emergency communications strategy to address these shortfalls, Congress directed the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) to develop the first National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP). Title XVIII of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 United States Code 101 et seq.), as amended, calls for the NECP to be developed in coordination with stakeholders from all levels of government and from the private sector. In response, DHS worked with stakeholders from Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies to develop the NECP—a strategic plan that establishes a national vision for the future state of emergency communications. To realize this national vision and meet these goals, the NECP established the following seven objectives for improving emergency communications for the Nation's Federal, State, local, and tribal emergency responders: 1. Formal decision-making structures and clearly defined leadership roles coordinate emergency communications capabilities. 2. Federal emergency communications programs and initiatives are collaborative across agencies and aligned to achieve national goals. 3. Emergency responders employ common planning and operational protocols to effectively use their resources and personnel. 4. Emerging technologies are integrated with current emergency communications capabilities through standards implementation, research and development, and testing and evaluation. 5. Emergency responders have shared approaches to training and exercises, improved technical expertise, and enhanced response capabilities. 6. All levels of government drive long-term advancements in emergency communications through integrated strategic planning procedures, appropriate resource allocations, and public-private partnerships. 7. The Nation has integrated preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery capabilities to communicate during significant events. The NECP also provides recommended initiatives and milestones to guide emergency response providers and relevant government officials in making measurable improvements in emergency communications capabilities. The NECP recommendations help to guide, but do not dictate, the distribution of homeland security funds to improve emergency communications at the Federal, State, and local levels, and to support the NECP implementation. Communications investments are among the most significant, substantial, and long-lasting capital investments that agencies make; in addition, technological innovations for emergency communications are constantly evolving at a rapid pace. With these realities in mind, DHS recognizes that the emergency response community will realize this national vision in stages, as agencies invest in new communications systems and as new technologies emerge.
The availability and security of many services we rely upon—including water treatment, electricity, healthcare, transportation, and financial transactions—are routinely put at risk by cyber threats. The Handbook of SCADA/Control Systems Security is a fundamental outline of security concepts, methodologies, and relevant information pertaining to the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and technology that quietly operate in the background of critical utility and industrial facilities worldwide. Divided into five sections, the book examines topics comprising functions within and throughout industrial control systems (ICS) environments. Topics include: Emerging trends and threat factors that plague the ICS security community Risk methodologies and principles that can be applied to safeguard and secure an automated operation Methods for determining events leading to a cyber incident, and methods for restoring and mitigating issues—including the importance of critical communications The necessity and reasoning behind implementing a governance or compliance program A strategic roadmap for the development of a secured SCADA/control systems environment, with examples Relevant issues concerning the maintenance, patching, and physical localities of ICS equipment How to conduct training exercises for SCADA/control systems The final chapters outline the data relied upon for accurate processing, discusses emerging issues with data overload, and provides insight into the possible future direction of ISC security. The book supplies crucial information for securing industrial automation/process control systems as part of a critical infrastructure protection program. The content has global applications for securing essential governmental and economic systems that have evolved into present-day security nightmares. The authors present a "best practices" approach to securing business management environments at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels.
In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.
Today's networks are required to support an increasing array of real-time communication methods. Video chat and live resources put demands on networks that were previously unimagined. Written to be accessible to all, Fundamentals of Communications and Networking, Third Edition helps readers better understand today's networks and the way they support the evolving requirements of different types of organizations. While displaying technical depth, this new edition presents an evolutionary perspective of data networking from the early years to the local area networking boom, to advanced IP data networks that support multimedia and real-time applications. The Third Edition is loaded with real-world examples, network designs, and network scenarios that provide the reader with a wealth of data networking information and practical implementation tips. Key Features of the third Edition: - Introduces network basics by describing how networks work - Discusses how networks support the increasing demands of advanced communications - Illustrates how to map the right technology to an organization's needs and business goals - Outlines how businesses use networks to solve business problems, both technically and operationally.
This comprehensive handbook covers fundamental security concepts, methodologies, and relevant information pertaining to supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and other industrial control systems used in utility and industrial facilities worldwide. Including six new chapters, six revised chapters, and numerous additional figures, photos, and illustrations, it addresses topics in social implications and impacts, governance and management, architecture and modeling, and commissioning and operations. It presents best practices as well as methods for securing a business environment at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is an operational ecosystem that employs key management, cryptography, information technology (IT), information security (cybersecurity), policy and practices, legal matters (law, regulatory, contractual, privacy), and business rules (processes and procedures). A properly managed PKI requires all of these disparate disciplines to function together – coherently, efficiently, effectually, and successfully. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, separation of duties, documentation, and communications are critical aspects for a successful operation. PKI is not just about certificates, rather it can be the technical foundation for the elusive "crypto-agility," which is the ability to manage cryptographic transitions. The second quantum revolution has begun, quantum computers are coming, and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) transitions will become PKI operation’s business as usual.
Since the early 2000s numerous external scenarios and drivers have added significant pressures upon the IT organisations. Among many, these include:Regulatory compliance: data privacy requirements and corporate scandals have focused a requirement for transparency with high impact on IT organisationsEconomic pressures: require IT organisations to more closely align with business imperatives.The outcome has been an explosion of standards and frameworks each designed to support the IT organisation as it demonstrates to the world that they are the rock of an organisation: strong, reliable, effective and efficient. Most of these standards and frameworks have great elements but no organisation can adopt them all and many were created without sufficient considerations for interoperability.The IT Service (in 2 parts) looks at the key and very simple goals of an IT organisation and clearly and succinctly presents to the reader the best rock solid elements in the Industry. It then shows how all the key elements can easily crystallise together with great templates and check-lists.In Part 1 (another book) the reader is presented with the simple objectives that the IT department really must address.In Part 2 (this book) the reader gains expert advice on how the components of IT Service are crystallised in a real environment. There s a delightfully simple set of steps:OVERVIEW OF THE SERVICE DESIGN PACKAGETHE SERVICE STRATEGYASPECTS Of SERVICE DESIGNOUTPUTS OF THE SERVICE DESIGN PHASEOUTPUTS OF THE SERVICE TRANSITION PHASEOUTPUTS OF THE SERVICE OPERATION PHASEWithin these the Author gives a very simple set of templates (or tells you where they are to be found), practical guidance and very simple checklists. It s up the reader how far you develop each stage: a lot depends on the nature of your business of course. The joy of this approach is that the reader knows that all basic components are identified -- and that more extensive resources are referred to if the reader wishes to extend.
This authoritative volume presents a comprehensive guide to the evaluation and design of networked systems with improved disaster resilience. The text offers enlightening perspectives on issues relating to all major failure scenarios, including natural disasters, disruptions caused by adverse weather conditions, massive technology-related failures, and malicious human activities. Topics and features: describes methods and models for the analysis and evaluation of disaster-resilient communication networks; examines techniques for the design and enhancement of disaster-resilient systems; provides a range of schemes and algorithms for resilient systems; reviews various advanced topics relating to resilient communication systems; presents insights from an international selection of more than 100 expert researchers working across the academic, industrial, and governmental sectors. This practically-focused monograph, providing invaluable support on topics of resilient networking equipment and software, is an essential reference for network professionals including network and networked systems operators, networking equipment vendors, providers of essential services, and regulators. The work can also serve as a supplementary textbook for graduate and PhD courses on networked systems resilience.
