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Office of Infrastructure Protection

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Overview:

The Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) is the arm of the Department of Homeland Security charged with helping secure key buildings and other structures across the United States from terrorist attack. OIP is not directly responsible for guarding private and public infrastructure but rather is tasked with identifying important locations and assessing their vulnerability to attack or other dangers, such as natural disasters. The office catalogs buildings, dams, manufacturing plants, waterways, roads and other critical infrastructures/key resources. This effort was widely criticized in 2006 when it was revealed OIP’s database was filled with non-critical sites, such as zoos and parades.

 
more
History:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government began to examine potential threats to American infrastructure as a result of earlier incidents of foreign and domestic terrorism. The 1990s saw the first assault on the World Trade Center (1993), the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City (1995) and increasing concerns over computer hacking and issues of cyber-security. In response to these worries, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13010 in 1996 which identified the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors: telecommunications, transportation, electric power, banking and finance, gas and oil storage and delivery, water supply, emergency services and government operations.
 
The Executive Order also established the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP), whose objective was to recommend a comprehensive national infrastructure protection policy and implementation strategy. In October 1997, the PCCIP recommended that the federal government develop collaborative relationships with the owners and operators of critical infrastructures, much of which belonged to the private sector. The PCCIP report prompted President Clinton to issue Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 63 in May 1998, which called for new measures to protect critical infrastructures - both physical facilities and cyber-based systems - deemed essential to the economy and the government. Among the new measures were the creation of two new government agencies: the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) in the Department of Commerce and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) in the Department of Justice.
 
CIAO was initially designed to have a life span of three years to study the federal government’s vulnerability with regard to critical infrastructures, such as buildings, roadways and other facilities. CIAO continued past three years, and following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the office gained new impetus when President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13231, which established the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board (CIPB), on which sat the director of CIAO as a member of both the board and its coordination committee.
 
Meanwhile, DOJ’s National Infrastructure Protection Center was charged with defending the nation’s public and private computer systems from cyber attacks. NIPC’s mission was to respond to illegal acts involving computer and information technologies. NIPC’s tenure was marked by trouble, as a number of high-profile viruses invaded computer networks across the country. In May 1999, the FBI’s and Senate’s web sites were hacked into by perpetrators who left behind messages directly challenging the FBI.
 
Then in 2000, critics inside and outside the government blasted the agency for its alleged unwillingness to work with other organizations and share information about particular investigations. In addition, NIPC was attacked for its failure to issue prompt warnings to prevent the spreading of the crippling “I Love You” virus in May 2000.
 
Following 9/11, the Bush administration decided to consolidate 22 federal offices and agencies into a new cabinet-level department charged with protecting the US from terrorism. As part of the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), both the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office and the National Infrastructure Protection Center were merged into the new Directorate for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP) within DHS. IAIP lost a good deal of the computer experts who worked for the NIPC, as many agents found other jobs within the FBI to avoid the move to DHS.
 
Homeland Security’s IAIP didn’t last long. Soon after the directorate was created, DHS officials decided the tasks of intelligence analysis and infrastructure required separate offices. Thus, that year the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) was created. OIP was charged with leading and coordinating the overall national critical infrastructure protection effort. All important infrastructure was categorized to better manage the protection of each sector. A total of 17 sectors were defined: Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Dams, Emergency Services, Energy, Banking and Finance Agriculture and Food, Government Facilities, Nuclear, Public Health and Healthcare, National Monuments and Icons, Information Technology, Materials and Waste, Postal & Shipping, Telecommunications, Defense Industrial Base, Drinking Water and Water Treatment Facilities, and Transportation (including Aviation, Maritime, Railroad, Mass Transit, Highway). DHS then decided that multiple federal agencies would be assigned the task of overseeing one or more of these 17 sectors. These assignments became known as Sector Specific Agencies.
 

 

more
What it Does:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) helps to secure key buildings and other structures across the United States from terrorist attack. OIP is not directly responsible for guarding private and public infrastructure, but rather is tasked with identifying important locations and assessing their vulnerability to attack or other dangers, such as natural disasters. The office catalogs buildings, dams, manufacturing plants, waterways, roads and other critical infrastructures/key resources, or CI/KR. OIP works with federal, state, local and tribal government officials to help public safety agencies protect identified CI/KR and respond appropriately in the event of a crisis. Through its vulnerability assessment process, OIP communicates with the owners/operators of infrastructures and resources to maintain an effective system of safety governance and information sharing.
 
One of OIP’s most important tasks is the formulation of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, which sets national priorities, goals and requirements for securing private and public infrastructure from terrorist attacks or other disasters. The office carries out its duties through five divisions:
 
Chemical Security Compliance Division (CSCD) implements the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS). It develops and implements a program that assesses high-risk chemical plants, promotes collaborative security planning and ensures chemical plants meet risk-based performance standards.
 
Infrastructure Information Collection Division (IICD) is responsible for collecting infrastructure data and making it available to various public and private sector partners that work with DHS.
 
Infrastructure Analysis and Strategy Division (IASD) includes special analytical teams that perform modeling, simulation and analysis of CI/KR which helps DHS prepare its National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP).
 
Protective Security Coordination Division (PSCD) assesses vulnerabilities and consequences in the event CI/KR come under attack. It also provides national coordination for protection of infrastructures as well as recovery operations in an “all-hazards environment.”
 
Contingency Planning and Incident Management Division (CPIMD) coordinates and implements OIP’s preparedness activities, such as exercises, contingency planning and incident management.
 
Partnership and Outreach Division (POD) develops strategic relationships and information sharing systems with owners and operators of CI/KR. Additionally, POD provides coordination and management of the NIPP process and its supporting Site Specific Plans (SSPs), as well as the National Annual CI/KR Report, which tracks progress of NIPP and SSP implementation, including performance metrics.
 
Sector Specific Agency - OIP serves as the Site Specific Agency (SSA) in charge of overseeing five of the nation’s 17 CI/KR sectors. The office’s SSA is responsible for providing guidance and coordinating the implementation of the NIPP framework for these five sectors, as well as ensuring that CI/KR protection activities are fully integrated across all 17 sectors. The five sectors that OIP watches over are:
 
Chemical Branch is responsible for preparedness and infrastructure protection for all critical commercial chemical facilities against a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Several hundred thousand facilities in the US use, manufacture, store, transport or deliver chemicals, encompassing everything from petroleum refineries to pharmaceutical manufacturers to hardware stores.
 
Commercial Facilities Branch oversees protection for hotels, office buildings, convention centers, stadiums, theme parks, apartment buildings and shopping centers, among others.
 
Dams Branch is responsible for assets, systems, networks and functions related to dam projects, navigation locks, levees, hurricane barriers, mine tailings impoundments, or other similar water retention and/or control facilities. Dam projects alone include multiple facilities such as water impoundment or control structures, reservoirs, spillways, outlet works, powerhouses and canals or aqueducts.
 
Emergency Services Branch works with various government agencies that prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks and manmade and natural disasters.
 
Nuclear Branch prepares and protects assets including nuclear power plants, research and test reactors, nuclear fuel cycle facilities, radioactive waste management facilities, nuclear material transport systems, deactivated nuclear facilities, radioactive material users and radioactive source production and distribution facilities.

 

more
Where Does the Money Go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the Sector Specific Agency for five of the 17 CI/KR sectors, OIP plays a key role in the survival of several critical industries in the US. Overseeing chemical plants brings OIP in touch with key industrial players like DuPont, Dow Chemical, Eastman Kodak and Shell Oil.
 
The office’s Commercial Facilities Branch division deals with a wide variance of stakeholders, from The Walt Disney Corporation (theme parks) to the New York Yankees (stadium) to the City of Los Angeles (Staples Center).
 
OIP also oversees protection assessments for the nation’s dams, taking the office from Nevada (Hoover Dam) to Washington (Grand Coulee) to Arizona (Glen Canyon dam).
 
The Nuclear Branch division requires OIP officials to work with key leaders in the nuclear power industry, including Ohio Edison, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Duke Power, Exelon Corporation, Constellation Generation, Pacific Gas & Electric, Georgia Power Company, Southern California Edison and the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s lobby in Washington, DC. There are also federal agencies in charge of nuclear waste disposal, including the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management in the Department of Energy, which oversees the Yucca Mountain repository.
 
IOP also engages private contractors to help the office carry out its mission. Energetics Inc., a consulting firm and subsidiary of VSE Corp., has received three contracts totaling $21.8 million. One contract is for five years and worth $11.8 million to conduct research and analysis, develop requirements and provide implementation strategies for the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. It is also developing studies that support public-private partnerships and information sharing.
 
Energetics also won two subcontracts to support OIP as a member of a team led by Fairfax-based SRA International Inc. Under one subcontract, Energetics is providing program and technical support to the Sector Specific Agency Executive Management Office. The other subcontract has Energetics providing analytical, statistical and metrics support for the NIPP Program Management Office. Both subcontracts have a five-year span if all options are exercised and a combined potential value of $10 million.
 
IOP has worked with ICF International since 2004 to help with the production of the NIPP. The latest contract was valued at $22.1 million over five years. ICF International is a consulting company that works in the energy, environment, transportation, social programs, defense and homeland security markets.
 
Energetics to help DHS with infrastructure protection (by William Welsh, Washington Technology)
 
more
Controversies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IOP Ridiculed Over Database
In 2006 the Office of Infrastructure Protection found itself the focus of news reports and the butt of late-night jokes over the status of its database housing key infrastructure locations. A report (PDF) by the DHS Inspector General blasted IOP for the way it had compiled information that went into the database.
 
The IG’s report noted that flawed data-gathering methods had led state officials to submit irrelevant and even comical assets for inclusion in the critical asset inventory. The flaws in the database led officials to question the completion of the NIPP, which relies on information from the computer system.
 
The IG report specified multiple flaws that arose in the process of building the database, such as missing ZIP codes, missing facility names and language translation problems. The IG analysts predicted that the database could eventually grow to hundreds of thousands of records.
 
But the most embarrassing revelations were the examples cited by the IG of non-critical targets that wound up in the database. Among the 77,069 assets listed were:
  • The Amish Country Popcorn farm of Berne, Indiana
  • The Kentucky Bourbon Festival
  • The Groundhog Zoo in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania
  • High Stakes Bingo
  • Kangaroo Conservation Center of Dawsonville, Georgia
  • Columbia, Tennessee’s Mule Day Parade
  • Nix’s Check Cashing of Southern California
  • The Krispy Kreme Doughnuts drive-through in Clive, Iowa
 
DHS officials countered in their defense that the database project had suffered from a lack of funds and personnel. Furthermore, IOP’s top man, Robert Stephan, told reporters that the inspector general “ignored” the facts and came to conclusions that were “fundamentally false.”
 
“This is just a ridiculous thing that happened,” he said.
 
Senate Democrats were highly critical of IOP. US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called IOP’s work “a case of gross mismanagement.”
DHS asset database can't support vaunted infrastructure protection plan (by Wilson P. Dizard III, Government Computer News)

 

more

Comments

Rpbert Hall 7 years ago
What Building Guide Specification does FEMA utilize for selection of plumbing materials for use in FEMA Trainers being manufactured for flood victim housing?

Leave a comment

Founded: 2003
Annual Budget: $272.8 million (FY2009)
Employees: 386
Official Website: http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/gc_1185203138955.shtm
Office of Infrastructure Protection
Durkovich, Caitlin
Director

Caitlin Durkovich was appointed director of the Office of Infrastructure Protection in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in May 2012.

 

Durkovich is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her father was an attorney. She was a volleyball player at St. Pius X High School there and went on to major in public policy studies at Duke University. She earned her B.A. at Duke’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy in 1994 and interned at a local television station.

 

Durkovich also interned for the Democratic Leadership Council and went to work for the organization full time after graduation. The council developed many of the Clinton administration policy initiatives and Durkovich worked on its early digital efforts. Other early jobs included working for A2S2 Digital Projects and internet startup Policy.com. In 1998, Durkovich was named vice president for business development for information security firm iDefense, now Verisign. Beginning in 2001, she spent a year as director for business development for Internet Security Alliance.

 

Durkovich moved to Booz Allen Hamilton in 2002 as an associate who worked on such projects as a pandemic influenza continuity of operations plan for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and security for the Internal Revenue Service. In 2006, she moved over to DHS contractor Abrams Learning and Information Systems as director of emergency management.

In 2011, Durkovich went to work directly for DHS as chief of staff in the National Protection and Programs Directorate, a job she held until taking over at the Office of Infrastructure Protection.

 

As director, Durkovich is in charge of tasks such as teaching schoolchildren how to survive during a mass shooting and stopping ISIS attempts to hack the U.S. power grid. She also testified to Congress on the 2013 mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, in which 12 people were killed.

 

Durkovich is married to Simon Rosenberg, who is founder of the progressive think tank NDN. In 2005, Rosenberg made a run at the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, which eventually went to Howard Dean. They have three children.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Caitlin Durkovich PPS ’94 Safeguards America’s Infrastructure (by Adam Beyer, Duke-Sanford School of Public Policy)

Official Biography

more
Keil, Todd
Previous Assistant Secretary

 

Todd M. Keil was appointed Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security in December 2009. He oversees 18 sectors that are devoted to the safety of U.S. assets deemed critical to the nation’s way of life, from food and manufacturing to public health and the economy.
 
Keil grew up in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and attended the Wayland Academy college prep school. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Wisconsin’s Ripon College, and undertook additional studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Bonn in Germany.
 
He served as Regional Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, responsible for managing threat risks from terrorists and criminals at 56 U.S. western-hemisphere consulates and embassies.
 
Keil served as liaison to a network of global law enforcement agencies and as security advisor to U.S. ambassadors while carrying out Foreign Service duties in Austria, Indonesia and Ireland. Between 1994 and 2000, he oversaw personal security operations for U.S. Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madelaine Albright.
 
In 2007, Keil joined the private sector, taking a job at Texas Instruments, where he was in charge of global threat analysis and served as the company’s liaison at U.S. embassies. After two years, he moved on to the Welsh-Sullivan Group LLC, a Texas-based security firm specializing in the aviation industry.
 
In 2008, Keil donated $1,250 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and $250 to the Democratic National Committee.
 
more

Table of Contents
Bookmark and Share
Overview:

The Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) is the arm of the Department of Homeland Security charged with helping secure key buildings and other structures across the United States from terrorist attack. OIP is not directly responsible for guarding private and public infrastructure but rather is tasked with identifying important locations and assessing their vulnerability to attack or other dangers, such as natural disasters. The office catalogs buildings, dams, manufacturing plants, waterways, roads and other critical infrastructures/key resources. This effort was widely criticized in 2006 when it was revealed OIP’s database was filled with non-critical sites, such as zoos and parades.

 
more
History:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government began to examine potential threats to American infrastructure as a result of earlier incidents of foreign and domestic terrorism. The 1990s saw the first assault on the World Trade Center (1993), the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City (1995) and increasing concerns over computer hacking and issues of cyber-security. In response to these worries, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13010 in 1996 which identified the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors: telecommunications, transportation, electric power, banking and finance, gas and oil storage and delivery, water supply, emergency services and government operations.
 
The Executive Order also established the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP), whose objective was to recommend a comprehensive national infrastructure protection policy and implementation strategy. In October 1997, the PCCIP recommended that the federal government develop collaborative relationships with the owners and operators of critical infrastructures, much of which belonged to the private sector. The PCCIP report prompted President Clinton to issue Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 63 in May 1998, which called for new measures to protect critical infrastructures - both physical facilities and cyber-based systems - deemed essential to the economy and the government. Among the new measures were the creation of two new government agencies: the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) in the Department of Commerce and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) in the Department of Justice.
 
CIAO was initially designed to have a life span of three years to study the federal government’s vulnerability with regard to critical infrastructures, such as buildings, roadways and other facilities. CIAO continued past three years, and following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the office gained new impetus when President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13231, which established the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board (CIPB), on which sat the director of CIAO as a member of both the board and its coordination committee.
 
Meanwhile, DOJ’s National Infrastructure Protection Center was charged with defending the nation’s public and private computer systems from cyber attacks. NIPC’s mission was to respond to illegal acts involving computer and information technologies. NIPC’s tenure was marked by trouble, as a number of high-profile viruses invaded computer networks across the country. In May 1999, the FBI’s and Senate’s web sites were hacked into by perpetrators who left behind messages directly challenging the FBI.
 
Then in 2000, critics inside and outside the government blasted the agency for its alleged unwillingness to work with other organizations and share information about particular investigations. In addition, NIPC was attacked for its failure to issue prompt warnings to prevent the spreading of the crippling “I Love You” virus in May 2000.
 
Following 9/11, the Bush administration decided to consolidate 22 federal offices and agencies into a new cabinet-level department charged with protecting the US from terrorism. As part of the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), both the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office and the National Infrastructure Protection Center were merged into the new Directorate for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP) within DHS. IAIP lost a good deal of the computer experts who worked for the NIPC, as many agents found other jobs within the FBI to avoid the move to DHS.
 
Homeland Security’s IAIP didn’t last long. Soon after the directorate was created, DHS officials decided the tasks of intelligence analysis and infrastructure required separate offices. Thus, that year the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) was created. OIP was charged with leading and coordinating the overall national critical infrastructure protection effort. All important infrastructure was categorized to better manage the protection of each sector. A total of 17 sectors were defined: Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Dams, Emergency Services, Energy, Banking and Finance Agriculture and Food, Government Facilities, Nuclear, Public Health and Healthcare, National Monuments and Icons, Information Technology, Materials and Waste, Postal & Shipping, Telecommunications, Defense Industrial Base, Drinking Water and Water Treatment Facilities, and Transportation (including Aviation, Maritime, Railroad, Mass Transit, Highway). DHS then decided that multiple federal agencies would be assigned the task of overseeing one or more of these 17 sectors. These assignments became known as Sector Specific Agencies.
 

 

more
What it Does:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) helps to secure key buildings and other structures across the United States from terrorist attack. OIP is not directly responsible for guarding private and public infrastructure, but rather is tasked with identifying important locations and assessing their vulnerability to attack or other dangers, such as natural disasters. The office catalogs buildings, dams, manufacturing plants, waterways, roads and other critical infrastructures/key resources, or CI/KR. OIP works with federal, state, local and tribal government officials to help public safety agencies protect identified CI/KR and respond appropriately in the event of a crisis. Through its vulnerability assessment process, OIP communicates with the owners/operators of infrastructures and resources to maintain an effective system of safety governance and information sharing.
 
One of OIP’s most important tasks is the formulation of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, which sets national priorities, goals and requirements for securing private and public infrastructure from terrorist attacks or other disasters. The office carries out its duties through five divisions:
 
Chemical Security Compliance Division (CSCD) implements the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS). It develops and implements a program that assesses high-risk chemical plants, promotes collaborative security planning and ensures chemical plants meet risk-based performance standards.
 
Infrastructure Information Collection Division (IICD) is responsible for collecting infrastructure data and making it available to various public and private sector partners that work with DHS.
 
Infrastructure Analysis and Strategy Division (IASD) includes special analytical teams that perform modeling, simulation and analysis of CI/KR which helps DHS prepare its National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP).
 
Protective Security Coordination Division (PSCD) assesses vulnerabilities and consequences in the event CI/KR come under attack. It also provides national coordination for protection of infrastructures as well as recovery operations in an “all-hazards environment.”
 
Contingency Planning and Incident Management Division (CPIMD) coordinates and implements OIP’s preparedness activities, such as exercises, contingency planning and incident management.
 
Partnership and Outreach Division (POD) develops strategic relationships and information sharing systems with owners and operators of CI/KR. Additionally, POD provides coordination and management of the NIPP process and its supporting Site Specific Plans (SSPs), as well as the National Annual CI/KR Report, which tracks progress of NIPP and SSP implementation, including performance metrics.
 
Sector Specific Agency - OIP serves as the Site Specific Agency (SSA) in charge of overseeing five of the nation’s 17 CI/KR sectors. The office’s SSA is responsible for providing guidance and coordinating the implementation of the NIPP framework for these five sectors, as well as ensuring that CI/KR protection activities are fully integrated across all 17 sectors. The five sectors that OIP watches over are:
 
Chemical Branch is responsible for preparedness and infrastructure protection for all critical commercial chemical facilities against a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Several hundred thousand facilities in the US use, manufacture, store, transport or deliver chemicals, encompassing everything from petroleum refineries to pharmaceutical manufacturers to hardware stores.
 
Commercial Facilities Branch oversees protection for hotels, office buildings, convention centers, stadiums, theme parks, apartment buildings and shopping centers, among others.
 
Dams Branch is responsible for assets, systems, networks and functions related to dam projects, navigation locks, levees, hurricane barriers, mine tailings impoundments, or other similar water retention and/or control facilities. Dam projects alone include multiple facilities such as water impoundment or control structures, reservoirs, spillways, outlet works, powerhouses and canals or aqueducts.
 
Emergency Services Branch works with various government agencies that prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks and manmade and natural disasters.
 
Nuclear Branch prepares and protects assets including nuclear power plants, research and test reactors, nuclear fuel cycle facilities, radioactive waste management facilities, nuclear material transport systems, deactivated nuclear facilities, radioactive material users and radioactive source production and distribution facilities.

 

more
Where Does the Money Go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the Sector Specific Agency for five of the 17 CI/KR sectors, OIP plays a key role in the survival of several critical industries in the US. Overseeing chemical plants brings OIP in touch with key industrial players like DuPont, Dow Chemical, Eastman Kodak and Shell Oil.
 
The office’s Commercial Facilities Branch division deals with a wide variance of stakeholders, from The Walt Disney Corporation (theme parks) to the New York Yankees (stadium) to the City of Los Angeles (Staples Center).
 
OIP also oversees protection assessments for the nation’s dams, taking the office from Nevada (Hoover Dam) to Washington (Grand Coulee) to Arizona (Glen Canyon dam).
 
The Nuclear Branch division requires OIP officials to work with key leaders in the nuclear power industry, including Ohio Edison, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Duke Power, Exelon Corporation, Constellation Generation, Pacific Gas & Electric, Georgia Power Company, Southern California Edison and the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s lobby in Washington, DC. There are also federal agencies in charge of nuclear waste disposal, including the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management in the Department of Energy, which oversees the Yucca Mountain repository.
 
IOP also engages private contractors to help the office carry out its mission. Energetics Inc., a consulting firm and subsidiary of VSE Corp., has received three contracts totaling $21.8 million. One contract is for five years and worth $11.8 million to conduct research and analysis, develop requirements and provide implementation strategies for the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. It is also developing studies that support public-private partnerships and information sharing.
 
Energetics also won two subcontracts to support OIP as a member of a team led by Fairfax-based SRA International Inc. Under one subcontract, Energetics is providing program and technical support to the Sector Specific Agency Executive Management Office. The other subcontract has Energetics providing analytical, statistical and metrics support for the NIPP Program Management Office. Both subcontracts have a five-year span if all options are exercised and a combined potential value of $10 million.
 
IOP has worked with ICF International since 2004 to help with the production of the NIPP. The latest contract was valued at $22.1 million over five years. ICF International is a consulting company that works in the energy, environment, transportation, social programs, defense and homeland security markets.
 
Energetics to help DHS with infrastructure protection (by William Welsh, Washington Technology)
 
more
Controversies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IOP Ridiculed Over Database
In 2006 the Office of Infrastructure Protection found itself the focus of news reports and the butt of late-night jokes over the status of its database housing key infrastructure locations. A report (PDF) by the DHS Inspector General blasted IOP for the way it had compiled information that went into the database.
 
The IG’s report noted that flawed data-gathering methods had led state officials to submit irrelevant and even comical assets for inclusion in the critical asset inventory. The flaws in the database led officials to question the completion of the NIPP, which relies on information from the computer system.
 
The IG report specified multiple flaws that arose in the process of building the database, such as missing ZIP codes, missing facility names and language translation problems. The IG analysts predicted that the database could eventually grow to hundreds of thousands of records.
 
But the most embarrassing revelations were the examples cited by the IG of non-critical targets that wound up in the database. Among the 77,069 assets listed were:
  • The Amish Country Popcorn farm of Berne, Indiana
  • The Kentucky Bourbon Festival
  • The Groundhog Zoo in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania
  • High Stakes Bingo
  • Kangaroo Conservation Center of Dawsonville, Georgia
  • Columbia, Tennessee’s Mule Day Parade
  • Nix’s Check Cashing of Southern California
  • The Krispy Kreme Doughnuts drive-through in Clive, Iowa
 
DHS officials countered in their defense that the database project had suffered from a lack of funds and personnel. Furthermore, IOP’s top man, Robert Stephan, told reporters that the inspector general “ignored” the facts and came to conclusions that were “fundamentally false.”
 
“This is just a ridiculous thing that happened,” he said.
 
Senate Democrats were highly critical of IOP. US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called IOP’s work “a case of gross mismanagement.”
DHS asset database can't support vaunted infrastructure protection plan (by Wilson P. Dizard III, Government Computer News)

 

more

Comments

Rpbert Hall 7 years ago
What Building Guide Specification does FEMA utilize for selection of plumbing materials for use in FEMA Trainers being manufactured for flood victim housing?

Leave a comment

Founded: 2003
Annual Budget: $272.8 million (FY2009)
Employees: 386
Official Website: http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/gc_1185203138955.shtm
Office of Infrastructure Protection
Durkovich, Caitlin
Director

Caitlin Durkovich was appointed director of the Office of Infrastructure Protection in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in May 2012.

 

Durkovich is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her father was an attorney. She was a volleyball player at St. Pius X High School there and went on to major in public policy studies at Duke University. She earned her B.A. at Duke’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy in 1994 and interned at a local television station.

 

Durkovich also interned for the Democratic Leadership Council and went to work for the organization full time after graduation. The council developed many of the Clinton administration policy initiatives and Durkovich worked on its early digital efforts. Other early jobs included working for A2S2 Digital Projects and internet startup Policy.com. In 1998, Durkovich was named vice president for business development for information security firm iDefense, now Verisign. Beginning in 2001, she spent a year as director for business development for Internet Security Alliance.

 

Durkovich moved to Booz Allen Hamilton in 2002 as an associate who worked on such projects as a pandemic influenza continuity of operations plan for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and security for the Internal Revenue Service. In 2006, she moved over to DHS contractor Abrams Learning and Information Systems as director of emergency management.

In 2011, Durkovich went to work directly for DHS as chief of staff in the National Protection and Programs Directorate, a job she held until taking over at the Office of Infrastructure Protection.

 

As director, Durkovich is in charge of tasks such as teaching schoolchildren how to survive during a mass shooting and stopping ISIS attempts to hack the U.S. power grid. She also testified to Congress on the 2013 mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, in which 12 people were killed.

 

Durkovich is married to Simon Rosenberg, who is founder of the progressive think tank NDN. In 2005, Rosenberg made a run at the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, which eventually went to Howard Dean. They have three children.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Caitlin Durkovich PPS ’94 Safeguards America’s Infrastructure (by Adam Beyer, Duke-Sanford School of Public Policy)

Official Biography

more
Keil, Todd
Previous Assistant Secretary

 

Todd M. Keil was appointed Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security in December 2009. He oversees 18 sectors that are devoted to the safety of U.S. assets deemed critical to the nation’s way of life, from food and manufacturing to public health and the economy.
 
Keil grew up in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and attended the Wayland Academy college prep school. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Wisconsin’s Ripon College, and undertook additional studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Bonn in Germany.
 
He served as Regional Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, responsible for managing threat risks from terrorists and criminals at 56 U.S. western-hemisphere consulates and embassies.
 
Keil served as liaison to a network of global law enforcement agencies and as security advisor to U.S. ambassadors while carrying out Foreign Service duties in Austria, Indonesia and Ireland. Between 1994 and 2000, he oversaw personal security operations for U.S. Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madelaine Albright.
 
In 2007, Keil joined the private sector, taking a job at Texas Instruments, where he was in charge of global threat analysis and served as the company’s liaison at U.S. embassies. After two years, he moved on to the Welsh-Sullivan Group LLC, a Texas-based security firm specializing in the aviation industry.
 
In 2008, Keil donated $1,250 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and $250 to the Democratic National Committee.
 
more

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