Unit 3 – Individual Project

Unit: Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource Asset Protection Strategies

Deliverable Length: 2-3 pages

Assignment Description

You are an Action Officer (AO) assigned to the county Homeland Security Office. The director has requested that you conduct a risk analysis of the county administrative building and courthouse. She is concerned that the existing analysis is outdated, did not conform to the current U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) risk analysis methodology, and did not employ the National Scenarios. The director has informed you of her intention to present your report to the county commission to seek additional funding to expand the Risk Analysis effort to other Critical Infrastructure (CI) facilities within the county and to broaden the county’s CI planning, response, and recovery capabilities.

• Using the DHS risk management framework depicted in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and the key points concerning critical infrastructure protection (CIP) learned thus far, create a simple matrix to facilitate a risk analysis and assessment of your county courthouse or another local government building in your municipality. This is only a notional analysis or assessment to familiarize you with the various factors potentially impacting a real and comprehensive CI risk analysis.
  • Note: Use your imagination. Focus on the process instead of the missing data.
• Using the matrix that is located in the additional Phase Resources and your analysis, conduct a notional risk analysis of your county courthouse or another government building in your locale.
  • Address the risk factors using the situations depicted by the 15 National Planning Scenarios.
  • If you feel there are other more likely scenarios that need mentioning, do so.
• This is a formal report. The professionalism, detailed descriptions, and completeness of the report are essential to the director in gaining additional funding. APA STYLE OF WRITING ONLY.

Executive Summary

Briefly summarize the purpose, background, analysis methodology, task requirements, key findings and recommendations.

Executive Summary is the preferred methodology in business and government. You may use Abstract, but if that choice is made; you shall include a Key Word Summary.

An executive summary or abstract is required if the body content is four (4) or more pages in length.

Key Word Summary: Note: if this is an abstract include a key word summary here. If this is an executive summary do NOT include the Key Word Summary. The Key Word Summary contains those words which are key or central to the topic of the paper.

NOTE: do NOT write in the first person (I, me, my) or the second person (they, them, their, he, she, etc.) Not appropriate to do so. Avoid passive voice (will), use positive voice (shall). Write in the past tense not future tense.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary. i

Purpose. 3

Background. 3

Risk Analysis: County Courthouse (or Administration Building) 3

Choice of National Planning Scenario. 3

Application of Risk and Analysis. 3

Risk Analysis Matrix. 4

Summary and Recommendations 7

Summary. 7

Recommendations 7

Works Cited. 8

References. 9

Abbreviations and Acronyms. 10

A Table Of Contents is required if the body text content exceeds 10 pages. Update the TOC as your last step in proofreading this document. Look for and correct formatting errors.

Purpose

Define the purpose of the paper for the reader. Refer to the task scenario for this. A paragraph consists of at least four (4) complete sentences. Be sure to identify your city and or county and the state in your first sentence. This requires at least four complete sentences.

Background

The background information that you developed in the Units 1 and 2 Individual Projects should be utilized for this deliverable. Be sure to address and add information on the fifteen (15) National Planning Scenarios (NOTE: The Planning Scenario document should be cited here and listed in the works cited and References list).

Risk Analysis: (use the city and or county and the state here) County Courthouse (or Administration Building)

Briefly discuss the Critical Infrastructure asset being addressed (i.e. the County Courthouse or Administration Building). Describe the building for the reader: age, size, construction, offices, number of people, security, etc.

Choice of National Planning Scenario

Describe for the reader why this scenario was chosen as the initial risk assessment scenario for a risk assessment. Use the table from the Live Chat 3 Power Point for the chosen scenario after the textual description to illustrate the scenario.

Application of Risk and Analysis

Explain the FEMA Risk Matrix and define why the analysis of each element in columns 5 – 11 have been marked as either Low (L), Medium (M), or High (H). This is the crux of the assignment and why you are conducting the risk analysis and assessment. This leads to next page (be careful not to delete the Section Break below) which is the actual Risk Matrix. Pick one asset (the County Court House or Administrative Building) and one Planning Scenario. You may delete the remaining rows. Answer the Why question, the matrix is your painting of the analysis. A picture is worth 1000 words. NOTE: delete any scenario (s) that you do NOT use by entering into the matrix and deleting rows.

Risk Analysis Matrix

Summary and Recommendations

Briefly summarize the key points that have been developed within the paper. (Public, 2010). Add recommendations in this section as a subparagraph if required by the tasking. Do so by adding a sub-paragraph level (meaning heading 2 under styles). This requires at least four complete sentences.

Note: a heading level entry must be followed by at least two (2) full lines of text. If this is not possible prior to an automatic page break, then force a page break by using the Insert page break command.

Summary.

Summarize key points and findings of the analysis. A very key point in writing: in qualitative analysis papers, such as in this course, only summaries can be provided. As this is NOT a quantitative analysis DO NOT use the term Conclusions as a paragraph heading.

Recommendations.

Be specific in your recommendations. Include courses of action (COA), steps, procedures to be taken, etc. Refer to the scenario. This should be actions that are achievable by the target audience (i.e. the City Council or the County Commissioners. Think about the strategic goal of your boss (the Chief of Police/Sherriff) and what she wants to actually accomplish with critical infrastructure protection.

Works Cited

Craig, C. (2013). Writing Tips. Tmbuktoo, : DoWap Publishers.

Public, J. (2010). How to Write a Report. Department of Homeland Security, US Government. Washington, D. C.: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved February 28, 2013, from www.dhs.gov

Note: the above table has been created using the tools in Word to create the in text citation and then the bibliography, refer to Word Help to Create In text Citations and Bibliographies. You may delete the examples in one of two ways. The first is to remove the citation that is within the text. Highlight and delete. The second is after you have created your bibliography, click on the table, once in the table, then highlight and delete the examples above.

All of your previous works cited should be listed again. NOTE: remove the examples given in the above.

References

Note: in professional documents, References are all publications that have direct impact on the paper’s topic. References are listed in order of precedence and by date. Examples below. Think about the type of document you are producing for the course that you are in and what is expected for that specific task (meaning read the task requirements carefully). Tip: if a reference was emailed to you, then you need to list it here.

USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, 18 USC

Homeland Security Act of 2004

Presidential Policy Directive 21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience

Presidential Homeland Security Directive 7, Critical Infrastructure

Executive Order 13636, Critical Infrastructure and Resilience

Homeland Security Strategy, 2007

National Infrastructure Protection Plan, 2014

National Response Framework, 2014

Code of Federal Regulations 41 (41 CFR), Critical Infrastructure

Etc.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

APA – American Psychological Association

FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation

FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency

Radar – Radio Detection and Ranging

TOC – Table of Contents

Note that the listing is in alphabetical order of the abbreviation or acronym. Not all abbreviations are acronyms. Radar is an acronym that has become an actual word. RADAR stands for Radio Detection and Ranging. The general rule of thumb is more than four (4) abbreviations or acronyms a definitions page becomes a requirement.