ABSTRACT
In the United States, many things happened after 9/11 regarding security. There was a new paradigm of Americans to the world and there was a public acceptance, if not demand, for increased security in the homeland. In the years following 9/11, the awareness of threats against our communities required us to be proactive in identifying threats. The USA Patriot Act of 2002 and the reorganization of government under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was an answer to that concern. Facility security, awareness programs, and intelligence gathering and sharing are common components of the effort to secure the homeland.*
Under the authority of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 (HSPD-7), 18 critical infrastructure sectors were established. These sectors are recognized as areas crucial for the security of the country, and each sector is managed by a SectorSpecific Agency (SSA) that provides sector-level performance feedback to the DHS. In accordance with the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), each SSA is responsible for developing and implementing a Sector-Specific Plan (SSP) (DHS, 2007a).
