Identifying Critical Infrastructure

This assignment will introduce you to risk analysis and the purpose of the threat assessment process through a case study.  Begin by reviewing Chapter 6, Section 6.1 (chart) and Section 6.4 (risk formula), in Understanding, Assessing, and Responding to Terrorism.  Then, in https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/bja/210680.pdf, read the following sections: o “Identifying Critical Infrastructure: What to Protect” (which is located in the “Introduction” section) for background. o The case study “A Tale of One City” (which is located in the “Risk Management” section of the document), which will be used as the case study scenario mentioned below.

The risk formula for this course will be as follows: Risk = Threat x Vulnerability x Consequence (R = T x V x C)

These are the five steps in the risk management process you will use in this course and apply to this assignment:

 Asset Assessment—Identifying Critical Infrastructure

 Assess Threats—A systematic effort to identify and evaluate existing or potential threats to a jurisdiction and its targets.

 Assess Vulnerability—The identification of weaknesses in physical structures, personnel protection systems, processes, or other areas that may be exploited by terrorists.

 Assess Risk (Criticality and Consequence Analysis)—Criticality assessments help planners determine the relative importance of assets, helping to prioritize the allocation of resources and the most critical assets. An essential part of the risk equation is considering the consequence of the loss of or serious damage to important infrastructures, systems, and other assets.

 Determine Countermeasures—Countermeasures, such as expansion of staffing, installation of equipment and new technology, or target hardening, must be evaluated or tested periodically to ensure that improvements are working as intended (Assessing and Managing the Terrorism Threat, 2005).

Case Study: Using the details from the case study scenario “A Tale of One City”, you are the chief of police for a community of 75,000. The mayor has tasked you with conducting a risk assessment of critical infrastructure within your jurisdiction. You learn that the mayor has raised questions regarding your department’s recent risk assessment report.

Prompt: Draft a paper summarizing the information that you would present to the mayor. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed (use the case study for details):

 Explain to the mayor the five main steps to risk management that your team applied in the risk management process. Provide details about how these steps relate to the case study.

 Identify the key community partners that your team worked with.

 Identify the regional law enforcement partners that your team worked with.

 List the critical infrastructures that were identified within the jurisdiction in order of significance to the community, from least significant to most significant. Referring to the case study, explain why they were listed in that order.

 Use a scale of low, moderate, and high to identify any threat levels (T), vulnerability levels (V) or criticality levels (C) for key infrastructures in the scenario.

 What did the team identity as the major critical infrastructure risk for the community? Explain why they identified this particular risk.

 Explain the importance of objective assessment in this process.

Guidelines for Submission: Your paper should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. It should be at least 1 page in length. Remember to include a references page and cite any research in APA format