The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management.
The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the United States. The position was created by the Homeland Security Act following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) is a division of the Office of Cyber Security & Communications, within the United States Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Formed from the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, the National Infrastructure Protection Center, the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, and the National Communications System, NCSD opened on June 6, 2003. The NCSD mission is to collaborate with the private sector, government, military, and intelligence stakeholders to conduct risk assessments and mitigate vulnerabilities and threats to information technology assets and activities affecting the operation of the civilian government and private sector critical cyber infrastructures. NCSD also provides cyber threat and vulnerability analysis, early warning, and incident response assistance for public and private sector constituents. NCSD carries out the majority of DHS’ responsibilities under the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. The FY 2011 budget request for NCSD is $378.744 million and includes 342 federal positions. The current director of the NCSD is John Streufert, former chief information security officer (CISO) for the United States Department of State, who assumed the position in January 2012.
The Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002, was introduced in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and subsequent mailings of anthrax spores. The HSA was cosponsored by 118 members of Congress. The act passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 90–9, with one Senator not voting. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush in November 2002.
ADVISE is a research and development program within the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Threat and Vulnerability Testing and Assessment (TVTA) portfolio. It is reportedly developing a massive data mining system, which would collect and analyze data on everyone in the United States and perform a "threat analysis" on them. The data can be anything from financial records, phone records, emails, blog entries, website searches, to any other electronic information that can be put into a computer system. This information is then analyzed, and used to monitor social threats such as community-forming, terrorism, political organizing, or crime.
The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) is a government biodefense research laboratory created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and located at the sprawling biodefense campus at Fort Detrick in Frederick, MD, USA. The NBACC is the principal U.S. biodefense research institution engaged in laboratory-based threat assessment and bioforensics. NBACC is an important part of the National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC) also located at Fort Detrick for the US Army, National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Agriculture.
The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) is a biosafety level 4 research laboratory in Manhattan, Kansas, operated by the United States Department of Agriculture. The facility opened in June 2023. The facility is designed to combat biological threats involving human, zoonotic, and foreign animal diseases. The NBAF replaced the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) on Plum Island, New York. The primary research tenants of the facility are the Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) and Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services (USDA-APHIS-VS). Construction on the 574,000-square-foot (53,300 m2) facility officially began in May 2015, and was scheduled to be completed by May 2021. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, however, has delayed scheduled commissioning to October 2021, followed by further delays to Spring, and finally summer 2023. Operations will be fully transferred from the Plum Island facility by 2023. The facility employs between 250 and 350 people. The facility is a constituent member of the Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Laboratory Network, and is currently led by Alfonso Clavijo.
Paul Allan Schneider is a former United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. He had previously served as the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Management. He was responsible for all the department's budget, appropriations, expenditure of funds, accounting and finance; procurement; human resources and personnel; information technology systems; facilities, property, equipment, and other material resources; and identification and tracking of performance measurements.
The Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Under Secretary, as head of the Science and Technology Directorate at DHS, is the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for all DHS technological research.
Virtual USA (vUSA), is a joint federal and state collaboration on a project that would allow state and local on-line tools and technologies, such as caches of geospatial data, to be interoperable and more useful with the goal of creating a "Virtual USA" for emergency response purposes. The initiative was developed by the DHS Directorate for Science and Technology (S&T), and currently operates as a pilot in eight states — Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Tennessee — with plans to incorporate additional states.
Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) is a five-year, $10 million program by the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate to promote the creation and use of open security and open-source software in the United States government and military, especially in areas pertaining to computer security.
National Urban Security Technology Laboratory is a United States government-owned, government-operated laboratory, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate. It is located in the Federal Office Building at 201 Varick Street in the Hudson Square neighborhood, Manhattan, New York.
Penrose "Parney" C. Albright is an American physicist known for his work with the U.S. Government, think tanks and National Laboratories, and government contractors. Since November 1, 2014, he has been the president and CEO of HRL Laboratories, a research firm jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors. Until December 2013 he served as the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and, in 2014, he served as a senior advisor in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The Cyber Security Division (CSD) is a division of the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T Directorate) of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Within the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, CSD develops technologies to enhance the security and resilience of the United States' critical information infrastructure from acts of terrorism. S&T supports DHS component operational and critical infrastructure protections, including the finance, energy, and public utility sectors, as well as the first responder community.
The Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act of 2013 is a bill that would require the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to transmit to the Congress a strategic plan for research and development efforts addressing the protection of critical infrastructure and a report on departmental use of public-private consortiums to develop technology to protect such infrastructure. The bill also would direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO), within two years of enactment, to evaluate the effectiveness of clearinghouses established by DHS to share technological innovation.
The National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2013 is a bill that would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct cybersecurity activities on behalf of the federal government and would codify the role of DHS in preventing and responding to cybersecurity incidents involving the Information Technology (IT) systems of federal civilian agencies and critical infrastructure in the United States.
The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Authorization and Accountability Act of 2014 is a bill that proposed making permanent the United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) authority to regulate security at certain chemical facilities in the United States. Under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, DHS collects and reviews information from chemical facilities in the United States to determine which facilities present security risks and then requires them to write and enact security plans.
The Social Media Working Group Act of 2014 is a bill that would direct the United States Secretary of Homeland Security to establish within the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a social media working group to provide guidance and best practices to the emergency preparedness and response community on the use of social media technologies before, during, and after a terrorist attack.
Rafael Borras was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Under Secretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He joined the Department in April 2010.
Phyllis Schneck is an American executive and cybersecurity professional. As of May 2017, she became the managing director at Promontory Financial Group. Schneck served in the Obama administration as Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), at the Department of Homeland Security.
