CIP/EMR-ISAC Factsheet

(April 2007)

Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC)

What are Critical Infrastructures?

Critical infrastructures of the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) of the United States (i.e., emergency managers, police, fire, EMS, and 9-1-1) are the personnel, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems that must be intact and operational 24x7 in order to ensure survivability, continuity of operations, and mission success. In other words, they are the essential people, equipment, and systems to prevent or mitigate the catastrophic results of all man-made and natural disasters.

What is Critical Infrastructure Protection?

Generally, critical infrastructure protection (CIP) consists of the proactive activities to protect indispensable people, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems from all hazards. More formally, it is an analytical process to guide the systematic protection of critical infrastructures by the application of a reliable decision sequence that assists leaders to determine exactly what needs protection and when security measures must occur. As a time-efficient and resource-restrained practice, the process ensures the protection of only those infrastructures upon which survivability and mission success actually depend. The process involves the following steps: identifying the organization's critical infrastructures, determining the threats against those infrastructures, analyzing the vulnerabilities of threatened infrastructures, assessing the risks of degradation or loss of a critical infrastructure, and applying countermeasures where risk is unacceptable.

Who is Responsible for CIP?

Community leaders including those of emergency response organizations have the responsibility to determine which infrastructures must be protected from attacks by people, nature, or hazardous materials accidents.

What is the Mission of the EMR-ISAC?

Collect critical infrastructure protection and resilience information having potential relevance for Emergency Services Sector departments and agencies.
Analyze all collected information to ascertain the importance and applicability to Emergency Services Sector organizations.
Disseminate emergent and consequential infrastructure protection and resilience information to the leaders, owners, and operators of the emergency services.

What Assistance does the EMR-ISAC Provide?

The EMR-ISAC offers no-cost CIP consultation services to ESS leaders by a variety of convenient methods. To assist the implementation of CIP, the EMR-ISAC published a CIP Process Job Aid and Homeland Security Advisory System Guide. Additionally, the EMR-ISAC offers user-friendly CIP portals on the DisasterHelp.gov Web Site. By using Internet-based, non-secure portals, registered and subscribed users of DisasterHelp will receive the following:

INFOGRAMs. Contain four very short articles about the protection of the critical infrastructures of communities and their emergency responders issued weekly.
CIP Bulletins. Contain timely, consequential homeland security information affecting the CIP of emergency response agencies published as needed.

Furthermore, the EMR-ISAC disseminates Department of Homeland Security CIP Information For Official Use Only (FOUO) to ESS leaders through the secure portals of DisasterHelp.gov. These CIP (FOUO) Notices contain emergent, actionable information regarding threats and vulnerabilities to support effective advanced prevention, protection, and mitigation activities.

Police, fire, EMS, hazardous materials, 9-1-1, and emergency management personnel currently occupying leadership positions in their respective departments and agencies who subscribe to EMR-ISAC CIP information will additionally receive the CIP (FOUO) Notices after their online application has been reviewed and their identity properly validated.

CIP Subscription Information

https://disasterhelp.gov (See the right bar: click on EMR-ISAC Registration Information under Quick Links)
Registration assistance: 800-451-2647

EMR-ISAC Contact Information

Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center
National Emergency Training Center
16825 South Seton Avenue
Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727
Phone: (301) 447-1325
E-mail: emr-isac@dhs.gov
Web: www.usfa.dhs.gov/emr-isac