Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Infragard Long Island March 26, 2009 Meeting



Wow, what a great event we had yesterday at the Suffolk Police Department Police Academy. We had a great time discussing our upcoming events and trying to re-energize the public-private partnership on Long Island. Mark White, Deputy Chief of the Suffolk County Police Department and his team discussed and showed our members the capabilities they have for dealing with unknown substances (read: white powders, chemicals, etc) and how quickly they can determine whether or not they are safe. Also, they showcased the "B.E.A.R" anti-terrorism armored truck. The members had a blast touring this vehicle and we were in awe of all the capabilities that it has to protect our nation's defenders. Many people are unaware that the important tasks of keeping their communities and critical infrastructure protected requires their constant participation. In our day-to-day grind we are always rushing from one place to another (work, school, home, etc.) and we fail to notice how things are changing around our environment, sometimes for better other times for worse. The Long Island Infragard chapter is trying to recruit members to further develop our grassroots movement and help protect our nation, by protecting our own backyard first.

What is Infragard? This is a question that I get asked all the time (did I mention I was not only client, I'm a member?), as summarized on our website (http://www.infragard-li.net/aboutus.htm):

InfraGard is an alliance of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other organizations, which are unified together to prevent hostile acts against the United States through information and intelligence sharing.

InfraGard is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) program that began in the Cleveland Field Office in 1996. It was a local effort to gain support from the information technology industry and academia for the FBI’s investigative efforts in the cyber arena. The program expanded to other FBI Field Offices, and in 1998 the FBI assigned national program responsibility for InfraGard to the former National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and to the Cyber Division in 2003. InfraGard and the FBI have developed a relationship of trust and credibility in the exchange of information concerning various terrorism, intelligence, criminal, and security matters.

The strength of Infragard’s Intelligence and Information sharing is from its Subject Matter Expert membership which represents a wide range of industries, professions and fields.

This organization is membership driven and we can only get out from this program as much as we put into it. If you are interested in learning more about our program please visit our website or contact me directly.

Stay safe!!!

Friday, March 13, 2009

New 2009 National Infrastructure Protection Plan: A Brief Overview

New 2009 National Infrastructure Protection Plan: A Brief Overview by Brendan Healy, Infragard Long Island

The Department of Homeland Security has issued the latest National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). This is the first major update since 2006. The Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources (CKIR) component of the plan still remain in-tact and most of the updates are to processes which have matured since ’06 printing.



Take some time and review the latest plan at :

http://www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/programs/editorial_0827.shtm


The Long Island Infragard is planning on offering a workshop tutorial around Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Spring of 2009.


The DHS also has some excellent training classes around the NIPP. Course IS-860 offers a good introduction to the plan and provides good baseline into Critical Infrastructure Protection. http://www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/IS/is860.asp