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More about the Office of Infrastructure Protection

Mission

The mission of the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) is based on the requirements of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004,  Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-7, “Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection,” Section 550 of the Fiscal Year 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, HSPD-19, “Combating Terrorist Use of Explosives in the United States,” and additional Executive Orders, HSPDs and National Security Presidential Directives. 

The Office of Infrastructure Protection leads the coordinated national effort to reduce risk to our critical infrastructures and key resources (CIKR) posed by acts of terrorism and enables national preparedness, timely response, and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster, or other emergency.

OIP functions include:

  1. Leading a robust organizational framework to facilitate the identification, prioritization, coordination, and protection of critical infrastructures/key resources (CI/KR) in support of federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and the private sector, and facilitate information regarding threats, vulnerabilities, incidents, potential protective measures, and best practices that enhance protection, response, mitigation, and restoration activities;
  2. Developing, maintaining, and implementing the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and mechanisms for enhancing CIKR-related protective and response capabilities under the National Response Framework (NRF) in order to provide operational support to government and private entities in response to significant threats and incidents;
  3. Facilitating/conducting vulnerability assessments across all seventeen CIKR sectors in the United States and communicating standards to the infrastructure owners/operators and key stakeholders;
  4. Ensuring the maintenance of a CIKR sector governance and information-sharing framework to facilitate coordination and collaboration for infrastructure protection, and serving as the designated Sector Specific Agency for five sectors:  Dams, Emergency Services, Nuclear, Chemical and Commercial Facilities;
  5. Collecting data and analyzing risk to CIKR and providing government and private sector stakeholders with a means to prioritize resource allocation and assistance, and assisting stakeholders in developing protection strategies, programs, training, and best practices activities that reduce vulnerability and coordinate the protection of CIKR;
  6. Establishing and maintaining international programs and relationships that promote a global culture for the protection of CIKR and;
  7. Improving security by regulating the nation’s high risk chemical facilities.

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Divisions

Chemical Security Compliance Division (CSCD).  CSCD leads the implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), balancing regulatory authority with the need to secure the nation’s highest risk chemical facilities while sustaining the economic vitality of the chemical sector. It develops and implements a program that aggressively assesses high-risk chemical facilities, promotes collaborative security planning, and ensures that covered facilities meet risk-based performance standards.

Infrastructure Information Collection Division (IICD).  IICD leads the Department’s efforts to acquire and provide standardized, relevant, and customer focused infrastructure data to various public and private sector homeland security partners.

Infrastructure Analysis and Strategy Division (IASD).  IASD leads the nation's premiere analytical teams in the conduct of critical infrastructure and key sources (CIKR)-related modeling, simulation, and analysis in close collaboration with the Department and National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) partners.

Protective Security Coordination Division (PSCD). PSCD reduces the risk of the nation’s critical infrastructures and key resources of a terrorist attack by assessing vulnerabilities and consequences, and developing, implementing and providing national coordination for protective programs and facilitating CIKR response and recovery operations in an all-hazards environment.

Contingency Planning and Incident Management Division (CPIMD).  CPIMD coordinates and implements the Office of Infrastructure Protection's critical infrastructures and key resources preparedness activities in the areas of exercises, contingency planning, concepts of operations development, and incident management in a manner that is consistent with and supportive of the NIPP and the National Response Framework (NRF), as well as established Department and federal interagency incident management coordination structures.

Partnership and Outreach Division (POD).  POD develops and sustains viable strategic relationships and information sharing systems and processes with the owners and operators of the nation's critical infrastructures and key resources that support program execution across the spectrum of preparedness, prevention, protection, response, and recovery activities. Additionally, POD provides coordination and management of the NIPP process and its supporting Site Specific Plans (SSPs), as well as the National Annual CIKR Report, which tracks progress of NIPP and SSP implementation, including performance metrics.

Sector Specific Agency Mission.  In addition to these missions, OIP serves as the Site Specific Agency (SSA) for five of the 17 CIKR Sectors — Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Dams, Emergency Services, and Nuclear. OIP is responsible for providing guidance to and coordinating the implementation of the NIPP framework for these five sectors, as well as ensuring that CIKR protection activities are fully integrated across all 17 sectors.

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Goals

Goal 1:  Understand and share risk and other information about terrorist threats and other hazards to our nation’s critical infrastructures and key resources (CIKR).

Goal 2:  Build and sustain effective CIKR partnerships and coordination mechanisms.

Goal 3:  Build and implement a sustainable, national CIKR risk-management program.

Goal 4:  Ensure efficient use of resources for CIKR risk management.

Goal 5:  Provide a foundation for continuously improving national CIKR preparedness.

Read more about the Office of Infrastructure Protection's goals

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This page was last reviewed/modified on May 28, 2008.