Risk Assessment

Emerging Risks and Technologies

S&T’s ERT program is a partnership led by S&T and includes the DHS Office of Policy and DHS components who will develop and sustain a risk assessment methodology that identifies emerging risks, including emerging technologies, to homeland security missions in the next three to five years.

Feature Article: Software Suite Will Harden Defenses for Soft Targets

S&T is continuously working to equip those within DHS dedicated to securing soft targets with enhanced detection methods.

Digital Ecosystems for Student Security, Safety, and Well-Being

Co-hosted with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) School Safety Task Force and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET), the goal of this Digital Forum was to engage with the education sector, school safety stakeholders, civil society, and technology companies to amplify programs and platforms that help reduce risk factors to the radicalization to violence, ensure broad awareness of the threat of targeted violence and terrorism, and share innovative solutions for prevention.

Feature Article: Protecting Food from the Farm to Our Plates

S&T collaborates with DHS experts to ensure that the food we eat and our agricultural supply are safe.

Threat Assessment and Management Teams

The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) provides a resource that gives an overview of threat assessment and management teams. Through identifying and managing potential threats, these teams provide alternatives to investigation and/or prosecution for bystanders who are actively seeking intervention assistance with a known individual at risk of mobilizing to violence.

Travel Risk Assessment

The DHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans recently completed its evaluation and review of all currently travel restricted and 180-day warning countries.  Notably, this review included new recommendations to remove from travel restrictions certain countries that have demonstrated significant compliance improvement.

News Release: DHS Awards Small Businesses for Risk Assessment Tool

Two U.S. small businesses were awarded a total of $1.96 million in funding through the DHS SBIR Program to develop tools that will support dynamic network modeling for risk management to emergency communication networks.

S&T CRISTAL Fact Sheet

To help mitigate the interruption of lifeline supply chains, researchers at a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate Center of Excellence, the Food Protection and Defense Institute (FPDI), are developing new ways of identifying and understanding how and where supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions. As part of this work, research teams are also finding methods to document and assess the components of food supply chains – something that could also help meet goals of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

FPDI has developed an early prototype software tool for supply chain mapping, vulnerability assessments and analysis called Criticality Spatial Analysis (CRISTAL). Through CRISTAL, FPDI aims to develop a new capability to: (1) define and document food critical infrastructure, and (2) assess risk in the global food supply chain.

S&T START Fact Sheet

START advances science-based knowledge about the causes and consequences of terrorism, and the effectiveness and consequences of responses to terrorism.

S&T CREATE Fact Sheet

CREATE’s mission is to improve the Nation’s security through the development of advanced models and tools for the evaluation of the risks, costs, and consequences of terrorism and to guide economically viable investments in homeland security.