Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

PROTECTION AND PREVENTION: AN OVERVIEW

JOHN CUMMINGS

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico

1 BACKGROUND

Much of what we currently consider part of “homeland security” has its origins in the late 1990s—especially in the work leading to the publication of Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63) Protecting America's Critical Infrastructures [1]. This Presidential Directive built on the recommendations of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. In October 1997, the Commission issued its report calling for a national effort to assure the security of the United States' increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures, such as telecommunications, banking and finance, energy, transportation, and essential government services. PDD-63 assigned lead agencies for specific infrastructure sectors and functions. In addition, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was assigned the responsibility to coordinate research and development agendas and programs for the federal government through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

OSTP established the Critical Infrastructure Protection R&D Interagency Working Group (CIP R&D IWG) shortly after PDD-63 was issued as a subgroup to the NSTC Committee on National Security (CNS) and Committee on Technology (CT). In effect, the CIP R&D IWG was jointly placed under the CNS and the CT, and it reported to both. The CIP R&D IWG developed a database of existing federal government ...