Shaping the next phase of homeland security
The nation’s continued safety and security is dependent upon the continued maturation and institutionalization of a homeland security enterprise comprised of partners at all levels of government and the private sector. It is by strengthening this homeland security enterprise and adopting a whole community approach that we can, as a nation, prevent, prepare, respond to and recover more quickly from large-scale disasters.
Booz Allen is leading the way in shaping this next phase of homeland security. Through our new vision for homeland security and law enforcement, we’re bringing stakeholders together to build the kind of leadership, vision, and knowledge needed to make a strong, resilient homeland a reality.
“To defeat today’s highly networked, transnational criminals U.S. law enforcement agencies must become a tightly knit, collaborative network that leverages their collective intelligence, analytic, and operational capabilities. ”
Booz Allen Executive Vice President Thad Allen speaks about resiliency and the challenges and opportunities DHS might face as it looks forward to the next 10 years of securing our nation.
The Challenge
As the nation reflects on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, we face a continued challenge in keeping the homeland safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) along with law enforcement agencies across the Federal Government struggle to clearly link the mission needs with capabilities, demonstrate measurable outcomes, maximize resources, and eliminate redundancies. The mission of protecting the homeland only increases in scale and intensity as the threat to the homeland continues to evolve, trade flowing across our borders continues to increase, cybersecurity threats continue to grow, and natural disasters continue to impact us.
Given the on-going challenges, the Federal Government must refresh and refine its approach to homeland security and law enforcement. Specifically, Booz Allen has identified five key challenge areas that the Federal Government will face in the next 10 years:
Resiliency: Strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to and develop from incidents by developing a scalable model across the federal, state, local, private sector, and international communities that serves as a holistic approach to understanding and rewarding resiliency (e.g., resiliency index)
Enterprise Insight: Address the challenges of the Department’s vast information holdings by leveraging enterprise data to enhance mission operations and business support functions through the establishment of a Chief Data Officer
Borders: Move beyond the ability to manage a physical border in order to establish and enhance capabilities that support the development of a “functional border” across multiple domains (e.g., air, land, maritime and cyber)
Counterterrorism: Address the evolving homeland security threat by enabling agile adaptation across the law enforcement and counterterrorism communities through collaborative networks and analytical tools for identifying, tracking, and dismantling of people, money, and travel
Cybersecurity: Key tipping points and new technologies will define the future of the Internet and cybersecurity. These changes will require a functional definition of cybersecurity focused on protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data from both a logical and physical perspective
A New Vision for Homeland Security and Law Enforcement
In the next 10 years, we as a nation must adopt a strong, future-facing strategy to transform an aggregated homeland security and law enforcement enterprise and drive the focus toward achieving national resiliency, establishing a networked approach to countering terrorism, defending our cyberspace through collaboration, and managing a functional border in the global commons.
