Chapter 4: Information Sharing for Protecting National Assets

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Overview

The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets states that in order to meet the challenges associated with the terrorist threat, public and private stakeholders must have the ability to work together seamlessly. The federal government, particularly the intelligence and law-enforcement communities, plays a significant role in providing, coordinating, and ensuring that threat information is understood across all levels of government.

In addition, it is recognized that state and local law enforcement, as well as private-sector security entities, are valuable sources of localized threat information. These organizations possess a better understanding of the vulnerabilities impacting their facilities, systems, and functions than the federal government. Development of accepted and efficient processes and systems for communication and exchange of crucial security-related information is critical to improving homeland security.

This chapter provides an overview of the information-sharing efforts implemented to improve homeland security. Areas covered include the following:

• The information-sharing mission

• Information-sharing mechanisms

• Deciding how to participate in information sharing

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