Chapter 12: Moving into the Future

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Overview

The future of homeland security initiatives remains uncertain. As presidents come and go and the perspectives of the U.S. Congress sway back and forth, so will the approach to homeland security. It is doubtful that terrorism will cease. It has yet to be seen how active terrorists will become in the United States and how often they will strike. If historic patterns hold true, then a major incident can be expected every three to five years.

This chapter examines what law-enforcement agencies have been asked to do by the Joint Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Congress, as well as some of the successes that the government has had in the fight against terrorism. This will help provide insight into the direction that the U.S. government will be taking in dealing with terrorism.

In addition, a road map for implementing homeland security initiatives for enterprise IT is provided. The projects and tasks from the action checklists in each chapter are broken out into three groups. The first concerns what needs to be accomplished at the enterprise level, the second what needs to be accomplished in the IT department, and the third, those things that specifically need to be accomplished by the IT and network security units.

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