Hlsc 720-discussion 8-reply 1 | HLSC 720 – Critical Infrastructure: Vulnerability Analysis and Protection | Liberty University

The thread must be a minimum of 200-400 words. MINIMUM OF TWO SOURCES BESIDES THE TEXTBOOK. Must cite at least 2 sources in addition to the Bible.

TEXTBOOK: Bennett, B. T. (2018). Understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism: Protecting critical infrastructure and personnel (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9781119237785.

***KRISTIE***

The event is a chlorine bomb went off near a government facility where there were a large number of employees. Chlorine is an industrial chemical agent that can be purchased by the general public to take care of pools. However, it is often mixed with different chemicals. Big box stores have had problems improperly storing the chlorine near other chemicals which have resulted in fires. As soon as some employees went outside, they started choking so they quickly came back inside the building. The security personnel went to investigate and came back into the building also choking and have red watery eyes. Other security personnel which were not in that building have reported a cloud nearby. Security issues a lockdown for the building so that people cannot leave until it is safe to do so. Warnings were also put out to ensure all windows and doors were fully closed. First responders arrived and found bottles which appear to have been the bomb. The chlorine disappeared and the threat was gone. The building was reopened and people were now allowed to leave.  

First Responder

             First Responders should conduct drills for the personnel to have a established understand and it be second nature for the responders to do when the event arises. Some types of exercises include: seminars, workshops, tabletop, games and drills (Bennett, 2018). All of these expose the first responder to the scenario. During the event there are certain priorities. According to Bennett, “the emergency priorities are: life safety, incident stabilization/protection of the environment, and property conservation” (Bennett, 2018, p 341). This is the order in which the first responder’s plans should be developed around starting with life safety.

Planning/Safeguard

This risk assessment should have been conducted and assessed that a chlorine bomb was a risk. This means the security personnel could put out their plan for this situation. According to Bennett, “an understanding of what can happen will enable you to determine resource requirements and to develop plans and procedures to properly prepare for emergencies” (Bennett, 2018, p 335). Planning is the number one way to help reduce some of the stress that these type of events can cause. Planning should be for manmade and natural events which will or have a chance to occur. The plans should be run through on a regular basis and updated as new buildings are built. It can be a problem if a plan is pulled out that has not been touched since 1990 and there have been 3 new buildings put on campus since then.

It is very important to establish a plan to get out important documents or having a plan to destroy documents if these documents would be damaging if released because of the attack. Human life is the most important factor to protect, so planning for safeguarding human life and documents or computer systems should be practiced and widely understood by employees that work in these locations.

This Course

            This course was a good explanation of the wide variety of risks and threats that exist. The big project provides a unique appreciation for what is involved in risk assessments. There are so many resources online, terrorists and other people with malicious intent can do majority of their research online and would not need to visit many of the locations too far ahead of time. The course has also made me think a little bit differently about basic physical security device. I have a stronger appreciation of doors and the protections something as simple as door placement can provide. According to the Bible, “But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (English Standard Version, 2001/2008, 2 Thessalonians 3:3). Thankfully God is there to provide and protect us when our planning fails. This does not mean we should not plan but we have no way to assess every real risk even if we try.

References

Bennett, B. T. (2018). Understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism: Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Personnel. Wiley.

English Standard Version Bible. (2001/2008). Crossway Bibles.