Operational Value of Threat, Risk, and Vulnerability Assessments
The Operational Value of Threat, Risk, and Vulnerability Assessments is a course designed by the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition in cooperation with George Mason University for the U.S Department of Homeland Security, under the 2007 Competitive Training Grant Program. The 3-day training course will be presented throughout the United States to assist homeland security professionals, from all emergency response disciplines and the private sector, responsible for managing risk, to understand and use operationally, information gathered in various threat, risk, and vulnerability assessment methodologies.
Course content focuses on helping homeland security professionals analyze and apply information gathered in the assessment process to enhance operations, including: patrol and tactical operations, intelligence gathering, community programs, emergency planning, resource allocation, response to Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) color-code changes and DHS Alerts, response and recovery, and selection of technology. Participants will receive a Participant Manual, access to a web-based post-course resource site, and a resource CD. Additionally, participants will receive 2.4 CEU credits from George Mason University and a certificate of attendance from DHS and the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition.
OpValTRVA Q&A
A threat assessment examines factors including a community’s strengths, weaknesses, and emergency response capabilities, identify critical facilities, infrastructures and events. Threat assessments also consider Potential threat elements, and take into consideration all hazards. The threat assessment can help determine the likelihood that given the current intelligence or designated federal, state or local threat levels, a specific target will be subject to attack.
A risk assessment is a method of estimating the anticipated or expected loss from the occurrence of an adverse event by using the quantitative and/or qualitative values which relate to exposure and a recognized threat and impact.
A vulnerability assessment is an on-site review of the potential target and will include the active participation of personnel who are associated with the target, as well as subject matter experts. A vulnerability assessment will address, the existing overall state of security for the asset, the asset’s overall vulnerability to attack, the degree of protection provided by an asset’s security, fire, and emergency protection systems, financial vulnerability of the enterprise, the overall readiness of a community in relationship to the asset’s security, emergency, crisis, and consequence response capabilities including its emergency plan, and recommendations for establishing a total security program.
Assessment times will vary for several reasons. Some assessments may request less information by design or may only address one aspect of a more comprehensive assessment. In addition the size or criticalness of the facility or community may demand more time to gather the needed information. A final consideration would be the assessments teams desire to complete a comprehensive assessment which will benefit the community on a daily basis.
Assessments are completed by a cornucopia of disciplines including the following:
Emergency Management
Law Enforcement
Fire and Rescue
Emergency Medical Services
Private Sector
Health and Medical
Public Safety
Public Works
Public Health
Water Management
Environmental Management
Department of Defense (DoD)
Coast Guard
Camera
Rangefinder
GPS
Various tools to include hammer screwdrivers, knife, magnet, and a tape measure
Small Mirror
For additional answers to questions you may have, please use our Q&A Question Form submit a question. NDPCI will respond to your question within one business day.
OpValTRVA News
(CNN) -- All four airmen on board an Air Force C-17 were killed when the cargo plane crashed during a training mission near Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska on Wednesday, the Air Force reported Thursday. The names were being withheld, pending notification of next of kin.
PHOENIX -- Authorities say three police officers have been shot and wounded, and one suspect killed, during an undercover operation in suburban Phoenix.
MUSCAT/TOKYO — A Japanese oil tanker damaged by a freak wave in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping lanes, was making its way to a port in the United Arab Emirates Wednesday.
DELTONA, Fla. --Volusia County deputies say two young men threw acid bombs at the homes of two law enforcement officers in Deltona on Monday night.
MOSUL, Iraq — Members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have been holding up blood banks and hospitals at gunpoint, stealing blood for their wounded fighters rather than risk having them arrested at medical facilities, according to Iraqi doctors, employees at health centers and the Sunni insurgents themselves.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- A man who ran a notorious Cambodian torture prison where more than 14,000 people died during the Khmer Rouge regime was found guilty of war crimes Monday and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and sent them off in official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday.
Hanoi, Vietnam (CNN) -- North Korea vowed Friday that there would be a "physical response" in reaction to the planned joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea.
Has search and advertising giant Google been tracking you just to sell you stuff -- or is it because the U.S. government asked it to? A congressional hearing Thursday may have raised more questions than answers.
AFP - Eight hitmen were killed in a shootout with scores of soldiers in a mountainous area of northern Mexico, after gunfights virtually shut down a city on the Texas border, officials said Thursday.
A nonprofit group in Washington says the number of police officers who have died in the line of duty is up 43 percent so far this year.
Crew members aboard dozens of ships in the Gulf of Mexico prepared Thursday to evacuate as a tropical rainstorm brewing in the Caribbean brought the deep-sea effort to plug BP's ruptured oil well to a near standstill.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Obama administration moved Wednesday to push new sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates showed solidarity with South Korea during a visit to the area that separates it from the North.
A U.S. defense company wants to take drone wars to a new level with a laser weapon capable of shooting down unmanned aircraft.
A popular website that hosted more than 70,000 bloggers was shut down suddenly last week after the FBI informed its chief technology officer that the site contained hit lists, bomb-making documents and links to Al Qaeda materials, it was reported on Monday.
(CNN) -- A Chicago, Illinois, police officer was shot and killed Sunday morning after finishing his shift, police said.
WASHINGTON — Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no-one really knows what it costs and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.
(CNN) -- A senior U.S. law enforcement official has told CNN that U.S. intelligence believes the principal author of the new online al Qaeda magazine is an American citizen who left for Yemen in October 2009.
The failed bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day may not have been the only attack that extremists planned for the 2009 holiday, with intelligence from overseas three weeks earlier indicating that a plot targeting New York City on the same day may have been in the works, according to an FBI report obtained by Fox News.
The recent case involving the arrest and deportation of the Russian intelligence network in the United States has once again raised the subject of document fraud in general and passport fraud in particular. The FBI’s investigation into the group of Russian operatives discovered that several of the suspects had assumed fraudulent identities and had obtained genuine passports (and other identity documents) in their assumed names. One of the suspects assumed the identity of a Canadian by the name of Christopher Robert Mestos, who died in childhood. The suspect was arrested in Cyprus but fled after posting bail; his true identity remains unknown. Three other members of the group also assumed Canadian identities, with Andrey Bezrukov posing as Donald Heathfield, Elena Vavilova as Tracey Foley and Natalia Pereverzeva as Patricia Mills.
One man was arrested, and two escaped during a daylong standoff following an early-morning home invasion in Nashua on Monday.
The "12th man” taken into custody by U.S. officials in the Russian spy probe worked for Microsoft Corp., a spokesman for the company confirmed Wednesday.
Increasing numbers of Canadians are becoming radicalized, taking up violent jihad and leading Canada to become an exporter of terrorism, a top Mountie told QMI Agency Tuesday.
SALT LAKE CITY -- A list containing the names and personal information of 1,300 people whom an anonymous group contends are illegal immigrants has been mailed around Utah, terrifying the state's Hispanic community.
Washington (CNN) -- While the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has put accidental spills squarely in the national spotlight, one U.S. senator is warning of another possible threat: deliberate sabotage.
NEW ORLEANS -- After securing a new, tight-fitting cap on top of the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP prepared Tuesday to begin tests to see if it will hold and stop fresh oil from polluting the waters for the first time in nearly three months.
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Neighbors in a northwest Houston neighborhood are scared after a bomb was sent to a woman at her home and it exploded.
LOS ANGELES — A tough-talking, muscular Los Angeles police sergeant steadily rattled off tips to a young Marine riding shotgun as they raced in a patrol car to a drug bust: Be aware of your surroundings. Watch people's body language. Build rapport.
BELFAST — Three police officers were shot and two dozen injured during overnight riots in Belfast, officials said.
Website appears to be brainchild of fugitive US-born radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki
LOS ANGELES — Old-fashioned undercover work and a slice of pizza delivered the key genetic evidence that helped police nab the man wanted in the decades-long "Grim Sleeper" serial killings case as they put to use a provocative new DNA technique.
U.S. researchers discovered two powerful antibodies that neutralize more than 90 percent of all known strains of the HIV virus in the lab, new research released Thursday showed.
OAKLAND, Calif.-Violent protests erupted in Oakland with stores damaged and dozens arrested after a Los Angeles jury convicted a white former transit officer of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.
Authorities in Illinois are searching for the culprits who allegedly lured police and firefighters into a housing complex over the weekend before attacking them with bottle rockets and fireworks, The Telegraph reports.
ISLAMABAD, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The news of capturing the Taliban chief in Afghanistan Mullah Omar has spread confusion all around the world since Monday when American media claimed about his arrest by Pakistani forces.
CONCORD, N.H. — The state’s emergency services director, Bruce Cheney, envisions the day when New Hampshire’s 911 service will catch up with today’s cellular technology and accept text messages, photos, video, and e-mails about crimes and other emergencies.
(CNN) -- Poland's cooperative BPS bank says it's the first in Europe to install a biometric ATM -- allowing customers to withdraw cash simply with the touch of a fingertip.