US Homeland Security: our planless leader

[GAspnes]

The Office of Inspector General has deemed DHS unfit because the organization devised to protect the homeland does not have a disaster recovery plan


It's disheartening. It's incredible. But it's not all that surprising. That's how some business continuity experts and government officials reacted to the news that 15 out of 19 agencies under the Department of Homeland Security lack fully operational disaster recovery sites -- a shortfall that could hinder DHS's ability to carry out its mission during a service disruption or national emergency.

The report, "Disaster Recovery Planning for DHS Information Systems Needs Improvement," published in May by the DHS Office of Inspector General, also found that the four agencies with recovery sites lacked other continuity measures, such as thorough, written disaster recovery plans. (For a full copy of the report, go to www.csoonline.com/printlinks.) Without naming agencies, the report warned that these security gaps could result in "a disruption in passenger screening operations, delays in processing grants in response to a disaster and delays in the flow of goods across U.S. borders."

"I'm not surprised by the number of agencies and IT facilities that have no backup ," says John Copenhaver, thesoutheast region director of FEMA from 1997 to 2001. "You've taken such a huge patchwork quilt of agencies and departments and cobbled them all together" into a new homeland security hub, Copenhaver says. But he's quick to add that there's no excuse for such lapses in this critical department.

http://www.pcwelt.de/news/englishnews/119203/