The United States (U.S.) and Mexico need to create and employ a clearly defined border security strategy to correct the shortfalls in current efforts. The U.S. has no overarching border security strategy and relies on strategic documents that could be judged as poorly written and lacking sufficient guidance to drive action along the U.S.-Mexico border. As a result, the ad hoc U.S.-Mexico border security strategy is unsuccessful in countering violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, where drug-related violence, including kidnappings, brutal murders, and assassinations are routine. This violence...

A Border Patrol Agent deciding whether an impending confrontation involves dangerous individuals, an Inspector determining if an alien should be admitted, a supervisory Special Agent deciding whether to open a case based on certain evidence -- all of these are DHS employees using their thinking skills. Every day, DHS employees use their thinking skills in countless decisions, determinations, and investigations. Thinking skills are by no means the only skills used by DHS employees, but they are the most important. They are used in applying rules, making determinations, making predictions, and...

Information infrastructures across many public and private domains share several common attributes regarding IT deployments and data communications. This is particularly true in the control systems domain. A majority of the systems use robust architectures to enhance business and reduce costs by increasing the integration of external, business, and control system networks. However, multi-network integration strategies often lead to vulnerabilities that greatly reduce the security of an organization, and can expose mission-critical control systems to cyber threats. This document provides...

The Banking and Finance Sector accounts for more than 8 percent of the U.S. annual gross domestic product and is the backbone for the world economy. As direct attacks and public statements by terrorist organizations demonstrate, the sector is a high-value and symbolic target. Additionally, large-scale power outages, recent natural disasters, and a possible flu pandemic demonstrate the wide range of potential threats facing the sector. With this understanding, financial regulators and private sector owners and operators work collaboratively to maintain a high degree of resilience in the face...

This Informed Compliance Publication discusses the requirements that apply to importations of works of art and other cultural property. In addition to the normal rules that apply to all importations, there are special rules that apply to certain types of cultural property because of international agreements, treaties, or requirements set forth in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) law and in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Classification of merchandise under the HTSUS is in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRI's). GRI 1 provides that...

Homeland security begins with hometown security. As part of its commitment to hometown security, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has worked to get tools, information, and resources out of Washington, D.C. and into the hands of our federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners. Tribal Nations are critical partners in our homeland security efforts, and DHS's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) promotes an integrated national approach to homeland security by coordinating and advancing federal interaction with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments. IGA...

DHS held a series of roundtables on cybersecurity with health industry representatives. The industry representatives, all of them Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) or risk manager equivalents, hailed from a variety of organizations including an academic medical center and research university, a university hospital system, and a medical vendor that provides health care consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices/technology. Although each presented very different cyber risk management use cases, they shared many of the same challenges while addressing them. They...