Weapons Of Mass Protection

Other R&D directorates and programs exist, but most of the industry's interests are centered in the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). Modeled after Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), HSARPA awards grants for basic and applied research that promotes revolutionary changes in homeland-security technologies, develops and tests homeland technologies, and accelerates and prototypes the development of technologies to prepare them for deployment. HSARPA also manages DHS's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

With all of its reliance on information technology, you'd think the DHS had a fail-safe setup in tow. Hurricane Katrina indicated otherwise. Also, this past June, the organization caught a lot of political heat when an internal audit suggested that computer systems at 19 department sites serving the TSA and other homeland-security-related agencies had no functioning backups or that their backup systems were insufficient to handle major disasters.

Specifically, backups were lacking for networks that support airline passenger screening and the inspection of goods moving across borders. The report also said that the DHS did not implement an agency-wide program to coordinate or upgrade its disaster recovery capability for its critical computer systems.

LOTS TO LEARN

There has been no shortage of homeland-security-related trade shows, seminars, and webinars, some of which focus on just one segment National Institute of Justice Annual Technology Conference is scheduled for October 31 through November 2 in San Diego. Co-sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, it will target technology and training tools currently available and those being developed for first responders.

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