While the nation has made strides in preparing for a wide range of potential disasters, state and local officials said they feel least prepared for an emerging threat: a cyber attack.

Cybersecurity “was the single core capability where states had made the least amount of overall progress,” according to the annual National Preparedness Report released Thursday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Less than half of state and local officials thought their cybersecurity was sufficient, according to the survey. In particular, about two-thirds said they had not updated their cybersecurity plans in the last two years.

The report, commissioned by President Barack Obama’s administration, assessed how prepared the nation would be in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. It surveyed government agencies, companies, nonprofit groups, faith-based organizations, communities and individuals.

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Today, FEMA and its partners released the National Preparedness Report (NPR). The Report identifies significant progress the nation has made in areas of prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. Overall the Report found that the nation has increased its collective preparedness, not only from external threats, but also for natural and technological hazards that face its communities.

The Report was developed to meet the requirements of Presidential Policy Directive 8/PPD-8: National Preparedness. PPD-8 is aimed at strengthening the security and resilience of the United States through systematic preparation for the threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of the Nation, including acts of terrorism, cyber attacks, pandemics, and catastrophic natural disasters.

The NPR focuses on five mission areas: Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response and Recovery, as outlined in the National Preparedness Goal released in October 2011. Within these mission areas are 31 core capabilities central to preparedness. The NPR assesses each of these 31 core capabilities. (more…)

From the HLSwatch.com blog

The Strategic National Risk Assessment was written to support the National Preparedness Goal.  You can download an unclassified summary of the National Risk Assessment at this link. (Thank you to the person who sent me the link.)

The seven page summary includes these sections:

1. Overview
2. Strategic National Risk Assessment Scope
3. Overarching Themes to an All-Hazards Approach
4. Analytic Approach
5. Limitations
6. Impacts and Future Uses
7. Conclusion

As part of the implementation of Presidential Policy Directive 8 (PPD-8), we are pleased to announce the release of the first-ever National Preparedness Goal. To summarize, the goal is:

To have a secure and resilient Nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.

You can read the full 26 page document here.

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