An Overview of Homeland Security

There are four main areas of responsibility within the Department of Homeland Security, which are border security and transportation, emergency preparedness and response, chemical, biological radiological, and nuclear countermeasures, and intelligence analysis and infrastructure protection (Swanson, Charles R., Territo, Leonard, Taylor, Robert W., 90). The Department of Homeland Security had also formed a division to analyze intelligence gathered by the FBI, CIA, and many other police agencies and military agencies (Swanson, Charles R., Territo, Leonard, Taylor, Robert W., 90). Barack Obama appointed Janet Napolitano as the third secretary of the department and is also the governor in the area of terrorism and immigration reform. Napolitano has played an important role in strengthening border security by increasing forces along the border, and increasing resources and technology to aid in the fight against terrorism (Swanson, Charles R., Territo, Leonard, Taylor, Robert W., 90). The DHS has become an important role to the security of the public in the United States. .
             Within this department, there was a color-coded threat system known as the Homeland Security Advisory System. There was red for severe risk of terrorist attacks, orange for high risk of terrorist attacks, yellow for significant risk of terrorist attacks, blue for general risk of terrorist attacks, and green for low risk of terrorist attacks (Homeland Security News, 2011). This system is being replaced by the National Terrorism Advisory System, which will more effectively communicate information about terrorist threats by providing timely, detailed information to the public, government agencies, first responders, airports and other transportation hubs, and the private sector. There are two types of alerts, which are the Imminent Threat Alert and the Elevated Threat Alert. The Imminent Threat Alert is the warning of a credible, specific, and impending terrorist threat against the United States, while the Elevated Threat alert is the warning of a credible terrorist threat against the United States.