
Office of Homeland Security State of Hawaii | Department of Defense
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Working to Keep Hawaii Safe
The Office of Homeland Security’s (OHS) primary responsibility is to enhance Hawaii’s security preparedness and resilience in an integrated, synergistic, relevant, proactive, flexible, cost effective, full-spectrum effort across all domains in order to prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to and recover from attacks, natural disasters and emerging threats.
Hawaii OHS News
OHS News
OHS also has a responsibility to keep the public informed about the latest homeland security news and how it relates to keeping Hawaii safe.
DHS Releases Physical Security Performance Goals for Faith-Based Communities
12/7/2023As the conflict in the Middle East continues, the state’s Office of Homeland Security is working diligently to ensure that Hawai‘i’s faith-based communities and organizations have access to resources to support safety measures. See the following release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, Office of Public Affairs DHS Releases…
Read More about DHS Releases Physical Security Performance Goals for Faith-Based CommunitiesFrom GovTech: What Cyber Response Can Learn from Traditional Disasters
11/29/2023“Government has battle-tested playbooks for dealing with hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires. As cyber emergencies become both more common and more devastating, what can cyber responders learn from physical emergency response?” GovTech is exploring the ways in which government agencies are exploring and responding to cyber attacks that can cause serious damage by taking critical services…
Read More about From GovTech: What Cyber Response Can Learn from Traditional DisastersCISA Releases The Mitigation Guide: Healthcare and Public Health Sector
11/27/2023CISA has released The Mitigation Guide: Healthcare and Public Health Sector. The guide is an addition to the HPH Cyber Risk Summary, published July of 2023. The guide provides a defensive mitigation strategy recommendations and best practices to combat pervasive cyber threats affecting this critical infrastructure sector and identifies vulnerabilities for organizations to assess their…
Read More about CISA Releases The Mitigation Guide: Healthcare and Public Health SectorProtect. Prevent. Recover.
Safety for the people of Hawaii comes in the form of preparedness. Only by being prepared is Hawaii able to have a sound strategy for combating terrorism and mitigating the effects of critical incidents.
We All Share the Responsibility for Security
The National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) consists of alerts and bulletins that communicate current developments regarding threats of terrorism and general terrorism information. NTAS helps Hawaii citizens recognize that we all share responsibility for the nation’s security, and should always be aware of the heightened risk of terrorist attack in the United States and what we should do.
The Guide for Success in Community Preparedness
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is the foundation for how Hawaii OHS achieves its goal and is essential to fulfilling objectives for receiving federal grant money. NIMS guides all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together to mitigate, respond to, and recover from incidents. NIMS provides stakeholders across the whole community with the shared vocabulary, systems, and processes to successfully deliver the capabilities described in the National Preparedness System.
The National Preparedness Goal
The National Preparedness Goal identified five mission areas:
- Prevention. Prevent, avoid or stop an imminent, threatened or actual act of terrorism.
- Protection. Protect our citizens, residents, visitors, and assets against the greatest threats and hazards in a manner that allows our interests, aspirations and way of life to thrive.
- Mitigation. Reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of future disasters.
- Response. Respond quickly to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.
- Recovery. Recover through a focus on the timely restoration, strengthening and revitalization of infrastructure, housing and a sustainable economy, as well as the health, social, cultural, historic and environmental fabric of communities affected by a catastrophic incident.
The mission areas are used to group FEMA‘s 32 core capabilities, which are the distinct critical elements needed to achieve the goal.