Office of Homeland Security State of Hawaii | Department of Defense
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.
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.
Ten Hawaii Schools Qualify for the National Championship for Girls Go CyberStart 2020
5/15/2020Since this February, many of Hawaii’s female high school students have been competing in the national Girls Go CyberStart competition hosted by SANS Institute. This programs, which inspires students to discover cybersecurity, is a gamified environment where students play as “Cyber Agents” solving digital crimes by gathering information, cracking codes, finding security flaws, and dissecting…
Read More about Ten Hawaii Schools Qualify for the National Championship for Girls Go CyberStart 2020The Center for Cyber Safety and Education: Free Cyber Safety eLearning Program for Children
3/19/2020The Center for Cyber Safety and Education is offering a free Garfield eLearning cyber safety program for children for the next 30 days. The program lessons cover privacy, safe posting, and cyberbullying for children to learn and enjoy at the same time. The program is available for children, ages 6-12, to play on any devices…
Read More about The Center for Cyber Safety and Education: Free Cyber Safety eLearning Program for ChildrenCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
2/19/2020The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention is closely monitoring the outbreak of the respiratory illness caused by a new coronoa virus, named COVID-19. COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan City, in China’s Hubei province which continues to expand acccording to the CDC’s website. For the best source of authoritive information on COVID-19, please…
Read More about Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)Protect. 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.