The Transportations Systems Sector, Department of Transportation, is a US federal government body that is involved with the safety, timeliness, and security of the transportation sector within the country and overseas.
Position title and Job Responsibilities:
I work for the US government under the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation, Transportation Systems Sector as a Logistics Manager. As a logistics manager and head at the Office of Logistics Management, I oversee warehousing and transportation management through effective documentation and filing of processes and equipment status. In addition, there are responsibilities to develop policies that help in professional development and improvement of logistics systems and processes. One of the major management responsibilities aimed at improving the logistics systems and processes is to forge collaborations within the department of transportation and with private agencies. In order to facilitate negotiations that will ensure that government supplies and transportation sectors are effectively and efficiently handled to reduce damages, interference with procedures, and wastage.
National Critical Infrastructure relation to the Job Position
National critical infrastructure incorporates the element of adequacy in relation to the national capacity, services, and systems, which are all of vital importance for the effective functioning of the government. The absence, inhibition, or damage of the national government capacity, services, and systems can adversely affect national security, the economy, public safety and security and the general functioning of the government. The US national well-being relies upon the national critical infrastructure that incorporates assets, systems, as well as networks that are the foundation of the American society (Moteff, 2015). It is important to manage the national critical infrastructure. This requires an integrated management approach based on inclusive partnerships aimed to identify and protect the critical infrastructure from threats. The national critical infrastructure is at risk of both physical and cyber threats. The aim of the management aspect is to ensure effectiveness in the efforts to address the critical elements of security as well as the resilience of the national critical infrastructure.
The national critical infrastructure requires effective management efforts and initiatives to ensure it remains secure. This relates to my role and responsibilities as a logistics manager, under the Department of Transportation where the safety and security of activities are key. Ensuring that government supplies and transportation services are effectively and efficiently managed requires adequate documentation and having accurate information as well as analysis of the government’s products and services. Safeguarding the national critical infrastructure requires information to facilitate the analysis of current and potential future threats. This directly relates to my logistics managerial role in which an important part of my responsibility is to ensure proper and adequate documentation of warehousing and transportation activities at the Department of Transportation.
Role of Transportation Systems Sector in Critical Infrastructure Sector
The role of the Office of Logistics Management, Department of Transportation in the critical infrastructure sector is to build partnership efforts and place emphasis on outcomes. The organization has a responsibility of developing a specific plan through coordinated efforts (US Department of Homeland Security, 2016). The logistics department’s role in the critical infrastructure sectors is to build partnerships and raise awareness by providing relevant information in situations where the security and resilience of the critical infrastructure may be compromised. In addition, the role of documentation of warehousing and transportation department activities helps in information sharing based on accurate and credible information to facilitate substantive and comprehensive analysis of vulnerabilities in the infrastructure sector. Credible and accurate information is useful in the development of remedial plans to address potential security vulnerabilities in relation to the critical infrastructure sector.
Importance of Partnerships in the Critical Infrastructure Field
Private and public partnerships are a vital link in the implementation of national critical infrastructure protection policies considering that both the government and private sector activities interact in many ways. Information is key in the protection of the national infrastructure. The private and public partnerships help to establish mechanisms for information exchange among the partners as well as mechanisms for coordination. The practicality of such collaboration is seen in cases where certain situations call for direct contact with other agencies to provide relevant information prior to taking required steps.
The Information Technology Sectors is an important partner for the Transportation Systems Sector because the internet is a key resource in facilitating documentation and communications within the sector. The sectors are responsible for ensuring that the communications infrastructure over the internet used by sectors under the federal government is available and secure under all conditions. The Internet includes both information technology and telecommunications resources that require adequate policies to enhance safety and security in the use of the Internet. In addition to the Information Technology Sector, which is an important government body that helps in policy formulation, private sectors such as cloud services vendors are also important private partners. The need for a private-public partnership is based on the understanding that privately owned infrastructure is critical to the national security even though the private bodies may not be inclined towards accepting responsibility for the national cyber security (Carr, 2016). In today’s communication world, the Internet is dependent on cloud services for information storage and access. Cloud services are managed by private firms that are vital in ensuring that information exchange is securely done. In the event of a security issue in the department of transportation that may affect logistical management services, the cloud vendors can facilitate coordination of recovery activities. The cloud vendors, as well as the Information Technology Sectors, have a responsibility to ensure that government networks are secure and available.
References
Carr, M. (2016). Public–private partnerships in national cyber‐security strategies. International Affairs, 92(1), 43-62.
Moteff, J. D. (2015, June 10). Critical Infrastructures: Background, Policy, and Implementation. Congressional Research Service.
US Department of Homeland Security. (2016, March 30). Transportation Systems Sector. Official Website of the Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/transportation-systems-sector
