By Mickey McCarter, HS Today

Washington
,
Feb 11, 2009
 –
The water infrastructure sector’s information sharing and analysis center (ISAC) became the first industry sector to release metrics on its security performance at the very end of last year, setting a standard for other industry councils to follow.

“Until now, sector-specific metrics only existed in concept,” Vance Taylor, a consultant at Catalyst Partners LLC who served as director of security policy for the Water ISAC, told HSToday.us.

“By voluntarily, developing, defining, analyzing and reporting on our security posture, the water sector has proved the Department of Homeland Security’s concept of the partnership model works,” he added. “You can work through the partnership model to develop a set of metrics and that the sector would be capable and willing to measure its own security process under a voluntary framework. That’s very significant.”

The results of the report, titled “Water Sector Measures Analysis,” indicate the water sector is rising to meet security challenges. Drinking water and wastewater utilities are incorporating security into their budgets, training personnel on security, actively seeking validated threat information, putting chemical security protocols and safeguards in place, and reviewing their emergency response plans, Taylor declared.

Read the whole story here.