2020 has pretty much been about all things COVID, but other ongoing concerns still exist that can’t be overlooked, even during a pandemic. Sensitive facilities, such as chemical plants, still have security risks to contend with and compliance requirements to adhere to. The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) legislation enacted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ranks high on that list.
CFATS is the first regulatory program in the nation that’s focused specifically on security at high-risk chemical facilities. The CFATS program, which is managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), identifies and regulates high-risk facilities to ensure they have in place the security measures needed to reduce the risks of certain hazardous chemicals being weaponized by terrorists.
Although Chemical Facilities are actually called out in the CF portion of CFATS, there are many other types of facilities affected by its requirements. CFATS also encompasses industries or facilities that use any of the 300+ listed Chemicals of Interest (COIs) above the Screening Threshold Quantities (STQ). With a few exceptions, affected industries include petrochemical manufacturing, refining, energy and utilities, agriculture and food, paper, plastics, explosives, mining, storage and distribution, paints and coatings, electronics, higher education, and healthcare.
We at NextGen have worked to support more than 200 CFATS sites meet their security compliance requirements. We’re deeply knowledgeable of the guidelines that DHS has published – they’re known as Risk-Based Performance Standards (RBPS) – and are used for developing the CFATS Site Security Plan (SSP) that affected facilities are required by law to develop.
In total, there are 18 RBPS and each tier imposes a specific set of standards to meet. For facilities regulated by CFATS, perimeter protection and perimeter detection solutions must be in place to satisfy the appropriate RBPS.
Developing CFAT’s required Site Security Plan can be a very daunting task for most facilities. NextGen Security is at the ready to help. Our team has a proven background in chemical plant security, and deeply understands this industry’s specific needs, complexities, and the security compliance requirements that must be met. In fact, all of our employees have undergone DHS Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information (CVI) training and hold CVI certificates.
CVI is used to protect information developed under the CFATS regulation (6CFR Part 27). Our expertise in this area allows NextGen to provide mandatory advanced training as to what information needs to be kept private and how, and ensure that your facility’s sensitive information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. CFATS requirements are serious business - you can count on NextGen to deliver the solutions you need to stay in compliance.