Critical Releases in Homeland Security: July 13, 2022

From the Highlights: "The Department of Homeland Security could strengthen its efforts to prevent and reduce domestic terrorism in the United States. Although DHS continues to develop strategies for combating domestic terrorism, the Department has only made recent progress in achieving its mission to counter domestic terrorism. DHS has taken steps to help the United States counter terrorism, but those efforts have not always been consistent. In 2019, DHS established a strategic framework with goals for countering terrorism and an accompanying implementation plan with actions designed to achieve those goals. However, DHS' data showed more than 70 percent of the milestone actions in the implementation plan were not completed as planned. This occurred because the Department has not established a governance body with staff dedicated to long-term oversight and coordination of its efforts to combat domestic terrorism. DHS could also improve how it identifies domestic terrorism threats, tracks trends for future risk-based planning, and informs partners and the public about domestic terrorism. Specifically, the Department has limited access to the sources of information it needs to identify domestic terrorism threats. DHS could do more to compile, maintain, and track domestic terrorism information for future planning. Finally, the advisories DHS issues to inform partners and the public may not be timely to help them take steps to protect themselves from threats. Without a cohesive long-term approach to countering domestic terrorism, DHS may not be able to proactively prevent and protect the Nation from this evolving threat."

From the Highlights: "The Department of Homeland Security must be prepared to respond to potential threats to the United States. To identify and mitigate threats, I&A [The Office of Intelligence and Analysis] shares intelligence and analysis with decision makers. We conducted this audit to determine the extent to which I&A has an effective process for collecting, managing, and protecting OSINT [open source intelligence] for operational and intelligence purposes."