DOMAIN EXPERTISE

Department of Homeland Security
Transportation Security Administration
Case Study — Air Domain Risk Management

BayFirst is a prime contractor for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We are conducting a comprehensive risk assessment of the Air Domain and developing a stakeholder coordination plan to address those risks.

A BayFirst-led team is providing TSA’s Risk Management and Strategic Planning (RMSP) division with the program management and risk analytics necessary to address time critical requirements of Homeland Security Presidential Directive — 16 (HSPD-16) and the Aviation Transportation Security Act. This work entails a detailed assessment of terrorist risk across the Air Domain—defined as the global airspace including domestic, international, and foreign airspace, as well as all manned and unmanned aircraft operating, and people and cargo present in that airspace, and all aviation-related infrastructures. Using a fault-tree approach, it quantitatively factors in:

• identified threats — attacker capability and intent

• system vulnerabilities — probability of an attacker defeating passive and active defense systems

• attack consequences — deaths, injuries, and primary and secondary economic damages associated with a successful attack.

It specifically addresses chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) weapons; standoff weapons (i.e. surface to air missles); direct assaults, and cyber attacks; and considers air domain infrastructure assets as targets, weapons, and enablers. The resultant 1600+plus combinations of attack mode and asset type have been refined and further analyzed for threat, vulnerability, and consequences through a series of subject matter expert (SME) elicitations that engage stakeholders across the public and private sector. BayFirst is using the risk assessment to evaluate a number of high visibility countermeasures available to TSA and other stakeholders within the next five years that could reduce vulnerabilities and provide deterrence, providing a first-tier estimate of their cost effectiveness.

BayFirst is utilizing this risk assessment and countermeasure analysis to develop the interagency coordination plan necessary for managing the identified risks, engaging public and private sector stakeholders.

BayFirst’s work for TSA in the Air Domain Risk Management arena demonstrates our strong analytical competency and specifically our ability to leverage ongoing risk work throughout DHS to help clients effectively use risk management principles and processes to develop security risk assessment management methods and tools that not only meet their own intrinsic needs, but also that are aligned with initiatives of other government agencies.

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