Access Control
& Security Systems

The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), a collaboration between professional associations and federal agencies, met recently at George Mason University to role-play terrorist attack scenarios.

While thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations have specialized expertise in safeguarding the nation's infrastructure, finding the experts amid a myriad of commercial and federal resources remains a challenge, the TISP says.

Two TISP initiatives may help. One will develop a Web-based matrix of skills among infrastructure security experts. It will help TISP deploy its capabilities and share information among its members. Another initiative will be a volunteer contacts list for local authorities to tap into during a crisis.

"It's going to take both government and the private sector working together to meet the challenges we face as a nation," said Robert F. Shea, Deputy Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration.

The summer workshop was designed around a "table top exercise" involving terrorist attack scenarios. Discussion was focused on how TISP can best become a national resource for protecting built infrastructure. For more information on TISP, tisp.org

This month in Access Control

• Opening Up About Door Closers
• An Enterprise Approach
• The Framework For Open Systems
• On A Higher Plane
• More from April's issue