Threat-Based Approach to Risk, Case Study: The Strategic Homeland Infrastructure Risk Assessment (SHIRA)

The culture of risk management is beginning to grow at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Created in response to the attacks of September 2001, the Department has as one of its primary missions to protect the nation from terrorism.1 Five years after its creation, and through several reorganizations, DHS still struggles to master risk management with respect to terrorism. Although DHS realized the need for the collaboration of intelligence and security professionals to jointly assess risk at its inception,2 it was not until the formation of the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center (HITRAC) that DHS had a truly integrated approach to terrorism risk analysis