An effective communications infrastructure, including voice and data networks, is essential to our ability as a nation to maintain public health and safety during a catastrophic natural disaster, such as a hurricane, or a man-made event, such as a terrorist attack. Technological advances in these networks have led to a convergence of the previously separate networks used to transmit voice and data communications. These new networks—next generation networks—are capable of transmitting both voice and data on a single network and eventually will be the primary means for voice and data transmissions. Converged voice and data networks have many benefits. For example, these networks use technology based on packet switching, which allows greater resiliency. Packet switching involves breaking a message into packets, or small chunks of data, and transferring the packets across a network to a destination where they are recombined. The resiliency of using a packet-switching network is due to the packet’s ability to be transmitted over multiple routes, avoiding areas that may be congested or damaged. Conversely, conventional voice services use traditional telephone networks, which are based on circuit switching technology. Instead of breaking a message up into packets, circuit-switching uses a dedicated channel to transmit the voice communication. Once all of the channels are occupied, no further connections can be made until a channel becomes available. Figure 1 shows a comparison between packet switching and circuit switching. Converged networks, however, also pose certain technical challenges. For example, current national programs to provide priority voice services in an emergency are based primarily on voice or traditional telephone networks, which are circuit-switched. Implementing these networks on packet- switched networks is difficult because there is no uniformly accepted standard for providing priority service on a packet-switched network. Also, the Internet-based protocols used on packet-switched networks have vulnerabilities and in certain cases, packet-switched networks may be unreliable for emergency communications due to delays in transmission and loss of packets. Federal policies call for the protection of essential public and private infrastructures, such as the electric power grid, chemical plants, and water treatment facilities that control the vital functions critical to ensuring our national economic security and public health and safety. These infrastructures, called critical infrastructures, also include communications infrastructure, such as voice and data communication networks. Federal policies also designate certain federal agencies as lead points of contact for each key critical infrastructure sector and assign responsibility for infrastructure protection activities and for coordination with other relevant federal agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector. (See app. II for a description of the sectors and the designated federal agencies.) DHS is the lead federal agency for both the telecommunications and information technology (IT) sectors. DHS is also designated as the focal point for the security of cyberspace—including analysis, warning, information sharing, vulnerability reduction, mitigation, and recovery efforts for public and private critical infrastructure information systems. As part of its responsibilities, DHS created the National Infrastructure Protection Plan to coordinate the protection efforts of critical infrastructures. The plan recognizes the Internet as a key resource composed of assets within both the IT and the telecommunications sectors. It notes that the Internet is used by all critical infrastructure sectors to varying degrees and that it provides information and communications to meet the needs of businesses, government, and the other sectors. The National Infrastructure Protection Plan requires lead federal agencies for the critical infrastructure sectors to work with public and private sector stakeholders to develop sector-specific plans that address how the sectors’ stakeholders will improve the security of their assets, systems, networks, and functions. We recently reported on how comprehensively these sector-specific plans address the cyber security aspects of their sectors, including the plans for the IT and telecommunications sectors. We found that the plans varied in how sector stakeholders identified their cyber risks and developed plans to identify, respond to, and recover from a cyber attack. Accordingly, we recommended specific measures to help DHS strengthen the development, uniformity, and use of the plans. Federal policies provide DHS the lead responsibility for facilitating a public-private response to disruptions to major communications infrastructure, such as voice and data networks. Within DHS, the responsibility is assigned to NCSD and NCS in the Office of Cyber Security and Communications. NCSD has responsibility for the security of data and applications and executes this duty via its operations center—US-CERT— while NCS has responsibility for the communications infrastructure that carries data and applications and carries out its duty through its coordination center, NCC, and its operations center, NCC Watch. In June 2003, DHS created NCSD to serve as the national focal point for addressing cyber security issues. NCSD’s mission is to secure cyberspace and America’s cyber assets in cooperation with public, private, and international entities. The division carries out its mission via its US-CERT operations center, which is responsible for, among other things, analyzing and addressing cyber threats and vulnerabilities and disseminating cyber- threat warning information. In the event of a security issue or disruption affecting data and applications, US-CERT is to facilitate coordination of recovery activities with the network and security operations centers of owners and operators of these networks and with government officials (e.g., incident response teams) responsible for protecting government networks. NCSD is the government lead on a public/private partnership supporting US-CERT and serves as the lead for the federal government’s cyber incident response through the National Cyber Response Coordination Group. This group is the principal federal interagency mechanism for coordinating the preparation for and response to significant cyber incidents, such as a major Internet disruption, and includes members from 19 federal departments and agencies. NCS is responsible for ensuring that communications infrastructure used by the federal government is available under all conditions—ranging from normal situations to national emergencies and international crises. The system does this through several activities, including a program that gives calling priority to federal executives, first responders, and other key officials in times of emergency. NCS was established by presidential direction in August 1963 in response to voice communication failures associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Its role was further clarified through an executive order issued in April 1984 that established the Secretary of Defense as the executive agent for NCS. In 2003, it was transferred to the responsibility of the Secretary of DHS. NCS is composed of members from 24 federal departments and agencies. Although it originally focused on “traditional” voice services via common carriers, NCS has now taken a larger role in Internet-related issues due to the convergence of voice and data networks. For example, it now helps manage issues related to disruptions of the Internet backbone (e.g., high- capacity data routes). NCC, which serves as the coordination component of NCS, is the point of contact with the private sector on issues that could affect the availability of the communications infrastructure. According to DHS, the center includes 47 members from major telecommunications organizations, such as Verizon and AT&T. These members represent 95 percent of the wireless and wire line telecommunications service providers and 90 percent of the Internet service provider backbone networks. During a major disruption in telecommunications services, NCC Watch is to coordinate with NCC members in an effort to restore service as soon as possible. In the event of a major Internet disruption, it is to assist recovery efforts through its partnerships and collaboration with telecommunications and Internet-related companies. Using these partnerships, NCC has also created several programs that, in times of emergency, provide calling priority in to enable first responders and key officials at all levels to communicate using both landline phones and cellular devices. Since February 2002, we, along with federal government and private sector experts, have examined the convergence of voice and data networks into next generation networks. All these experts recommend that federal agencies such as DHS adopt an integrated approach—including integrating their organizations—to planning for and responding to network disruptions. In February 2002, before the formation of DHS, a White House advisory group recommended that the federal government develop such an approach. Specifically, it found that timely information sharing was essential to effective incident response, that existing coordination within the government was ineffective and needed senior management attention, and that NCS should broaden its capabilities to include more IT industry expertise. In March 2006, the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, a presidential advisory group, also recommended that DHS develop an integrated approach to incident response on next generation networks and update priority communications programs to improve existing recovery abilities. The committee recommended that DHS establish an inclusive and effective incident response capability that includes functions of the NCC and a broadened membership, including firms in the IT sector. The committee also stated that most new communications providers are not members of the NCC, were not easily accessible during an incident, and had not yet developed close working relationships with other industry stakeholders and the federal government. In June 2006, we recommended that DHS improve its approach to dealing with disruptions by examining the organizational structure of NCSD and NCS in light of the convergence of voice and data networks. We found that DHS had overlapping responsibilities for incident response, which affected the ability of DHS to prioritize and coordinate incident response activities. Furthermore, in December 2006, the Telecommunications and Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Centers, composed of representatives of private telecommunications and IT companies, sent a letter to DHS asking that the department develop a plan to integrate critical infrastructure protection efforts including planning for and responding to disruptions. In a January 2007 written response signed by the Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security and Communications, DHS agreed with the importance of this effort and stated that developing a road map for integration was a priority. Moreover, in April 2007, the two information sharing and analysis centers established a task force (referred to as a “tiger team” by DHS) with DHS that, among other things, identified overlapping responsibilities between NCC Watch and US-CERT in the following areas: developing and disseminating warnings, advisories, and other urgent evaluating the scope of an event; deploying response teams during an event; integrating cyber, communications, and emergency response exercises into operational plans and participation; and the management of relationships with others, such as industry partners.