DETROIT – What we are seeing is unprecedented in this country. The Department of Homeland Security is slowly creating a miracle right under our noses, and doing it with the least believable of allies ? their own brother and sister agencies. But before you become headily optimistic, remember, I did say slowly, and we are talking government.

Back in May, President Bush signed into law the Real ID Act. This law will set national standards for drivers licenses, providing for the first time the possibility of the equivalent to a national ID card. Key to this bill are that by 2008 states need to verify data with the feds and other states before the issue of a driver?s license. How they are going to accomplish this is anyone?s guess at this point. The primary target of this legislation is assistance in stemming the tide of illegal immigrants, but it provides further support for unified government security and information sharing.

Totally unrelated, yet also adding to the collaborative dog pile is a recently released National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) draft, which provides sweeping provisions and guidelines as to how DHS and all other government and civilian agencies will work together to protect critical infrastructure and key assets. The National Strategy for Homeland Security has a vision:

??forge an unprecedented level of cooperation throughout all levels of government, with private industry and institutions, and with the American people to protect our critical infrastructure and key assets [resources] from terrorist attacks. Our country will continue to take immediate and decisive actions to protect assets and systems that could be attacked with catastrophic consequences?

and the NIPP is defined as the primary vehicle to:

?organize the complementary efforts of government and private institutions to raise security over the long term to levels appropriate to each target?s vulnerability and criticality. The Federal Government will work to create an environment in which State, local, and private entities can best protect the infrastructures they control.

Leadership in InfraGard have received drafts of this 175-page draft document, and are currently reviewing it and providing feedback to appropriate agencies, with the hope of a more widespread and complete review after the first of the year.

Two years ago in Michigan, discussion began between the State, several counties and the City of Detroit related to a ?single citizen? database. After all, it was reasoned, if I live in Detroit, I am a citizen of Detroit, of Wayne County, of the State of Michigan, and of the United States. Getting my personal information down to a single database for each of these entities is a challenging task, let alone a single database they all share! And yet, as long as data is duplicated in many forms in many locations, the ability of our government to be able to accurately manage the security and the rights of it?s citizens will be compromised by all the inherent problems associated with duplicate data.

If you want to know more about the NIPP approval process, the Real ID Act, and some of the other exciting things going on with National and State security, join Infragard today!

Hans Erickson is CIO for the Detroit Regional Chamber and a member of Michigan InfraGard. To learn more, click on MichiganInfraGard.Com