National Communications System Briefing Template

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National Communications System National
Coordinating Center
NCC Watch
National Communications System Briefing Template
Mr. John OConnor Operations Manager,
NCC 703-235-5028 John.oconnor_at_hq.dhs.gov
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National Coordinating Center (NCC)
NCC Mission
To assist in the initiation, coordination,
restoration, and reconstitution of NS/EP
telecommunications services or facilities under
all conditions, crises, or emergencies
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Communications ISAC

• The Communications ISAC, a function of the NCC,
  supports the NCC mission by facilitating
  voluntary collaboration and information sharing
  among its participants gathering information on
  vulnerabilities, threats, intrusions, and
  anomalies from the telecommunications industry,
  government, and other sources and analyzing data
  with the goal of averting or mitigating impact
  upon the telecommunication infrastructure.

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NCC Watch Analysis Operation (WAO)

• WAO is composed of the following
• Senior analysts stand watch 24X7
• Co-located with industry representatives
• Close integration with Comm-ISAC industry members
  
• Operational procedures built on NCC trust
  relationships
• Operational arm of both the NCC and Comm-ISAC
• Situational Awareness/Alert/Warning functions
• Manage the information sharing/warning process
• Liaison/collaboration with ISACs, other industry
  and government organizations
• Relationships and tools that provide assessment
  and awareness capabilities
• Linkages with the National Operations Center
  (NOC), NICC, DISA, and US-CERT

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NCC Report Sharing Relationships
FEMA HQ (NRCC)
DHS NICC
NCC
DHS IMC
DoD NORTHCOM
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Incident Handling and Analysis

• Telecommunications
• Incident handling and triage Primary
  responsibility of the Watch
• Request for Information (RFIs) and Request for
  Assistance (RFAs) from Comm-ISAC members
• Operational and tactical Normal operations vs.
  short-term incident/event support
• Direct operational impact Hierarchical approach
  to dealing with communication issues
• Intelligence Fusion Information intelligence
  gathering and assimilation
• Telecom Estimates An estimate on the
  restoration and recovery requirements for
  communications

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WAO Tools

• IMT The NCS Infrastructure Mapping Tool (IMT),
  supports ART critical analyses through advanced
  GIS capabilities for incident management,
  decision support, and status tracking
• VeriSign - Provides real-time monitoring of
  Global Top-Level Domain (gTLD) and DNS Root
  servers.  This is VeriSign's internal view to
  provide better insight into network trends as
  well as provide performance statistics and
  traffic flow data regarding the current gTLD and
  DNS Root server constellation. This project is
  developed with the hopes that it will provide the
  NCC Watch with a better look at the current gTLD
  server configuration and its correlating
  performance statistics. This data can then be
  used to provide better understanding of network
  topology and help isolate problems concerning the
  current gTLD server configuration.
• US-CERT Portal Provides collaboration groups,
  incident related information, and access to a
  variety of on-line tools including Federal
  Vulnerability Knowledgebase (FVK), Einstein, and
  Internet Health and Status service
• HSIN The Homeland Security Information Network
  was designated by the Secretary of Homeland
  Security as the information sharing portal for
  DHS
• NAWAS National Warning System is a 24-hour
  continuous private line telephone system used to
  convey warnings to Federal, State and local
  governments, as well as the military and civilian
  population

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WAO Tools Cont.

• HURREVAC Real-time data analysis tool allows
  state and local emergency management officials to
  make prudent and informed decisions based on
  information developed during the FEMA Hurricane
  Evacuation Studies process and real-time forecast
  data distributed by the National Weather Service
  (NWS) and the Tropical Prediction Center/National
  Hurricane Center (NHC)
• HURRTRAK Offers an advanced set of functions
  and capabilities related to the analysis of
  tropical systems as well as their potential
  impact to land/sea areas, on line real-time
  information from NHC
• MSL Master Station Log online daily log of
  Watch activities, provides historical data,
  incident tracking, and task management
• Battle Book Online incident and triage
  management SOPs and CONOPS
• Teleconferences IT-ISAC, US-CERT, and NTOC CWIN
• Information processing capabilities up to the
  TS/SCI level

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(No Transcript)
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NCC Watch Contact Information

• Phone
• 703-235-5080 (Non-Secure)
• 703-235-5097 (Secure Voice Fax)
• Fax
• 703-235-5078 (Unclassified)
• Email
• ncs_at_dhs.gov (Non-Secure)
• omncs_at_dhs.sgov.gov (HSDN)
• ncs_at_dhs.ic.gov (JWICS)