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FASTInfo Update Deployed

Shown is a map showing where CSAT facilities are located and categorized by colored dots.
FASTInfo Facility Mapping Capability

Achievement

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Center for Infrastructure Security Analysis (CISA) has released an updated version of Facility Status Tracking Information (FASTInfo), a powerful data visualization tool that augments Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) functionality. CSAT is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as part of the Department’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) Program, pursuant to 6 CFR Part 27 compliance. CISA Researcher Adam Bengston deployed FASTInfo Version 3.1.04 on December 2, 2019. This release includes restructuring the database for performance gains, improving the Graphical User Interface (GUI), and adding new data fields displayed in reports. CISA made these modifications in response to DHS user requests, other non–DHS user feedback, and the CISA researcher’s observations of system functionality.

Significance and Impact

Using the updated FASTInfo tool, ORNL and DHS personnel (and DHS–authorized policy makers, analysts, and inspectors) have enhanced access to detailed, organized information for each CSAT facility, saving both time and effort. 

Overview

The FASTInfo tool provides data visualization of chemical facility sites and surrounding infrastructure, which enables more accurate retrieval of facility locations by DHS users and consequently more reliability in emergency preparedness or response planning. In addition to performance gains from database restructuring, FASTInfo Version 3.1.04 offers increased utility and ease of use through multiple GUI modifications, including the following additions: an Outlook-exportable calendar, new icons on facility and survey pages, convenient links to complementary screens, and several new screens. Version 3.1.04 also includes new columns in existing reports and the addition of several new reports, increasing the amount of data retrievable in any given report. 

FASTInfo provides robust criteria selection capabilities for the following: 

  • An interactive mapping tool to search for registered chemical facilities, as well as other proximate key infrastructure. The geographical extent can be delimited by facility or by geographical parameters. FASTInfo provides the ability to view satellite maps and street maps with information layers relevant to safeguarding the U.S. chemical infrastructure against natural and man-made events. These layers include the locations of chemical facilities (color-coded by risk level), airports, fire stations, schools, hospitals, law enforcement, nuclear facilities, and oil refineries.
  • Facility-specific information, including addresses, contacts, owners and operators, recent surveys, applicable Data Universal Numbering System and North American Industry Classification System codes, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identifiers, numbers of employees, and security officer contacts.
  • Current and historical survey submissions displaying the full history of survey submissions by a chemical facility, including the survey ID number, type of survey, status, requestors, justifications, and whether or not the survey has been archived. Users click on the survey ID in order to see the type of facility, assets, survey users, survey extensions, and user information (like contact information).
  • All official correspondence sent to CSAT-registered facilities via either electronic letter (i.e., e-letter) or hardcopy letter. E letters are acknowledged through the CSAT Portal, and hardcopy letters are acknowledged by receipt or signature. Acknowledgement status also is recorded.
  • Requests for redetermination, i.e., when factors (such as chemical types or volumes) at a facility have changed sufficiently enough to revise the status of the facility, potentially removing it from Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) requirements.
  • User information, including company names, parent companies, user contact details, CSAT roles (e.g., preparer, reviewer, submitter, authorizer), personnel surety program submitters, and security officers.

FASTInfo is compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, which requires “…Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities.” (https://www.section508.gov/manage/laws-and-policies)

Last Updated: January 15, 2021 - 11:17 am