DHS Modifies Threat Alert System

As many of you may recall, shortly after the World Trade Center attack, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designed a color-coded alert system that ran from blue to red to indicate the nation’s level of concern with terrorism threats.  In 2011, that system was simplified to employ only two threat levels – “elevated,” to warn of a credible threat, and “imminent,” to give notice of a specific impending threat.

Earlier this week, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson announced that the national threat characterization levels will now include a third component known as “bulletin level.”  This level is designed to share information that does not meet the thresholds described in the other characterizations but rather describes terrorism developments or general trends and provides suggestions about what the public can do — such as report suspicious behavior.  We are now at “bulletin level” through June 2016.

To read the bulletin, and for more threat advisory information, go to https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/ntas_15_1216_0001 .