What pieces of security and other information would be most important for your company to keep under lock and key and away from terrorists? Who in your plant is able to access this information, and what do you know about those people? Are your plant's protections against cyber-attacks and acts of sabotage adequate? Does your plant have processes in place to secure the shipping, receipt, and storage of materials?
Even in these hyper-security-minded times, these are questions that many manufacturers would be hard-pressed to answer. But managers at thousands of chemical plants in the United States are being required to do just that under a federal regulation that Congress passed in 2006 but is just starting to kick in.
The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), part of the Department of Homeland Security Act of 2007, sets up a complex multi-step process intended to identify U.S. chemical facilities that could be targets of terrorist attacks and to make sure they have adequate security protections and processes in place.
While many large chemicals manufacturers are already well on their way to CFATS compliance, having voluntarily initiated security assessments soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, smaller manufacturers "will have more of a challenge because many haven't had the necessary business controls in place, and many have fewer resources to throw at the issue," says Tom Marriott, process industry leader at Deloitte.