From wildfires to terrorist plots, to the arrest of individuals with IEDs, the State of California is constantly under threat. With more than 38 million residents (equaling roughly 12 percent of the nation’s population), it is the most populous state in the U.S. California manages the threat preparedness and response via the California State Threat Assessment Center (STAC), which is a part of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
The STAC is the primary fusion center for the State and in 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Eli Owen to run it. Owen manages the day-to-day operations, which is no small task given California’s vulnerability to earthquakes, floods, wildfires, public health emergencies, the impact of prolonged drought, cybersecurity attacks, terrorism, home-grown violent extremism, human trafficking and foreign intelligence collection operations.
California is also the home of Silicon Valley, at a time when the development of technology and also the misuse of tech, has a greater impact on security than at any other time in history.
You get the (big) picture.
Owen took on the task after spending more than eight years at the CIA, where he worked counterterrorism and cybersecurity issues. The Cipher Brief talked with him to talk about the challenges he’s facing and how the State of California is sharing lessons learned when it comes to protecting the homeland.
Cipher Brief: How does California define homeland security and what are the primary threats to the state? Do you include both man-made and natural disasters in your definition?
Owen: We define Homeland Security as the coordinated effort to ensure we are prepared to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from threats and acts of terrorism, plus other man-made or natural disasters or catastrophes. It requires a risk management process to ensure California has the right capabilities in place to anticipate and manage those hazards that pose the greatest risk to the State, its people, and its critical infrastructure and key resources.
The Cipher Brief: What role does Cal OES play in State and national homeland security?
Owen: The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) serves at the primary Homeland Security Agency for California. Cal OES is the primary point of contact for the federal government and our partners at DHS.
Cal OES is the State’s lead Homeland Security Agency. It is more than its counter-terrorism and protection of critical infrastructure missions. Cal OES works alongside and integrates key State and Federal partner agencies such as the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ), the California National Guard (CNG) and the California Department of Corrections (CDCR), DHS as-a-whole, FEMA and the FBI, to name just a few. Cal OES serves as an all crimes and all hazards organization. It incorporates and coordinates the State Primary and five Regional Fusion Centers, in addition to meeting the State’s counter-terrorism mission. This combination of key Threat Assessment Centers makes up the State Threat Assessment System (STAS).
The Cipher Brief: How do you even begin to rank the threats that include terrorism, human trafficking, counter-intelligence, organized crime and gangs and industrial espionage, to name a few?
Owen: We work with our state Fusion Centers – known as the California State Threat Assessment System - to create a methodology to rack and stack threats; we call it the Threat Assessment Program, and it’s an annual effort driven from the bottom-up. We do this to help the HSA, the Governor and other senior officials understand — and prioritize — threats to the State. Our Threat Assessment Program is modelled after the FBI’s threat assessment program but customized to our need.
To better understand the statewide threat environment, we engage with the whole of Cal OES and use a variety of means, including town halls and surveys and interviews of every public safety stakeholder who will talk to our team. It’s an arduous process but allows us to speak authoritatively about the threat environment in California in ways we never were able to previously.
The Cipher Brief: How does California organize for homeland security?
Owen: With the State exceeding a diverse population of 38 million residents across 163,695 square miles, and the busiest international border crossing in the United States and some of the nation’s most critical infrastructure, securing and preparing California requires continuous attention and strategic commitment from all levels of government, the private sector and the general public. The State is prone to floods, fires and earthquakes, as well as other natural disasters, and remains at high-risk for terrorism. The State's success depends upon strong leadership and effective partnerships with federal, State, tribal and local agencies, as well as the private sector, non-governmental organizations and individual citizens. California's strategic approach to homeland security is to develop multi-discipline, multi-jurisdictional, and regional frameworks for all risk planning, organizing, equipping, training and exercising to strengthen homeland security.
The State Threat Assessment System (STAS) is a key component of California’s homeland security effort and helps safeguard the communities of California by serving as a dynamic security nexus comprised of the State, four Regional and a major urban area Fusion Center. The STAS assists in the detection, prevention, investigation and response to criminal and terrorist activity, disseminates intelligence and facilitates communications between state, local, federal, tribal agencies and private sector partners. Our threat assessment system helps our other stakeholders take action on threats and public safety issues. The STAS is a key component of California's Homeland Security Strategy.
California’s five Regional Fusion Centers inform and coordinate directly with the California State Threat Assessment Center (STAC). The STAC is California’s Primary Fusion Center and a partnership of the California Highway Patrol (CHP), California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). It has connectivity and links to and the participation of a number of state, federal agencies.
The STAC provides statewide analytic products, information tracking, pattern analysis, geographic report linkages and other statewide intelligence products to public safety agencies throughout California. The STAC provides direct linkage to the State Warning Center, National Counter Terrorism Center and the National Watch List through the Homeland Security Operations Center.
The Cipher Brief: Does the state employ intelligence analysts and operational planners on a permanent basis? What are the backgrounds of the analysts and planners? Do many of them have active security clearances?
Owen: We employ intelligence analysts, critical infrastructure assessors, cyber analysts, law enforcement, fire service and emergency management liaison personnel, trainers, public health specialists, methodologists, linguists, and operational planners on a permanent basis in the State as well as at our fusion centers. The backgrounds of our team include former military, law enforcement and intelligence community professionals. All of our staff maintain a clearance ranging from secret to top secret SCI.
The Cipher Brief: Federal government – Silicon Valley relations are strained. How is the State government's relationship with the Valley? Are there technology cooperation initiatives underway?
Owen: Our partnership with the private sector and community organizations is critical to our security and resiliency. The Cal OES Office of Private Sector/NGO Coordination fosters relationships with businesses, associations, companies, and universities, as well as nonprofit, nongovernmental, and philanthropic organizations. This Office works within Cal OES to maximize the inclusion and effective use of private sector, philanthropic, and NGO staff and resources in all phases of homeland security and emergency management. The Office spear heads our relations with the Valley. Other parts of our organization also maintain robust relations with the Valley, to include our California Cybersecurity Integration Center.
The Governor created the California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC) in 2015 to protect the State against cyber threats. It maintains robust relations with companies operating in this space, to include the Valley. The California Cybersecurity Task Force is co-chaired by the Director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services and the Director of the California Department of Technology. The task force is also composed of representatives from the public and private sectors; academia and Tribal governments.
