Keeping New Jersey safe is by itself a daunting challenge, but its unique proximity to its metropolitan neighbors makes the state a critical component of broader U.S. Homeland Security.
Located between two neighboring major metropolitan areas, New York City and Philadelphia, New Jersey is home to significant critical infrastructure including financial services, transportation and energy sectors. New Jersey itself is a major conduit for the U.S. economy.
So it’s easy to understand why just over 12 years ago, then-New Jersey Governor John Corzine, established the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) in order to better communicate threats either passing through or focused on the citizens of New Jersey.
The NJOHSP, is the agency responsible for coordinating and leading counter-terrorism, preparedness and cyber-security efforts. In the face of a wide-range of threats to security, a former CIA Officer has taken on the role of NJOHSP’s Director. Jared Maples has served in the position since January after serving as Acting Director for 6 months.
Maples’ main mission is to serve as the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisor, where he is the interlocutor between DHS, the FBI and the State of New Jersey. He is also charged with leading and coordinating New Jersey’s counter-terrorism, cyber security and preparedness efforts.
Unfortunately, he’s likely going to stay pretty busy. New Jersey finds itself at the nexus of numerous plots and attacks ranging from terrorism, to gang violence and school shootings. Consider a few of the headline-grabbing incidents that have occurred in just the past few months:
- In February 2018 “Chelsea” bomber Ahmad Khan Rahimi was sentenced to multiple life sentences for attacks that occurred in NY and NJ on September 17, 2016. Rahimi was arrested two days after the attack in Linden, NJ following a shootout with police in which Rahimi and two police officers were injured.
- On June 17, 2018 New Jersey suffered a mass shooting attack at an arts festival in which 22 people were injured, 17 of them suffering gunshot wounds, and one fatality, believed to be the suspected shooter. Authorities believe the shooting was gang related.
- And just a few days ago, a judge ordered a New Jersey teenager to be held without bail while he awaits trial. Facing terrorism charges and a potential life sentence if convicted, the teen stands accused of plotting to attack the New Egypt High School graduation
Layer on top of those threats the fact that New Jersey is among the most densely populated states in the country, housing about 1200 people per square mile, and start to begin to see the unique human challenge. To give you just an idea of the relativity of this mass community impact, the rest of the country houses roughly 92 people per square mile.
“Especially in Northern New Jersey, we have the people, the population issues, and also the infrastructure that sits on top of that, whether it be the energy, transportation or the financial sector,” said Maples in a conference room overlooking the state’s massive communications center. “Much of the financial industry, the actual operations of it, is actually run in New Jersey, not in New York for example, so I think the uniqueness is that it all comes together in the big melting pot that is Northern New Jersey and it’s the unique nature of the threats that dictates the unique relationships with two major cities as well as the need for near-instant coordination from the federal level down to the local level.”
New Jersey has detectives assigned to New York, Newark and Philadelphia, and Maples sits on the executive committees of each. “For every suspicious activity that happens in the state of NJ, whether it’s reported by the feds, a local citizen, or a cop reports it, the information is actually integrated into the FBI system directly,” explains Maples. “So if an incident happens here - let’s say a school threat in a particular town - through the automated system, the lead is sent immediately and spider-webs out. So the FBI sees it immediately, and can act in the event of a terrorism threat, but our detective is also sitting right there in Newark and everything is coordinated from there. And that is different from any other area I’m aware of.”
And what’s happening in the cyber domain, understandably, has a massive impact on understanding current and emerging threats for both the state and the broader private sector community. New Jersey’s partnership with JP Morgan is one example that Maples points to of a successful model of engagement.
“JP Morgan spends hundreds of millions of dollars in cyber security,” said Maples. “We have a relationship with them, and we try to actually glean lessons from them because they have such a depth of expertise. They’ve been great partners, along with dozens of other private sector companies. But the small and medium size companies are really our target audience. You can look at retail companies also. They get hit with ransomware attacks quite often. The healthcare sector is also huge.”
Public-private partnerships are vital in New Jersey. Critical infrastructure? Almost all of it is managed by the private sector. “Our relationship with them is where the rubber meets the road,” said Maples. “It often starts with a phone call to me by a CEO or a Chief Security Officer. Our folks, our detectives have great relationships with the private sector. Our policy and planning folks are the ones who host the infrastructure advisory committee, and it’s a two-way street in New Jersey. We are pulling best practices as they allow us access to their facilities and their plans, and letting us behind their curtain, so we let them behind our curtain as well. We get them clearances on cases where they are able to have a “need to know” and we work together to get out ahead of problems.”
Maples says New Jersey has also benefitted by having a domestic security preparedness task force, which is a statutory body. It means that Maples, as the chair of that group, has the ability to push out policy and best practices in ways that are different from other states. “We have the ability to push out those policies in a meaningful way, and to ensure they are enforced,” said Maples. “We also have subsets of that task force, like the infrastructure advisory committee, which includes private sector security shops, literally from all of the 18 DHS Sectors. So in any incident, whether it be cyber, physical or natural disaster, we are integrated immediately.”
The Threat Scenarios
One of the things Maples says he worries the most about is a potential future attack where cyber and physical components are combined for maximum effect.
“If somebody were to hack into the system of a water treatment facility, a couple of different scenarios could come out of that,” said Maples. “If somebody hacked into the system, and shut down the water filtration system for example, as an attack mechanism, that automatically becomes a physical problem. Another scenario would be if somebody attacked the security systems, literally the locks, alarms and gates at one of those facilities, and gave access to a nefarious actor, and they went in and put something in the water system.”
Maples also works with the nuclear facilities in the state and sits on the board of the security oversight committee, so he is intimately involved in providing protection for them. “They spend a lot of money on cyber security, but it’s the merger of the physical, and protecting against the threat of somebody physically getting inside to potentially damage the core that’s critical,” said Maples.
Overall, the state has close partnerships with neighboring communities and law enforcement that have led it to create its own unique authorities and protocols for addressing threats.
“The biggest challenge,” says Maples, “is like Rumsfeld used to say, “the known unknown” and being the preventer. I was always taught that you don’t want to be in a gun fight. How do you avoid that? So from a homeland security perspective, it’s getting ahead of these things, so I don’t have to wake the governor up at 3am.”
Glossary-
SCADA- Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition is an automated system of software and hardware that allows industrial organizations to control remotely control processes and operations.
