Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA)

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The Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) was established by the United States Congress in 2002. Contained in the MTSA are rules and regulations designed for port facilities, vessels, and waterways, to provide an extra level of security for potentially vulnerable areas. Additionally, the Act outlines the role of the federal government agencies and assists facilities with making a Facility Security Plan that would include preventative measures and response procedures. Federal laws were constructed and outlined in the MTSA like Section 2284 (a) for the transportation of terrorist that makes it illegal to transport terrorist (MTSA, 2002). The final roll out of the Transportation Works Identification Credentials (TWIC) which prevents an individual …show more content…

The USCG also audits and sanctions seaports and ships that are included as outlined in the MTSA. The United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP)is responsible for screening a certain percentage of incoming and outgoing cargo to ensure there are no dangerous devices of substances moving in or out of the country (MTSA, 2002). The USCBP provides immigration and vessel inspections for vessels arriving from foreign ports. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is in control of qualifying applicants and issuing Transportation Workers Identification Credentials (MTSA, 2002). In a team effort, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Customs, and Border Protection, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Federal Emergency Management Administration would all play a vital role in response to a significant security incident by providing support to victims and …show more content…

In reply to the issues with information sharing is to be as transparent as possible but America needs to recognize that the is some information that cannot be disseminated to the public. However, some of the issues with intelligence gathering and sharing were cleared up in 2015 with the USA Freedom ACT. The only way to keep up with terrorism is to study the trends and keep up with the intelligence network which the JTTF are doing an excellent job of maintaining. The ways to deal with the issues directly effecting MTSA are relatively simple on the first two. TSA and facility security need to be audited more often and held responsible for infractions. As for the cybersecurity complications, agencies and facility need to ensure all of the easy to fix problems are corrected like updated anti-virus and secure infrastructure. They also need to develop new methods of dealing with cyber-terrorist as well as implementing new policies and criminal

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