EMP Shielding Best Practices for Critical Infrastructure

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) can be triggered by natural sources, such as a major solar storm, or be manmade, such as the result of a nuclear weapon detonation. Whatever the source, DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate notes EMPs represent a present and continuing threat to critical infrastructure and has published a report that provides recommendations owners and operators and other entities can employ to protect against their effects.

This document focuses on a best practice for EMP protection that applies to critical assets across all critical infrastructure sectors: the placement of co-located groups of time-urgent, mission-critical equipment (MCE) in cabinets or racks, shelters, shielded rooms, or buildings that are protected by an electromagnetic barrier. It presents three low-risk EMP protection approaches that increase in scale: equipment enclosures for small groups of collocated equipment, shelters for clusters of MCE, and rooms or buildings for protecting an entire system. DHS implemented one of the approaches described in the document, for protecting FEMA Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) infrastructure. For all the approaches, the document notes they can be implemented in either retrofit or new installation mode. Furthermore, it observes many commercial-off-the-shelf products are available. In addition to describing how to implement effective EMP protection, the document recommends developing a concept of operations (CONOPS) that describes roles and responsibilities, procedures, and more and conducting regular inspections, maintenance, training, and exercises. Access the report below and at DHS.