There is no silver bullet for securing our homeland.

     By training the individual citizens of this great land, our police, firefighters, air-traffic controllers, health-care workers, engineers, information technologists, our government employees, we can hope to achieve a collective victory in the war against terrorism. This nation has established world leadership in science and technology; over the last century we have become the major economic and military strength. By teaching all of our citizenry how to utilize the best science and technology we can successfully prevail over those who would rob us of our precious way of life.

     Much of this nation’s infrastructure was originally designed and constructed without sufficient consideration of terrorist attacks or other man-made hazards. Prior to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, these vulnerabilities were not apparent to society at large. In a recently released report, the Office of Homeland Security has identified critical infrastructure in need of protection and hardening. Until this infrastructure has successfully been protected, critical assets of our nation will continue to be potential targets for those that would do us harm.

     CIPHER at the University of Oklahoma delivers coordinated and integrated activities in education and research for protection of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Our unique expertise includes nearly all infrastructure sectors:

     water resources, public health, emergency services, public policy, energy, defense technologies, telecommunications and information technologies, transportation, structures, postal/shipping, and the chemical industry.

     CIPHER trains professionals and educates students in the strengthening and hardening of critical infrastructures. A unique aspect of CIPHER is that the experience and lessons learned through training activities are used to drive future research directions. In addition to offering immediate benefits through training and education, this novel approach allows rapid transfer of research technologies into practice by first responders as well as in operations, design, and retrofitting of critical infrastructures.

     CIPHER is not a collection of disparate researchers promoting abstract solutions in search of problems. Instead, it is an operational center delivering tangible benefits and high-value, high-impact services in our war against terrorism. Moreover, the synergy that achieved by establishing this integrated center in the nation’s heartland promotes meaningful, cogent research that complement CIPHER’s educational and training mission.

     CIPHER is an education/training and research/development unit within the University of Oklahoma. The mission of CIPHER is to develop and deploy proven technologies in support of homeland security, and to train students, teachers, and professionals in successful methods for design and implementation of hardened infrastructure systems. CIPHER-certified solutions provide surety to government and industry decision- makers that the best-available techniques for infrastructure protection are utilized in support of homeland security. .