The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a status report on its preparations to confront the threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, noting that it is evaluating “the need for a program management office to provide steady consistent leadership in both the public and private sector engagements” and developing an interagency EMP exercise to be conducted in fiscal year 2021. DHS was directed to take engage in efforts for EMP protection, response, and recovery in an executive order released in March 2019. Part of DHS’s broad focus under the executive order is to ensure timely EMP information gets to state and local governments, with a duty to “coordinate response to and recovery from the effects of EMPs on critical infrastructure,” exercise EMP scenarios, “maintain survivable means to provide necessary emergency information to the public during and after EMPs,” and develop quadrennial risk assessments. The document said that DHS’s initial efforts have focused on risk management in the communications and energy sectors. In addition to accessing the status report below, read more about it in an article at Homeland Security Today.