It's Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month

Online, November 25, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Personal Recovery Concepts, LLC (PRC) based in Huntington Beach, CA and Nauset National Security Group, LLC (NSSG) headquartered in Hyannis, MA have joined forces to provide individuals, families, companies, non-profits, and government agencies a patented and simple to use software program that guides individuals to centrally document and store critical information in five areas, making it easy to find and recover information for everyday tasks and personal or public crisis, emergency and disaster. Here's why:

In proclaiming this month (NOV 2013) as "Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month", President Obama said, "This month, as we recognize that safeguarding our critical infrastructure is an economic and security imperative, let each of us do our part to build a more resilient Nation."

The single best thing that can be done to make our nation more resilient is to strengthen the resilience of our citizens and their families. There is absolutely no question that strengthening the protection of the nation's critical infrastructure is vital to our national security and the President's call to action this month is important and self-explanatory. In pursuing a national strategy capable of meeting the full range of threats and hazards our communities face, the President certainly knows that government cannot deter or prevent every single threat or event, which explains the President's call for more action to enhance the nation's resilience—the ability to adapt to changing conditions and prepare for, withstand, and rapidly recover from disruption. His Administration has been working hard to strengthen the nation's ability to prepare for disasters in ways that reduce or eliminate long-term effects to people and property and improve response and recovery capabilities. With respect to critical infrastructure, government has been working with industry to design structures and systems that can withstand disruptions and mitigate consequences. Redundant systems are being built to ensure continuity of critical functions, and critical operations are being decentralized to reduce vulnerability to single points of failure or disruption.

Although the Administration emphasizes individual and community preparedness and resilience through frequent engagement to discuss risk and the provision of practical steps citizens should take to protect themselves, their families, and their neighbors in the event of an emergency, a key question remains: Are individuals and families developing emergency plans of their own to help them recovery from a natural or man-made disaster?

Do you have a personal preparedness plan to help you recover from a personal or community-based crisis, emergency or disaster? Does your family have such a plan? A large percentage of people and families do not have a plan. So, *unfortunately, the answer to these questions is "no" for most Americans. In fact, less than 10 percent of Americans have documented or safely stored personal or family financial, emergency, household, medical and legal information which could be of enormous help in an emergency situation. The lack of personal resilience adversely impacts people, families and organizations every single day. The cost of unpreparedness can be estimated (and one can easily rationalize a cost of tens of billions of dollars a year); but when crisis, emergency or disaster hits, being unprepared can cause stress, frustration, aggravation, poor health, absenteeism, presenteeism (a loss of workplace productivity resulting from employee health problems and/or personal issues), or worse.

Recent major catastrophic events in the U.S. have under-scored a few weaknesses in American culture when it comes to disaster preparedness: (1) a sense of complacency about our own safety; (2) a reliance by citizens on the help of authorities in life-threatening situations; and (3) an unrealistic expectation that our first responders and critical business recovery teams will be available and focused to support rescue or recovery when they themselves (or their families) are victims of the same event. A number of recent homeland security studies, policies and executives have also spotlighted these cultural weaknesses and have helped move the issue of personal resilience to the forefront as a key priority in the nation's pursuit of demonstrable resilience. One astute observer recently opined, "resilience has a 'desirability deficiency', as in it needs to be able to be presented as something desirable." Ask anyone who has had to endure a major disaster if they had wished they could have been better prepared and the answer will be yes. Even when the emergency, crisis or disaster is more personal in scope, could you have been better prepared? The answer to the question is mostly like to be yes.

Personal Recovery Concepts and Nauset National Security Group joined forces to provide people and organizations a patented and simple to use personal recovery software program to centrally document and store critical information that will help people prepare for and more quickly recover from any disruptive event, including a major disaster. Ten years of study that blends primary and secondary research, as well as best practices from leading organizations specializing in a variety of emergency preparedness and response, has helped define the array of information the Personal Recovery Professional and e-Interactive Workshop Complete Solution™ software program guides an individual to collect. This software focuses on something other resources do not: what it takes to shorten the time to optimally recover form unexpected events. The software program is easy to use and its design was based on feedback from the least technically savvy audience - senior citizens.

The Personal Recovery Professional and e-Interactive Workshop Complete Solution™ software program was also designed to be flexible enough to anticipate a far wider array of emergencies that anything available in the marketplace. Deceptively simple, the five categories provide an extraordinarily comprehensive solution that allows individuals to overcome even mundane emergencies like a lost wallet, or computer or tablet crash that results in loss of account names or passwords. Yet it is also powerful enough to provide a person or family an emergency preparedness and recovery plan for catastrophic disasters, major power disruptions, identity theft, family health crisis or other emergencies like a home fire, theft or other disruptive event.

As a key part of the software, the e-Interactive Workshop guides the user to develop and document a personal or family emergency plan and teaches them how to assess risk and develop techniques to prevent, prepare, and cover from commonly occurring emergencies and natural disasters. This is important because an individual interested in developing a personal or family emergency plan has to first understand the types of emergency situations to plan for, define resources available to them, and then define the plans they need to make for the areas they or their family live, work and play. With scores of government agency planning documents and a bazillion checklists available via the Internet focused on different types of emergencies, such a task is overwhelming for even the best intentioned person.

For those who are skeptical of new software in light of recent press reports on cyber security and domestic electronic surveillance, the Personal Recovery Professional and e-Interactive Workshop Complete Solution™ software program file encryption process is simple with a drag and drop process. Encrypted files remain secure on the home computer, and can be e-mailed or copied to a storage device. The proprietary 256 bit JUMBLE™ encryption engine handles all forms of digital data seamlessly and without errors. It is compatible with any digital format including electronic files, video, audio and alphanumeric without file type or size restrictions. This feature is especially important for those who also want to encrypt pictures and video of essential documents and property for asset recovery following an event.

The safety and security of American families can be significantly improved if everyone who can invests in becoming more resilient to unexpected events—be they personal tragedies, public threats, or the "won't happen here" natural disaster that could occur later today. National resilience is a shared responsibility. The Federal Government has spent tens of billions of dollars on protecting our Nation and strengthening its resilience to a wide range of threats. US industry has played a role in strengthening the nation's critical infrastructure. But let's not forget that individuals and families also have a responsibility to strengthen their ability

Creating a national culture of resilience require changing the way we perceive ourselves in a disaster, emergency or crisis. The extent to which we invest in helping ourselves see that we can be capable, connected, adaptable and self-sufficient, rather than dependent, victimized or helpless, will enables us to make decisions and take actions that enable us to better cope in the face of a disaster, emergency or crisis. The collective return on the investment we make in this regard can be enormous for our country.
Individuals and families must understand the importance of providing their own first line of defense against disasters and emergencies—this must be seen as a civic responsibility and a moral imperative. Disasters and emergencies have been part of the human condition since day one. The real key to improving the nation's ability to absorb, recover from and adapt to disasters and emergencies is the development of demonstrable individual and family resilience plans. Most of us know that hospitals can be over-loaded in a major disaster. The destruction of telecommunications and transportation infrastructure (highways, railroads, airports and seaports) can prevent assistance from arriving for days. The restoration of disrupted water, sewer, and electric power or natural gas pipeline systems after a disruptive event could take much longer. We are not suggesting, however, that individuals and families need to jump on the "doom boom" wagon and invest thousands of dollars in "prepping" themselves for a catastrophe or holocaust. Far from it, but what we are asking people to think about this holiday season is prudent planning for "emergency certainty" and the need for understanding the practical, every-day benefits of having an up-to-date personal and/or family recovery plan.
When asked why Nauset National Security Group decided to partner with PRC to help strengthen the nation's resilience posture, NNSG President Ronald Bearse, former Director of the Business Continuity and Emergency Preparedness Staff at the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security DHS and Director of the Office of Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection at Treasury HQ in Washington DC during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he said, " The answer is simple, the Personal Recovery Professional and e-Interactive Workshop Complete Solution™ solves a basic human problem (personal resilience) with greater speed and simplicity than anyone, or anything I have seen in the community or marketplace."

When asked what separates the PRC software from other programs or helpful information that is available for free on the Internet, Mr. Bearse said: "I've used the software myself and it was developed with a passion for personal resilience, an incredible body of knowledge, and a great understanding of the importance of the connection between the people and their computers. "PRC's effective use of domain wisdom enabled them to remove the unnecessary steps people are likely to take in building a personal preparedness or recovery plan by searching across the Internet for help, or worse, by building it on their own, in which case they could miss critically important elements." Ron further added, "What's truly amazing is that the software provides people what they instinctively, emotionally and intellectually "know they need", in a single software program, at an affordable price."

PRC and NNSG applaud the President for penning his proclamation and call to action, and we want to underscore the fact that personal resilience is the foundation of national resilience. This holiday season take time out to think about the safety and security of those whom you love--a father or mother, a son or daughter, a nice or nephew, or a great friend. Unfortunately, someday they are very likely to experience an emergency, disaster or other terribly disruptive event, and the likelihood of their not being as prepared as they should to recover as quickly as possible is a clear and present predicament. So please take a few minutes to learn more about this valuable software program and take the President's advice and do your part in building a more resilient Nation. The Personal Recovery Professional and e-Interactive Workshop Complete Solution™ software program is available to individuals for $69.99 at www.personalrecoveryconcepts.com or at www.nnsgllc.com.

Appreciable cost savings on bulk purchases of more than 500 copies of the software, as an enterprise-wide solution to strengthen the resilience of employees and/or clients are available by contacting John Enright at: 530.308.3243 [email protected].

About NNSG, LLC:
Nauset National Security Group, LLC, headquartered in Hyannis, MA, provides products and services to help individuals and organizations demonstrably strengthen their resilience to a wide variety of threats, crises, emergencies and disasters.

About PRC, LLC:
Personal Recovery Concepts, LLC, based in Huntington Beach CA, is a leader in the emerging sector of people-continuity services for government, business and consumers. Their products and services solve the gap in human resources resilience for government first responders, business critical response teams and for employees who face everyday loss with a realized cost impact to the organizations they work for.