Homeland Security Advisory System

The Homeland Security Advisory System was designed to provide a national framework and comprehensive means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to the following:

• Federal, state, and local authorities
• The American people
• The private sector

Threat Conditions

This system provides warnings in the form of a set of graduated threat conditions that increase as the risk of the threat increases. Risk includes both the probability of an attack occurring and its potential gravity. Threat conditions may be assigned for the entire nation, or they may be set for a particular geographic area or industrial sector. At each threat condition, government entities and the private sector, including businesses and schools, would implement a corresponding set of protective measures to further reduce vulnerability or increase response capability during a period of heightened alert.
There are five threat conditions, each identified by a description and corresponding color. Assigned threat conditions will be reviewed at regular intervals to determine whether adjustments are warranted.