InfraGard is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) program that began in the Cleveland Field Office in 1996. It was a local effort to gain support from the information technology industry and academia for the FBI’s investigative efforts in the cyber arena. The program expanded to other FBI Field Offices, and in 1998 the FBI assigned national program responsibility for InfraGard to the former National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and to the Cyber Division in 2003.
Infragard and the FBI have developed a relationship of trust and credibility in the exchange of information concerning various terrorism, intelligence, criminal, and security matters.
The InfraGard program is a public/private cooperative
effort dedicated to improving our national security. InfraGard
consists of Chapters throughout the United States and has thousands
of members. The FBI leads the U.S. Government side of InfraGard. The
private sector side of InfraGard is led by a non-profit corporation,
the InfraGard National Members Alliance, which consists of local
InfraGard Members Alliances (IMAs) throughout the country. An
InfraGard "Chapter" refers to the local FBI, the local IMA, and the
local InfraGard members working together. "InfraGard" is a
registered service mark of the FBI.
For more information, you can download the
Infragard Tallahassee Members Alliance Bylaws.
The goal of InfraGard is to promote ongoing dialogue and timely communication between members and the FBI. InfraGard members gain access to information that enables them to protect their assets and in turn give information to government that facilitates its responsibilities to prevent and address terrorism and other crimes.
All InfraGard participants are committed to the proposition that a robust exchange of information about threats to and actual attacks on these critical infrastructures is an important element for successful infrastructure protection efforts.
The goal of InfraGard is to enable the flow of information so that the owners and operators of infrastructure assets can better protect themselves and so that the United States government can better discharge its law enforcement and national security responsibilities.
InfraGard is an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide range of members. At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the FBI and the private sector. InfraGard is an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States.
InfraGard Chapters are geographically linked with FBI Field Office territories. Each InfraGard Chapter has an FBI Special Agent Coordinator assigned to it, and the FBI Coordinator works closely with Supervisory Special Agent Program Managers in the Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The Tallahassee chapter of Infragard works closely with state and local law enforcement, as well as representatives from the private sector.