Homeland Security Updates Terrorism Alert System

Homeland Security has revamped the national alert system that informs Americans about risks involving terrorism.

The officials announced that they would start issuing alerts in regards to threats from the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, and other terrorist groups with the hopes of providing the public a "more flexible way to communicating threats."

A senior official from the department stated that the bulletin system has been in works for months and was not started due to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

"The bulletin is intended to describe current developments or general trends regarding threats of terrorism to the United States for the American people," the official said reported by Reuters.

The official added, according to TIME, ""We have witnessed constantly evolving threats across the world, from Garland to the streets of Paris, to San Bernardino. We have also heard repeated calls from ISIL against our citizens, our military and our law enforcement personnel. In light of these persistent activities, the secretary thought it necessary to... share more information with our fellow citizens."

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is set to announce the update on Thursday.

Johnson did activate the national Terrorism Advisory System for the first time on Wednesday, warning the public of "self-radicalized actors who could strike with little or no notice."

"I believe in this new environment we need to...go to a new system that has an intermediate level to it,'' Johnson had said last week reported by USA TODAY. "We need a new system that informs the public at large what we are seeing...what we are doing about it and what we are asking the public to do.''

The advisory system that replaced the precious color-coded one after 9/11 involves two levels of alert. The first one is known as an elevated alert, which would be used if there were a credible of threat of violence. The second is the imminent alert, which would warn the public of a real and specific threat. The bulletin system can be seen as a third level alert that provides more general information.

The bulletin will be in effect for the next six months.