NJOHSP Interfaith Meeting Highlights Threat Environment, Commemorates Late Interfaith Outreach Coordinator; Mass Exploitation of Citrix NetScaler Vulnerability – Patch Now; FBI Director: US at High Risk of HAMAS-Inspired Terror Attacks

More than 200 faith-based leaders attended the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness’ Nov. 1 Interfaith Advisory Council meeting, which featured federal, State and local law enforcement partners who discussed the recent threat landscape and security-related resources. The meeting included a celebration of life ceremony to commemorate the late NJOHSP Lt. Detective John Paige. NJOHSP Director Laurie Doran and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin provided opening remarks for the meeting. Topics included:

• State and federal grant programs available for eligible organizations
• Threat Analysis, mass casualty kits, cybersecurity and New Jersey Suspicious Activity Reporting System briefings
• A New Jersey Department of Human Services mental health presentation, “Pathway to Violence”

During the second half of the meeting, NJOHSP staff, attendees and guests paid tribute to Paige, who passed away in June. During his 17-year tenure with NJOHSP, Paige served as the agency’s Interfaith Outreach Coordinator. He was one of the original founding members of the IAC, which now serves as a national model for other states, diligently working to bridge the divide between law enforcement and religious and minority communities. Prior to joining NJOHSP, Paige served as a supervisory special agent with the FBI for 26 years.

Individuals interested in learning more about the IAC can visit njohsp.gov/interfaith.

Threat actors are actively exploiting a critical information disclosure vulnerability known as “Citrix Bleed,” which affects Citrix NetScaler ADC/Gateway devices. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-4966, is remotely exploitable and can allow threat actors to obtain valid session tokens from the memory of internet-facing NetScaler devices. They can use the compromised tokens to hijack active sessions, bypassing authentication – even multi-factor authentication, to gain unauthorized access. The New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell advises organizations to update impacted devices to ensure they are not compromised. NJCCIC also advises organizations with compromised Citrix devices to remove the devices from the network, terminate all active sessions and remove any backdoors or web shells to ensure all threat actor access has been disabled; simply updating the system is insufficient. For more information, including indicators of compromise and other resources, visit the NJCCIC website.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Oct. 31 that the U.S. is at significant risk for a HAMAS-inspired homegrown violent extremist terrorist attack. The warning follows the Oct. 7 terrorist group's attack on Israel. FBI intelligence analysts assessed that lone actors will be inspired by or react to the ongoing Middle East conflict. These individuals or small groups pose the most likely threat to Americans, especially Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S. “The actions of HAMAS and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven't seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago,” Wray told the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security Committee during a recent hearing on worldwide threats. In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al-Qa’ida, have called for attacks against Americans and the West. While the terrorism threat level has remained elevated throughout 2023, Wray said the Israel-HAMAS conflict has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the U.S. to a “whole ‘nother level.” He noted that there’s no information indicating HAMAS's intent or the group's capability to attack the U.S. but said it’s a possibility that cannot be discounted.