CISA Community Bulletin May 2024

The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) provides industry-based analyses and recommendations to the Executive Office of the President on how the government can take actions to enhance national security and emergency preparedness telecommunications. On March 7, 2024, the NSTAC unanimously approved two products containing recommendations for the president’s consideration.  

Tasked in May 2023 to study barriers that inhibit the adoption of cybersecurity standards and best practices in both public and private sectors, the NSTAC conducted an 8-month study that resulted in the NSTAC Report to the President on Measuring and Incentivizing the Adoption of Cybersecurity Best Practices. This report provides 12 key findings and 30 recommendations detailing how the government can incentivize and promote the adoption of cybersecurity best practices.

In December 2023, the NSTAC was asked to provide industry perspective on dynamic spectrum sharing plans outlined in the National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan. In response, the committee produced the NSTAC Letter to the President on Dynamic Spectrum Sharing. In the letter, the NSTAC expressed the need to make available additional spectrum resources for commercial use but also recognized that requirements must be balanced against current uses of spectrum to protect national defense interests.

CISA’s Office of Bombing Prevention (OBP) announces the development of a suite of products to recognize and report suspicious activity. These products feature the BOMBER acronym which is a tool you can use to assess your surroundings, identify suspicious activity, and help prevent a potential bombing incident.

• Baseline: Establish a baseline of what normal behaviors and activities look like. 
• Operational Indicators: A bombing attack requires a planning process that may include surveillance, target selection, testing or probing security and practice runs. 
• Materials: Terrorists and criminals acquire materials to create a homemade or improvised explosive device. 
• Bomb-Building Activity: Potential indicators of bomb-building activity include evidence of bomb-making research, testing of mixtures or devices and chemical exposure. 
• Elicitation: An attempt to discreetly gain information by asking questions about a place, person or operation. 
• Respond: Report suspicious activity.  Products in this collection include: 

• Identify Suspicious Activity Card and Poster 
• Identifying Suspicious Activity Video 

Suspicious Activity Recognition for Bombing Prevention Course 

CISA recently launched #Protect2024 to “help election officials and election infrastructure stakeholders protect against the cyber, physical, and operational security risks to election infrastructure during the 2024 election cycle.” CISA will work to do this by providing resources and stakeholder engagement throughout the country, during not only an election year but also our agency’s Year of Unity and Resilience. CISA aims to boost election infrastructure resilience and work collaboratively to support those engaged in this important work.

Election infrastructure is disparate, complex, and very much state and locally based. CISA encourages strength through unity by providing election officials with numerous resources, consistent guidance, and thorough participation in groups of election officials like the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). CISA is also unifying with organizations across the government to publish election security products.

The #Protect2024 resources and guidance encourages resiliency among election infrastructure and the officials safeguarding it. The site provides guidance to develop an incident response plan and encourages personnel to rehearse it. It links to free cyber hygiene services that can help an organization manage vulnerabilities. Protective Security Advisors are making physical security assessments available across CISA’s regions. As the year progresses, more resources, services, and information are becoming available!

Follow CISA on social media and check back on the #Protect2024 website throughout the year. Please share the information widely with CISA stakeholders.

The Interagency Security Committee published the 2023 Interagency Security Committee Annual Review. The Annual Review highlights the ISC’s continued dedication to providing its 66 members and stakeholders with excellence in federal facility security guidance, best practices, and training opportunities. 

The 2023 ISC Annual Review also highlights many of the ISC’s accomplishments and activities including the signing of Executive Order 14111, the development and release of numerous publications, completion of the ISC’s fifth year of compliance reporting, and a collection of entries that showcase the impactful work of member departments and agencies in the field.

April was the third annual Emergency Communications Month to honor the nation’s emergency responders and communicators, emphasizing the importance of interoperable emergency communications and the need to work together in building resilient critical infrastructure. This year’s theme placed a special focus on how our nation is Resilient Together, highlighting the importance of secure, interoperable emergency communications and how CISA supports this effort in collaboration with its partners across the emergency communications ecosystem.

Throughout April, CISA Emergency Communication’s Division encouraged organizations to significantly bolster their communications resiliency and emergency preparedness by enrolling in the agency’s free priority telecommunications services. These services, which include the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS), enable essential personnel to communicate when networks are degraded or congested due to weather events, mass gatherings, cyberattacks, or events stemming from human error.  

To learn more about Emergency Communications Month and how to amplify our resources, visit cisa.gov/emergency-communications-month.   

During the second week of April, CISA also recognized and celebrated National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.    

Are you prepared for events you are organizing for the summer? The CISA is hosting a 2-hour webinar on May 7, 2024, to provide tools and resources to assist with protection of public areas from a variety of threats.

Public gatherings and crowded places are increasingly vulnerable to terrorist attacks and other extremist actors because of their relative accessibility and large number of potential targets. Organizations of all types and sizes, including businesses, critical infrastructure owners and operators, schools, and houses of worship face a variety of security risks.

The topics will include information on security concerns, vulnerabilities, mitigation options and resources available to support the protection of public venues.

For more information about securing public gatherings visit https://www.cisa.gov/topics/physical-security/securing-public-gatherings or email CISARegion8trainingexercise@cisa.dhs.gov. 

CISA’s Emergency Communications Division (ECD) led the Cyber Resilient 911 (CR911) Program’s second regional symposium in the Southeast, which included CISA regions 4 and 6 as well as Delaware, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Attendees included 911 administrators, representatives from local centers and IT/cyber communities, and Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (SWICs) from each state and territory.

CISA's collaboration history with SWICs is crucial for enhancing nationwide interoperability and strengthening stakeholder relationships, especially in emergency communication systems like 911. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) partnered with CISA to engage stakeholders to determine cybersecurity priorities for the CR911 Program.

At the symposium, speakers and panelists presented an overview of the current cyber threat landscape and shared resources to help enhance the cybersecurity posture of Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs). Symposium topics included the current state of cyber resilience in the 911 ecosystem, best practices for responding to a cyberattack and the available program resources for each region. CISA facilitators utilized interactive live polling, breakout sessions and group discussions to gather stakeholders’ current needs, concerns and capability gaps with regards to cybersecurity. Attendees also participated in a tabletop discussion focused on a simulated cyberattack scenario.

To keep America safe, secure, and resilient, CISA collaborates with public safety, national security, and emergency preparedness communities to enhance seamless communications. An interruption in communications impacts a public safety agency’s ability to deliver critical lifesaving services to the community. It is imperative that public safety agencies carefully plan, implement, and review communications capabilities to maintain daily communications abilities and prepare for future emergency events. 

To assist public safety agencies in navigating the wealth of information available regarding communications resiliency, CISA created the Public Safety Communications and Cyber Resiliency Toolkit to identify and address emergent trends and issues, consolidate resources, educate stakeholders at all levels of government, and propose mitigations to enable resilient public safety communications. It is designed to assist those responsible for communications networks by providing the tools that evaluate current resiliency capabilities, identify ways to improve resiliency, and develop plans for mitigating the effects of potential resiliency threats.

Using an interactive graphic, Toolkit users can easily navigate through several topics and access applicable resources. Current topics include:

• Alerts, Warnings, and Notifications
• Cyber Incidents
• Cybersecurity
• Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)
• Healthcare
• Jamming
• Land Mobile Radio (LMR)
• Local Access Networks (LAN)
• Next Generation 911 (NG911)
• Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Disruptions
• Power
• Priority Services
• Ransomware
• Resiliency Introduction
• Site Hardening
• Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

Since its last update in August 2023, the Toolkit has been updated with seven new resources across the existing sections. Users are encouraged to revisit the Toolkit regularly and take advantage of new information and resources. Check out the updates at https://www.cisa.gov/communications-resiliency today!

For more information and additional guidance regarding communications resiliency, visit cisa.gov/safecom/technology.

CISA, as part of its Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) Project, just finalized and published its Hybrid Identity Solutions Guidance to help organizations better understand identity management capabilities, the tradeoffs that exist in various implementation options, and factors that should be considered when making implementation decisions. This guidance supports the SCuBA Project’s goal of helping agencies effectively implement cybersecurity capabilities as they migrate from traditional on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.  

Although primarily intended for FCEB agencies, this guidance is broadly applicable for state, local, tribal, and territorial government and critical infrastructure entities, as well as private industry, academia, and more. Learn more about options for identity management between cloud and on-premises systems here Secure Cloud Business Applications: Hybrid Identity Solutions Guidance | CISA 

Interested in sharing your tech experience with those just starting their career journey? One of CISA’s Cybersecurity Workforce Development and Training for Underserved Communities (CWD) cooperative agreement recipients, NPower, has developed a Coaching Session program for their trainees, where IT and tech career professionals volunteer to share how they have successfully navigated the tech landscape.

The program speaks to NPower’s ultimate goal of empowering young adults from underserved communities to pursue careers in tech.

This volunteer coaching opportunity is available to CISA employees who are IT/Tech professionals and wish to share their experiences in alignment with CISA’s goal to educate and train the future cybersecurity workforce. Coaching sessions are held via Zoom with 3 to 6 trainees, to offer them a comfortable environment to set goals and ask questions about their intended career path. Multiple, two-hour coaching sessions will be offered throughout April and May, meeting with students in cohorts across the nation, from California to New York. There are many dates and times to choose from, including multiple evening sessions!