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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently launched three videos that provide key steps to recognize suspicious activity and take appropriate action to prevent a bombing event.
The free videos were developed by CISA’s Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP) and are available on YouTube. They provide real-life scenarios that are readily relatable to emergency service providers and their stakeholders. The videos include:
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Be Vigilant – Vigilant Neighbor – A young woman realizes her neighbors have recently shown signs of suspicious behavior that led to the local high school bombing event. She reports her neighbors to the authorities, leading to their arrest.
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Be Vigilant – Vigilant Manager – Mike, a store manager, realizes he could have prevented the high school bombing event by reporting the recently stolen items from his inventory.
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Be Vigilant – Vigilant Employee – Two employees recall a customer who requested to purchase more chemicals than usual and behaved suspiciously. Had these employees known about the possible nefarious usage of the products in their store, they could have reported the suspicious purchases and prevented the bombing attack.
The series is designed to provide a simple way to communicate bombing prevention concepts and highlights the fact that bomb-making materials are readily available for those seeking to harm the public.
Approximately 250,000 point-of-sale businesses in the U.S. sell, use, or distribute materials that can be used to build bombs. Criminals can easily obtain common household chemicals and components at beauty supply stores, hardware stores, pool supply stores, sporting goods stores, and elsewhere to create homemade explosives and improvised explosive devices (IED).
Bomb threats remain a major concern for the public. The total number of explosive and device-related incidents reported in open sources, including IED activity, totaled 2,061 events in 2020, according to the TRIPwire 2020 Domestic Open Source Intelligence IED Report.
CISA provides many counter-IED and risk mitigation training courses that include in-person mobile trainings, web-based Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) and Independent Study Training (IST) courses that highlight some of the same lessons found in the videos. CISA offers its VILT and IST courses for free at https://cdp.dhs.gov/obp.
(Source: CISA OBP)
Keeping fire departments adequately staffed is an increasing concern, as the COVID-19 pandemic and expanding expectations of the emergency services continue to place additional burdens on fire departments across the nation.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) created the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program to provide funding directly to local fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to enhance these agencies’ abilities to comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by the NFPA (NFPA 1710 and/or NFPA 1720).
The fiscal year (FY) 2021 SAFER Grant Program application period opened on Monday, Jan. 3 and will close on Friday, Feb. 4, at 5 p.m. EST. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and additional application guidance materials produced specifically to help potential applicants plan their 2021 grant applications can be viewed and downloaded on FEMA’s SAFER Program website.
Applicants seeking more in-depth guidance on how to apply for SAFER grants can attend one of FEMA’s virtual workshops offered throughout the month of January. Each workshop is dedicated to one of the SAFER grant funding areas: 1) Hiring of Firefighters; or 2) Recruitment and Retention.
Interested applicants can also reach out to their Regional Contact for FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program, who can respond to questions about the SAFER program and conduct grant monitoring activities.
For more information on the SAFER grant program and to apply, visit FEMA’s SAFER grants page.
(Source: FEMA)
CISA’s Stakeholder Engagement Division (SED) conducts a monthly webinar series to develop partnerships, facilitate dialogue, convene stakeholders, and promotes awareness to help CISA achieve a secure and resilient infrastructure for the American people.
This month’s webinar, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 12, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST, will feature a Disaster Program Manager from the American Red Cross who helped introduce preparedness, response, and recovery programs to Indian Country; and a Tribal Liaison for the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians. These speakers will discuss Collaborating and Bringing No Cost Resources to Indian Country for an emergency planning audience.
The goal of the webinar is to educate the audience on relationship building, learning, and networking with the tribal community. Topics that will be discussed during the presentation include:
- Planning for challenges tribal communities may face in a disaster.
- Utilizing the experience of Tribal Councils.
- Tribes and partners working together.
- Tribal members and citizens working together during an evacuation.
- Information for tribal communities about no-cost resources available to tribes.
For more information about the webinar, speakers, and to register, visit CISA’s webinar registration page.
(Source: CISA)
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