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Volume 22 — Issue 24 | June 16, 2022

2022 Crash Responder Safety Week planning webinars

Police, fire, medical, towing, and other response personnel are frequently called on to operate near moving traffic. Emergency responders risk being killed or injured by passing vehicles when responding to a traffic incident, and the risk of secondary incidents increases the longer responders must remain at the scene.

Each year, the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) leads the Crash Responder Safety Week (CRSW) initiative, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The goal of CRSW is to raise awareness among all members of the traffic incident management (TIM) community and the motoring public about the importance of quick roadway clearance following a traffic incident to keep the public and emergency responders on roadways safe.

The NOCoE has several webinars leading up to Crash Responder Safety Week, which will be observed this year from November 14-18. TIM professionals, state and local public information and communications officers, and response community leaders are all invited to join the following webinar events:

• All States Webinar, July 13, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. EST. This webinar will focus on how to leverage mass media outreach channels such as television, radio, talk shows, print news and other creative strategies for broader CRSW public awareness.
• All States Webinar, September 14, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. EST. This webinar features resources to increase adherence with Slow Down Move Over Laws and to mitigate distracted driving.
• National Kickoff for CRSW 2022, November 14, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST. During this webinar, the FHWA will share leadership messages from the Department of Transportation and national associations, responder struck-by testimonials, the National Proclamation signing, and a call to action to promote the safety of traffic incident responders and road users.

At the end of each All States Webinar, a roll call will be conducted, where participants from each state can provide a brief update on their plans to commemorate the week. This provides an opportunity for participants to learn what other states will be doing with their CRSW campaigns in November.

The NOCoE will post selected state CRSW 2022 campaign materials on its CRSW page leading up to Crash Responder Safety Week. These include Governor’s Proclamations, social media calendars and resources, public service announcement videos, news releases, and more. You can also view last year’s Campaign Toolkit and other 2021 CRSW resources on the FHWA’s website.

For any questions regarding this webinar series, please reach out to Jim Austrich, FHWA TIM Program Manager, at james.austrich@dot.gov.

(Source: NOCoE)

Highlights

2022 Crash Responder Safety Week planning webinars

Office for Bombing Prevention releases mass bomb threat awareness products

CISA’s Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit builds risk awareness, improves planning for future risks to critical infrastructure

NIST, FirstNet launch Public Safety Immersive Test Center, focused on location services and user interface research

Cyber Threats

The U.S. Fire Administration operates the Emergency Management and Response – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC).

For information regarding the EMR-ISAC visit www.usfa.dhs.gov/emr-isac or contact the EMR-ISAC office at: (301) 447-1325 and/or fema-emr-isac@fema.dhs.gov.

Office for Bombing Prevention releases mass bomb threat awareness products

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA’s) Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP) reports a recent uptick in the use of strategic mass bomb threat campaigns against critical infrastructure. The campaigns have targeted election polling locations, higher education institutions, medical facilities, and faith-based organizations. Just this year, a wave of bomb threats targeted Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Jewish Community Centers.

To best prepare for and respond to mass bomb threats, OBP developed a postcard and a bulletin that offer risk management guidelines and resources to protect personnel and infrastructure. OBP’s new Mass Bomb Threat Postcard outlines the different bomb threat levels, as well as appropriate actions to take. The postcard also provides critical information on the indicators of a bomb threat and its potential impact on an operational and psychological level.

Complementing that product, OBP also recently released a TRIPwire Awareness Bulletin (TAB) for Responding to Mass Bomb Threat Campaigns that provides resources for a managed response to bomb threat campaigns and information on previous mass bomb threat campaigns. These resources include both virtual and in-person training, checklists, educational videos, and more.

“Bombing prevention begins at the local level,” said OBP Associate Director Sean Haglund. “Our new mass bomb threat guidance products provide recent, real-world context while teaching best practices and threat assessment parameters to evaluate threats on a case-by-case basis.”

For information about these and other resources to help stakeholders react to bomb threats or suspicious items, go to OBP’s “What to Do: Bomb Threat Resources” webpage.

(Source: CISA OBP)

CISA’s Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit builds risk awareness, improves planning for future risks to critical infrastructure

CISA recently published the first iteration of its Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit, a diverse array of interactive and thought-provoking products for critical infrastructure stakeholders on how to use strategic foresight methods to identify emerging risks and potential risk management strategies to secure their critical infrastructure systems.

Established by CISA’s National Risk Management Center (NRMC), the Secure Tomorrow Series effort is a strategic foresight capability focused on anticipating future risk drivers, critical uncertainties, and trends—such as aging infrastructure, global pandemics, and emerging technologies—to help enhance organizational resiliency.

Central to the effort is the selection of topics with the potential for highly disruptive impacts to multiple National Critical Functions (NCFs) in the next 5 to 20 years. The three topics providing the focus for exercises in the Toolkit are:

• Anonymity and privacy.
• Trust and social cohesion.
• Data storage and transmission.

In a constantly changing and complex operating environment, using strategic foresight to explore alternative futures and potential drivers of change is a potent technique for improving decision-making to manage uncertainty.

NRMC designed the Toolkit’s various activities to: (1) encourage systems thinking, (2) identify emerging risks, (3) develop corresponding risk management strategies, and (4) stress-test these strategies against multiple alternative futures. The Toolkit materials include facilitator, player, and controller guides; scenarios workshops; matrix games; and more.

The NRMC engaged with subject matter experts, thought leaders, and others from academia, think tanks, the private sector, and National Labs to refine the knowledge base for each topic and help lay the foundation for the Toolkit’s products.

To learn more, see the Secure Tomorrow Series Fact Sheet and read CISA’s blog article, Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit: Using Strategic Foresight to Prepare for the Future. You can download and share the Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit materials from CISA’s website.

CISA’s NRMC plans to produce additional iterations of the Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit with new topics in the future.

For any questions or feedback regarding the Secure Tomorrow Series effort, please email SecureTomorrowSeries@cisa.dhs.gov.

(Source: CISA NRMC)

NIST, FirstNet launch Public Safety Immersive Test Center, focused on location services and user interface research

Two agencies within the Department of Commerce – the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – have collaborated to create a Public Safety Immersive Test Center (PSITC) in Boulder, Colorado.

The new facility is intended to help answer key research questions around the future of user interfaces and location services for public safety training and operations.

Located in the FirstNet Authority building, the center is approximately 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) of customized space equipped with a motion capture system, 42 high speed optical tracking cameras, a variety of augmented and virtual reality headsets, and gear and fixtures that add a tactile component to simulations.

This equipment helps responders run through various scenarios, such as simulations of search and rescue activities or coordinated complex terrorist attacks. The FirstNet Authority and NIST plan to update the space regularly with enhancements such as haptics and metrology, 5G, edge computing, WebXR capabilities (which allow virtual and augmented realities to be combined) and other technological advances for public safety operations.

Technology developers will have the opportunity to test their equipment in realistic scenarios, and first responders will also be able to participate.

The new PSITC will enable research and development, education, and training, by offering the facility at no cost to public safety agencies and organizations that support public safety response efforts, including private sector and academic institutions.

Among the technologies tested by first responders within the facility are both virtual and augmented reality systems. These two technologies have promise for enhancing first responder safety and operations. Virtual reality (VR) may have more immediate applications in training, but augmented reality (AR) has the potential to be implemented in the field and have a high impact for many response disciplines.

In its news release, NIST provides links to photos, videos, and points of contact to learn more about how public safety agencies can participate in training or research at the new facility.

(Sources: NIST, FirstNet Authority)

Cyber Incident Assistance

MS-ISAC
SOC@cisecurity.org
1-866-787-4722

IdentityTheft.gov

IC3

Cybercrime Support Network

General Information

StopRansomware.gov

CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

FTC scam list

CISA alerts

Law Enforcement Cyber Center

TLP Information

Sector Spotlight: Cyber-Physical Security Considerations for the Electricity Sub-Sector

The Sector Spotlight: Cyber-Physical Security Considerations for the Electricity Sub-Sector is a CISA and Department of Energy (DOE) co-branded product that provides small and mid-sized municipalities, utility owner operators, and the broader critical infrastructure community with a quick-hit product that highlights key cyber-physical attack vectors facing the electricity sub-sector, best practices for mitigating risk, and recommendations for maintaining resilience.

Additionally, this spotlight provides stakeholders with CISA and DOE resources to augment an organization’s preparedness and resilience. For questions regarding this spotlight, please email central@cisa.gov

(Source: CISA)

Arizona hospital says SSNs of 700,000 people leaked during April ransomware attack

A major hospital in Yuma, Arizona is sending breach notification letters to more than 700,000 patients after a ransomware attack in April lead to a data breach involving Social Security numbers. No ransomware group has publicly claimed credit for the attack yet. Ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations have continued throughout 2021 and 2022, including recent attacks on a California nonprofit in March by the Hive ransomware groups. The Director of the FBI said on Wednesday, June 1 that an Iran-based group attacked the Boston Children’s Hospital with ransomware last June.

(Source: The Record)

National Cyber Director: Mandates coming to secure commercial information technology

The National Cyber Director said his office is reviewing legislation that would start the process of requiring providers of critical information and communications technology to make certain security features standard in their offerings.

As demonstrated through its establishment and resourcing of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the government has relied heavily on the idea that organizations would voluntarily take measures to improve the cybersecurity of their enterprises. But the interdependence of various critical infrastructure sectors—and the potential for cascading effects when foundational information and communications technology within the ecosystem is targeted—have pushed some agencies, and members of Congress, to consider asserting their regulatory authority.

(Source: Nextgov)

ICS Patch Tuesday: Siemens, Schneider Electric address over 80 vulnerabilities

Siemens and Schneider Electric have released their Patch Tuesday advisories for June 2022. The industrial giants have addressed a total of more than 80 vulnerabilities affecting their products.

Siemens has released 14 advisories covering 59 vulnerabilities. Thirty of these flaws, including many rated “critical” and “high severity,” impact SINEMA Remote Connect Server. A critical issue related to hardcoded credentials has been resolved in Teamcenter, but the affected component is not installed by default.

Schneider Electric has released eight advisories to address 24 vulnerabilities identified in its products. Schneider has released patches for all of these vulnerabilities, except for Conext ComBox, which the company discontinued in January 2020. For this product, the company recommends mitigations that reduce the risk of exploitation.

(Source: Security Week)

RSA 2022: NIST releases draft Zero-Trust Architecture guide

NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) works with government agencies, industry organizations and academic institutions to create example solutions for pressing cybersecurity concerns, and in recent years turned its focus to zero trust.

Under its Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture project, NCCoE has been working to identify the core components of a zero-trust approach, as well as demonstrate different ways for achieving it, using commercially available technologies.

On June 3, NCCoE released a draft high-level overview document intended to help leadership consider their planning. NCCoE will be following up with two more detailed and technical guides, with those drafts slated for release in July and August.

Zero trust is a departure from older approaches in which users authenticated themselves once to join a network, then were allowed to access most data and systems. In an organization that has embraced zero trust, however, users can only access data and systems necessary to their jobs and must re-authenticate themselves each time.

(Source: Government Technology)

The InfoGram is distributed weekly to provide members of the Emergency Services Sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures.

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