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Volume 23 — Issue 14 | April 6, 2023

2023 Firefighter Safety Stand Down - “Lithium-Ion Batteries: Are You Ready?”

Taking place each year during the third full week of June, Firefighter Safety Stand Down highlights critical safety, health, and survival issues for fire and emergency services personnel.

As the use and presence of lithium-ion batteries continues to grow, so does the potential risk for first responders who are called upon to mitigate associated fire incidents and hazards. Safety Stand Down 2023 will take place June 18-24 with the theme, “Lithium-Ion Batteries: Are you Ready?”

Each weekday during Safety Stand Down will be dedicated to a different topic relating to responder safety during incidents involving lithium-ion batteries.

• Monday: Recognition of Hazards.
• Tuesday: Firefighting Operations.
• Wednesday: Firefighter Safety.
• Thursday: Post-Incident Considerations.
• Friday: Public Education.

Departments are asked to suspend all non-emergency activities during the week to focus their attention on safety and health education efforts. A week is provided to ensure that all duty shifts can participate.

Many organizations have developed resources and training relating to this critical topic. Departments can start planning the week’s activities now by reviewing the resources and training that have already been posted to the Resources page on SafetyStandDown.org. Additional training presentations will be available soon on the Planning page. If you have resources you would like to submit, use this form. You can also read past Safety Stand Down success stories and submit your own success stories.

The National Fire Protection Association® (NFPA®) will once again host the annual Safety Stand Down Quiz, which will be posted soon to the website. Participants can test their knowledge related to lithium-ion battery response. Everyone who completes the quiz will receive an entry into a sweepstake to win one of 200 commemorative Safety Stand Down challenge coins.

Safety Stand Down is a joint initiative of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Safety, Health and Survival Section, the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), the NFPA, and the Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA).

Stay tuned to SafetyStandDown.org for more information and resources in the months leading up to the campaign. New information will be added periodically. Share information about this event with colleagues using the downloadable press release. 

(Sources: SafetyStandDown.org, IAFC, NFPA, NVFC, FDSOA)

Highlights

2023 Firefighter Safety Stand Down - “Lithium-Ion Batteries: Are You Ready?”

SAVER market survey report: Battery-powered spreading rescue tools for vehicle extrication

April is Emergency Communications Month

FEMA National Exercise Program now accepting requests for exercise support

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.

SAVER market survey report: Battery-powered spreading rescue tools for vehicle extrication

Battery-powered rescue tools for vehicle extrication are more portable than tethered systems and eliminate the need to transport support equipment, such as hydraulic pumps, air compressors and generators. This can increase the speed with which responders can arrive on the scene. Battery-powered tools can also provide responders with the ability to maneuver around the vehicle with their equipment and coordinate rescue operations quickly and efficiently.

The National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) recently published a market survey report, Battery-Powered Spreading Rescue Tools for Vehicle Extrication.

This report on spreader tools is the first in a three-part series from NUSTL’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program focused exclusively on battery powered tools to extricate persons trapped within vehicles. In the coming months, a market survey of cutting tools and a market survey of spreading/cutting combination tools will also be published in the SAVER Document Library.  

This report on spreading rescue tools identified 17 spreaders from five manufacturers. All spreaders surveyed in this report were:

• Single-person portable.
• Battery-powered.
• Self-contained.
• Compliant with NFPA 1936: Standard on Rescue Tools.

Some of the key capabilities surveyed for each spreader include spreading distance, highest and lowest spreading force, pulling distance, highest and lowest pulling force, and weight. Spreading distances typically range from approximately 20 inches to 32 inches. Included products weigh from 38.1 lb. to 56.6 lb. Spreaders ranged in price from $11,400 to $15,116. Other features of interest to responder agencies included capability to maintain in-house, available training, and ingress protection rating, which measures the level of protection of electrical components from environmental conditions.

NUSTL is a federal laboratory within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). Located in New York City, NUSTL is the only national laboratory focused exclusively on supporting the capabilities of federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial responders to address the homeland security mission. NUSTL manages the SAVER program, which provides information on commercially available equipment to assist response organizations in equipment selection and procurement.

Visit DHS S&T’s SAVER page, Battery-Powered Rescue Tools for Vehicle Extrication, to access this report on spreader tools and all related reports for this project. Return to this page in the coming months to access the two forthcoming market survey reports on cutting tools and spreading/cutting combination tools when they are published.

(Source: DHS S&T)

April is Emergency Communications Month

The month of April is dedicated to all things related to emergency communications.

In 2022, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) began observing Emergency Communications Month in April to recognize the role of emergency communications as a vital function. Priority in communications is crucial to continuity of operations when facing adverse conditions such as weather events, mass gatherings, cyber-attacks or events arising from human error. CISA is encouraging all emergency communications partners to “Get Connected and Stay Connected” by enrolling in the agency’s free priority telecommunications services. When you get a "busy" or an "all circuits are busy" tone during an emergency or adverse conditions, using CISA’s priority telecommunications services help to get your call through to its destination. These services are free to all personnel with national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) functions.

Since 2008, the month of April has also been recognized as National 911 Education Month. This month, be sure to check out the many resources available to educate the public about 911 services from NENA, the 9-1-1 Association, and Know911.org, a clearinghouse of 911 educational resources hosted by the National Association of State 911 Administrators’ (NASNA’s) National 911 Education Coalition.

Since 1994, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (NPSTW) has been observed during the second week of April. This year’s NPSTW will be observed next week from April 9-15. In collaboration with stakeholders and national associations, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) National 911 Program has compiled resources you can use to celebrate public safety telecommunicators for the commitment, dedication and critical life-saving services they provide every day:

• “Thank you” Letter from NHTSA’s National 911 Program. This personal letter from the National 911 Program acknowledges Telecommunicators Week, thanks all telecommunicators for their commitment to helping people in times of need and honors the work they do to keep our communities safe. The letter may be replicated and posted in your center to thank telecommunicators for the difference they make.
• Customizable Certificate. This certificate can be personalized with the name and location of the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to recognize the skill, dedication and service of its telecommunicators on behalf of the National 911 Program.
• 911 Telecommunicator Tree of Life. This website recognizes remarkable 911 telecommunicators. Each name submitted via this website creates a “leaf” on the tree representing telecommunicators and PSAPs that have been honored by someone in their community.
• Social Media Posts. Two social media posts are available for voluntary use. This resource can assist in recognizing public safety telecommunicators during Telecommunicators Week and promoting their inspiring stories on the 911 Telecommunicator Tree of Life.

(Sources: CISA, NASNA, NENA, NHTSA)

FEMA National Exercise Program now accepting requests for exercise support

FEMA’s National Exercise Program is accepting requests for exercise support. To be considered for the 2023 round of the National Exercise Program, submissions are due by June 1. This will be the only opportunity to request exercise support in 2023. For jurisdictions not ready to submit a request at this time, the National Exercise Program will hold another exercise support round in 2024.

Instructions for how to submit a request for support are on the National Exercise Program website. Applications are open to all state, local, tribal and territorial governments but new applicants, especially those from underserved jurisdictions, are urged to apply.

The National Exercise Program is a cycle of exercises across the nation that examine and validate capabilities in all preparedness mission areas. The National Exercise Program offers state, local, tribal and territorial jurisdictions no-cost assistance for exercise design, development, conduct and evaluation to validate capabilities across all mission areas.

In April, FEMA will host webinars to discuss the exercise support process. All webinars will offer the same content. To see all webinar dates and to register, please visit the webinar registration page. National Exercise Program staff are available to answer your specific exercise support application questions. Write to NEP@fema.dhs.gov and include “2023 Exercise Support Question” in the subject line. Program staff will be in contact answer your question and send you an invite to our weekly online office hours.

(Source: FEMA)

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

HC3 Analyst Note - KillNet’s Targeting of the Health and Public Health Sector (December 2022 –March 2023)

Pro-Russia hacktivist group, KillNet, has actively targeted the United States health and public health (HPH) sector since December 2022. Their signature distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on critical infrastructure sectors typically only cause service outages lasting several hours or even days. However, the range of consequences from these attacks on the HPH sector can be significant, threatening routine to critical day-to-day operations. An examination of the group’s cyber offensive from December 2022 to March 2023 provides insight into how and why they target the healthcare industry, and recommendations for how HPH organizations can better protect themselves.

Read the full Analyst Note from the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3)

(Source: HHS HC3)

NSA: Advancing Zero Trust Maturity Throughout the User Pillar

According to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, over 80% of breaches due to hacking involved credentials, whether lost or stolen, to impersonate users for further compromise. Such cyber incidents are on the rise, creating economic disruption and impacting national security.

This cybersecurity information sheet (CSI) from the National Security Agency (NSA) provides recommendations for maturing identity, credential and access management (ICAM) capabilities to effectively mitigate such cyberattacks. It further discusses how these capabilities integrate into a comprehensive Zero Trust (ZT) framework, as described in Embracing a Zero Trust Security Model.

Adoption of ZT principles is not accomplished overnight. Building capabilities aligned to a mature ZT framework requires integrating every system in the enterprise with the controls defined for each of seven pillars – User, Device, Data, Application/Workload, Network/Environment, Visibility & Analytics, and Automation & Orchestration, starting with the user pillar, which builds on existing ICAM capabilities.

(Source: NSA)

Rorschach ransomware has the fastest file-encrypting routine to date

Check Point Research (CPR) and Check Point Incident Response Team (CPIRT) researchers detected a previously unknown ransomware strain, dubbed Rorschach ransomware, that was employed in attack against a US-based company.

The experts pointed out that the Rorschach ransomware appears to be unique. According to the report published by Check Point, Rorschach is one of the fastest ransomware observed to date.

What’s even more noteworthy is that the Rorschach ransomware is highly customizable and contains unique functions, such as the use of direct syscalls.

(Source: Security Affairs)

HTTP/S DDoS attacks soar 487% in three years

The volume of application-layer distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks targeting HTTP and HTTPS websites grew by triple digits between 2019 and 2022, thanks to groups like Killnet, according to Netscout. The security vendor’s DDoS Threat Intelligence Report for the second half of 2022 was compiled from data collected by its ATLAS network, which covers 93 countries and over 50% of the world’s internet traffic.

The biggest surge in attacks on websites since 2019 came in the second half of 2022, thanks to the activity of pro-Russia groups. Netscout claimed the US national security sector experienced a massive 16,815% increase in attacks from Killnet hacktivists, including a spike after President Biden’s public remarks at the G7 Summit and another the same day following both French and US presidents re-affirming their support for Ukraine.

(Source: Infosecurity Magazine)

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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