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Volume 23 — Issue 29 | July 20, 2023

New NIST research on real-time heart health monitoring in firefighters

Cardiac-related fatalities usually account for the largest share of on-duty firefighter deaths each year, and last year was no different. In 2022, about one third of the 96 firefighters who died in the line of duty succumbed to a sudden cardiac event or a cardiac-related condition, according to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA’s) annual report released last month.

Firefighters work in remarkably strenuous environments, carrying heavy objects, climbing stairs, and enduring extreme temperatures with a limited ability to cool off. These factors make firefighters a unique population with a higher risk for cardiac conditions and fatal cardiac events.

To address this issue, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a model for real-time heart health monitoring in firefighters using a kind of artificial intelligence (AI) called machine learning. NIST hopes the monitoring technology will eventually be incorporated into a portable heart monitor that will accurately identify abnormal cardiac rhythms in firefighters, so they can seek medical attention before it is too late.

NIST researchers trained their Heart Health Monitoring (H2M) model on actual electrocardiogram (ECG) data from 112 firefighters who were monitored throughout their entire 24-hour shift, which included everything from on-duty activities to exercising, eating, and sleeping.

Once H2M was trained and validated, it analyzed firefighter ECG data it had not previously seen. When presented with approximately 6,000 abnormal ECG samples, H2M identified them correctly with about 97% accuracy.

As a check, H2M was also trained using ECG datasets from non-firefighters. After it used this non-firefighter data for its training, H2M had an error rate of about 40% in identifying cardiac events in the firefighter data. The researchers noted that the large difference between these two statistics (97% versus 40% accuracy) highlights the importance of training the AI model using the appropriate dataset – actual firefighters doing their jobs.

Learn more about this research on NIST’s website and read the published study in Fire Safety Journal.

(Sources: NIST, NFPA)

Highlights

New NIST research on real-time heart health monitoring in firefighters

DHS hosts virtual SBIR First Responders Showcase, Aug. 1-2

$25 million in grant funding now available to assist communities in the wildland-urban interface

RadResponder Nationwide Drill - a FEMA-sponsored virtual training event using population monitoring tools for radiological emergencies

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.

DHS hosts virtual SBIR First Responders Showcase, Aug. 1-2

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is hosting a virtual showcase of new technologies developed for first responders by small business innovators as part of DHS’ Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

All of the technologies in the 2023 SBIR First Responder Showcase are focused on keeping first responders, emergency managers, and incident commanders better protected, connected, and prepared to safeguard the homeland and respond to disasters.

The showcase will take place as a two-day webinar series on Aug. 1 and 2, 2023, from 1-3 p.m. EDT each day.

The ten innovations that will be presented during the showcase cover a wide variety of capabilities, including better detection and containment of chemical and biological threats and infectious diseases, improving security of next generation 911 multimedia content, extreme terrain search and rescue vehicles, and more.

Visit the DHS SBIR First Responders Showcase 2023 on S&T’s website to access the full agenda and to register.

(Source: DHS)

$25 million in grant funding now available to assist communities in the wildland-urban interface

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has posted a funding opportunity on Grants.gov to assist communities at risk from catastrophic wildland fires.

The National Fire Plan-Wildland Urban Interface Community Fire Assistance grant provides $25 million in awards between $5,000 and $1 million each.

A wide variety of activities are eligible for this funding, which supports the implementation of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy in the following areas:

• Implementation of community programs that develop and enhance local capability in the areas of risk assessment and planning, training, mitigation activities, and community and homeowner education and action.
• Planning and implementation of fuels management reduction activities aimed at mitigating the threat of catastrophic wildlife to communities and natural resources in high-risk areas, including associated monitoring or maintenance, on federal land and/or on adjacent non-federal land.
• Enhancement of local and small business employment opportunities for rural communities.
• Providing education and training focused on increasing knowledge and fire protection capability of rural fire districts.

Projects that include a cost-share or in-kind contribution will have priority for selection. All state, local, and tribal governments, special district governments, as well as non-profits, public or private institutions of higher education, small businesses, and individuals may apply.

Visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s website to learn more about FWS’ role in managing fire and improving the condition of lands while reducing the risk of damaging wildfires to surrounding communities. To learn more about this funding, who is eligible, and how to apply, see this opportunity (F23AS00395) on Grants.gov. Applications are due by Sept. 1, 2023.

(Source: FWS, Grants.gov)

RadResponder Nationwide Drill - a FEMA-sponsored virtual training event using population monitoring tools for radiological emergencies

Following a radiation emergency, public health professionals will assess and monitor people who may have been exposed to radiation or contaminated with radioactive material. This process, called population monitoring, is conducted in pre-designated community reception centers (CRCs) serving the impacted area.

The population monitoring data that is generated by community reception centers must be managed and shared rapidly to maintain a common operating picture among emergency responders.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Office of Emerging Threats (OET) along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) are sponsoring an exercise next month focused on how to use available tools for managing population monitoring data during a radiological emergency.

The RadResponder Nationwide Drill: Population Monitoring 2.0: Making Community Reception Centers SimPLER, will leverage the RadResponder component of FEMA’s CBRNResponder Network. Membership in the CBRNResponder Network is free to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency response organizations. The RadResponder component facilitates real-time radiological data collection, management and sharing among agencies supporting a response to a radiological emergency.

The drill will also leverage the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Community Reception Center - Simulation Program for Leveraging and Evaluating Resources (CRC SimPLER) tool. CRC SimPLER helps radiation emergency planners understand their current capacity, potential bottlenecks, and additional resource needs when planning for population monitoring during response to a radiation emergency.

The goal of this drill is to highlight the enhancements made to the population monitoring module in RadResponder by using the CRC SimPLER tool to generate data. This data will then be associated with events and community reception centers represented within RadResponder.

The drill has three scheduled components:

• A Pre-Drill Webinar will be held via GoToMeeting on Friday, Aug. 11 from 1-2 p.m. EDT, covering all RadResponder features that will be needed during the drill and an overview of how to use the CRC SimPLER tool. This webinar will be recorded and posted to watch on-demand prior to the drill.
• The drill will take place from Monday, Aug. 21 through Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. The drill itself can be executed within RadResponder at any time during the week and will only require about 2 hours to complete.
• The Closing Webinar will be held via GoToMeeting on Friday, Aug. 25 from 1-2:30 p.m. EDT. The webinar will feature special presentations from the drill sponsors and will end with a hotwash and lessons learned session.

The upcoming drill is open to all users of RadResponder. Both new and experienced users are encouraged to participate. To register, see the RadResponder Nationwide Drill announcement or visit RadResponder.net.

A CBRNResponder Network account is required to participate in the drill. To learn more about the CBRNResponder Network, visit the website at CBRNResponder.net and see the National Introductory Training video. If you are interested in joining the CBRNResponder Network, please email support@cbrnresponder.net to request an account.

(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

NSA, CISA release guidance on security considerations for 5G network slicing 

On July 17, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published 5G Network Slicing: Security Considerations for Design, Deployment, and Maintenance. This guidance—created by the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), a public-private cross-sector working group led by the NSA and CISA—presents recommendations to address some identified threats to 5G standalone network slicing, and provides industry recognized practices for the design, deployment, operation, and maintenance of a hardened 5G standalone network slice(s). This guidance builds upon the 2022 ESF guidance Potential Threats to 5G Network Slicing.

CISA encourages 5G providers, integrators, and network operators to review this guidance and implement the recommended actions. For additional 5G guidance, visit CISA.gov/5G-library.

(Source: CISA)

CISA and Microsoft partnership expands access to logging capabilities broadly

Based on a collaborative partnership between CISA and Microsoft, many Microsoft customers will now have access to expanded cloud logging capabilities at no additional charge, which will enhance cyber defense and incident response.

Over the past several years, operational teams at CISA identified several security logs critical for detecting and preventing threat activity that cost extra for organizations utilizing the Microsoft basic enterprise license. For example, in a recent incident, an affected government agency used available logging data to quickly enable remediation actions to limit damage. Going forward, these additional logging capabilities will now be available at no extra cost to federal government customers and Microsoft commercial customers beginning in September. 

(Source: CISA)

CISA develops factsheet for free tools for cloud environments

CISA has developed and published a factsheet, Free Tools for Cloud Environments, to help businesses transitioning into a cloud environment identify proper tools and techniques necessary for the protection of critical assets and data security.

Cloud service platforms and cloud service providers (CSPs) have developed built-in security capabilities for organizations to enhance security capabilities while operating in cloud environments. Organizations are encouraged to use the built-in security features from CSPs and to take advantage of free CISA- and partner-developed tools/applications to fill security gaps and complement existing security features.

(Source: CISA)

NIST adds 40 potential quantum-resistant algorithms to growing roster

Forty new algorithms were selected as additional candidates for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s post-quantum cryptography (PQC) digital signature schemes, part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to help U.S. networks prepare for the advent of an advanced operational quantum computer.

Preparing for the advent of quantum computing has become synonymous with good cybersecurity practices in the past several years, as the federal government allocates more research and initiatives to updating the nation’s algorithmic infrastructure to a quantum-resilient environment.

The recently-released National Cybersecurity Implementation Strategy also highlighted the importance of NIST’s PQC standardization and solicitation efforts as important to implementing a stronger cybersecurity posture across the nation.

(Source: NextGov)

White House unveils consumer labeling program to strengthen IoT security

The Biden administration unveiled a long anticipated consumer labeling plan to strengthen the cybersecurity of smart home devices, which are used by millions of Americans for both remote work and daily entertainment, while becoming more targets of malicious attacks.

The Federal Communications Commission outlined a proposal for the program Tuesday, called the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, to create a voluntary labeling program that would give clear information to consumers about the cybersecurity of their IoT devices.

Home routers and other IoT devices have increasingly come under threat from sophisticated nation-state and criminal hackers in recent years. With millions of U.S. workers operating from home office environments, information security experts consider it critical to better secure home-based networks.

(Source: Cybersecurity Dive)

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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