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Volume 23 — Issue 47 | November 30, 2023

Lithium-ion battery safety campaign from UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute

Underwriters Laboratories’ Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) launched a new lithium-ion battery safety campaign earlier this month, Take C.H.A.R.G.E. of Battery Safety.

The launch comes ahead of this year’s holiday shopping season, when many consumers will be purchasing lithium-ion battery-powered devices without an understanding of potential fire risks.

FSRI is calling on the fire service and other community influencers to watch and share its new public serve announcement (PSA). The campaign aims to educate the public on how they can protect themselves and their property. FSRI has created a website for the campaign, BatteryFireSafety.org, which features the PSA and many additional free resources for the public and first responders. The site features a toolbox for first responders with a set of downloadable materials to use in public education and interaction with local media.

The Take C.H.A.R.G.E. of Battery Safety campaign was launched at a press event at the training academy of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) on Nov. 15. The event featured speakers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the FDNY, the U.S. Fire Administration, and the FSRI.  Speakers’ presentations were followed by a live fire demonstration of an overcharged e-bike. The live stream of the event was recorded and is now available on the FDNY’s YouTube channel.

To learn more and access the Take C.H.A.R.G.E. of Battery Safety campaign materials, visit FSRI’s BatteryFireSafety.org.

(Source: FSRI)

Highlights

Lithium-ion battery safety campaign from UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute

NHTSA requests input on EMS Education Agenda 2050

CISA expands Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit with biotech and quantum technology topics

Webinar: Cyber Threats to Public Safety - 2023 In Review

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.

NHTSA requests input on EMS Education Agenda 2050

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking public comment regarding the upcoming revision of the 2000 EMS Education Agenda for the Future: A Systems Approach. This new effort will apply the concepts of the EMS Agenda 2050 to emergency medical services (EMS) Education and the profession’s standing in the U.S. The output of this community effort will be EMS Education Agenda 2050, setting the path for the development of “EMS clinicians of the future” as identified in the EMS Agenda 2050.

Responses from the EMS community to specific questions provided are essential to create a successful framework for this revision. Read the public notice in the Federal Register to learn more about the background for this effort and to access the list of questions for which the NHTSA is seeking input.

NHTSA encourages insights from a diverse range of sources, including but not limited to the public, private sectors, government agencies, academia, and other stakeholders. The primary focus of this initiative is to gauge the progression of the integrated national education system for EMS personnel over the decades. Input from the EMS community is crucial to this endeavor.

Comments may be submitted on Regulations.gov through March 31, 2024. For further information, contact Clary Mole, EMS Specialist at NHTSA, at Clary.Mole@dot.gov.

(Source: NHTSA’s Office of EMS)

CISA expands Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit with biotech and quantum technology topics

On Nov. 13, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an expansion of its Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit, a diverse array of interactive products to empower critical infrastructure stakeholders to use strategic foresight methods to identify and mitigate emerging risks.

CISA released the first edition of the Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit in April 2022 with three topics—anonymity and privacy, trust and social cohesion, and data storage and transmission. The toolkit has now been expanded to include three new topics: brain-computer interfaces (BCI), synthetic biology, and quantum technologies.

The Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit 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 promote enhanced organizational resiliency against future uncertainties. Central to the effort is the selection of topics likely to have highly disruptive impacts to multiple National Critical Functions in the next 3 to 7 years.

The Toolkit includes game templates, facilitation, and player guides, read aheads, and other materials uniquely designed to allow users to self-facilitate and conduct three strategic foresight activities relevant to their organization, region, or sector.

To learn more, visit Secure Tomorrow Series on CISA.gov. For assistance in setting up a Toolkit activity or to submit questions or comments, please email SecureTomorrowSeries@cisa.dhs.gov.

(Source: CISA)

Webinar: Cyber Threats to Public Safety - 2023 In Review

As it approaches its first full year of operations, Motorola Solutions’ Public Safety Threat Alliance (PSTA) has developed significant insights into the most likely and most dangerous cyber threats to public safety emergency communications, from the strategic to the technical levels, while building a trusted global network of over 750 member organizations.

The PSTA is hosting a webinar, Cyber Threats to Public Safety - 2023 In Review, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 1 p.m. EST. The PSTA threat intelligence team will present cyber threat trends and observations from 2023, as well as mitigation steps to defend against current and emerging threats to public safety. Additionally, the PSTA will highlight its current no-cost products and services and new offerings planned for 2024. Participants will also learn the latest updates on cybersecurity grants and how the PSTA’s partnership with Lexipol can help public safety agencies secure grant funding.

To learn more about the PSTA, visit motorolasolutions.com/psta. Visit the registration page to save your spot for the Dec. 13 webinar.

(Source: PSTA)

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

DHS CISA and UK NCSC release joint Guidelines for Secure AI System Development

Taking a significant step forward in addressing the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, on Nov. 26, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) CISA and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) jointly released Guidelines for Secure AI System Development to help developers of any systems that use AI make informed cybersecurity decisions at every stage of the development process.  The guidelines were formulated in cooperation with 21 other agencies and ministries from across the world – including all members of the Group of 7 major industrial economies -- and are the first of their kind to be agreed to globally.

These guidelines are the latest effort across the U.S.’s body of work supporting safe and secure AI technology development and deployment. In October, President Biden issued an Executive Order that directed DHS to promote the adoption of AI safety standards globally, protect U.S. networks and critical infrastructure, reduce the risks that AI can be used to create weapons of mass destruction, combat AI-related intellectual property theft, and help the United States attract and retain skilled talent, among other missions.

(Source: CISA)

CISA announces Secure by Design Alert series: How vendor decisions can reduce harm at a global scale

On Nov. 29, CISA launched a new series of products: Secure by Design Alerts. An accompanying blog, How Vendor Decisions Can Reduce Harm at a Global Scale, explains why CISA started this new series of alerts.

CISA’s first publication in the Secure by Design Alert series, How Software Manufacturers Can Shield Web Management Interfaces from Malicious Cyber Activity, urges software manufacturers to apply two Secure by Design principles: (1) Take ownership of customer security outcomes; and (2) Embrace radical transparency and accountability.

Malicious cyber actors continue to find and exploit vulnerabilities in web management interfaces and software manufacturers continue to ask why customers do not harden their products to avoid such incidents. By implementing these two principles in their software design processes, software manufactures can help their customers avoid exploitation of vulnerabilities in web management interfaces at scale.  

For more information and resources, visit CISA.gov/securebydesign.  

(Source: CISA)

Cyberattack closes emergency rooms in three states

Ardent Health says it was the target of a cyberattack over Thanksgiving, in an incident that shut down the hospital operator’s emergency rooms in three states.

The hospital operator, which oversees 30 hospitals in the U.S., said the attack was detected on the morning of Nov. 23 and was identified as a ransomware attack impacting several of its computerized services at sites in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.

“In an abundance of caution, our facilities are rescheduling some non-emergent, elective procedures and diverting some emergency room patients to other area hospitals until systems are back online,” the company said in the release.

(Source: IWCE’s Urgent Communications)

Tri-City Medical Center operating near normal after cybersecurity attack

Oceanside’s Tri-City Medical Center, located in north San Diego County, California, has restored its electronic health platform and resumed accepting ambulance traffic, while it continues to investigate a cyberattack that forced the hospital to declare an internal emergency. It has also resumed with elective surgeries and procedures.

Systems were restored as of Nov. 17, eight days after the attack was discovered. The hospital was on ambulance diversion from Nov. 9 through Nov. 17. During that time, Scripps Health Care told KPBS they were receiving 20 to 25 more ambulances per day, primarily at Scripps Encinitas, which normally receives around 35 ambulances a day.

(Source: KPBS)

North Texas water utility serving 2 million hit with cyberattack

A water utility serving two million people in North Texas is dealing with a cybersecurity incident that caused operational issues. With more than 850 employees, North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) provides wholesale water, wastewater and solid waste management services to more than 13 cities in the state, including Plano and Frisco.

The incident comes one day after an attack on a Pennsylvania water authority was hit with a cyberattack that reportedly prompted workers to take equipment offline and use backup tools to maintain water pressure.

The cybercrime gang known as Daixin Team said it was behind the attack, adding NTMWD to its list of victims on Monday and claiming to have stolen more than 33,000 files containing customer information. The ransomware group emerged in June 2022 and caused significant damage in September 2022 to Oakbend Medical Center, a hospital in Richmond, Texas. The hospital spent weeks recovering after its phone lines and patient record systems were brought down by the attack. The group also attacked Fitzgibbon Hospital in Missouri and a German company called Ista International.

(Source: The Record)

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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