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Volume 24 — Issue 3 | January 18, 2024

NIOSH advisory on rapid removal of an unresponsive firefighter from SCBA and gear

Firefighters often engage in very strenuous physical activities while wearing turnout gear and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). Periods of intense exertion or heat exposure while wearing this kind of personal protective equipment (PPE) can increase the risk of experiencing a medical emergency.

A firefighter’s PPE can hinder a rescuer’s ability to provide immediate emergency medical care. Firefighters should be trained on how to rapidly remove turnout gear and SCBA from an unresponsive firefighter so that emergency medical care can begin as soon as possible.

On Jan. 5, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a Safety and Health Advisory for the fire service, entitled Training on the Rapid Removal of an Unresponsive Firefighter from Turnout Gear and Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (Publication No. 2024-104).

This Safety and Health Advisory educates workers in the fire service on the importance of rapidly removing an unresponsive firefighter from PPE and what techniques they can train on to accomplish this. NIOSH urges fire departments and training facilities to practice these methods during standalone training and as part of other training scenarios.

The advisory includes additional recommendations at the organizational level, such as appointing a safety officer, including emergency medical services (EMS) providers at all events where firefighters are performing strenuous physical work while wearing turnout gear and SCBA, and ensuring firefighters adhere to basic life support certification requirements.

This advisory cites a 2022 NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigation report into a March 3, 2021, firefighter line-of-duty death where a firefighter recruit suffered a medical emergency that led to a sudden cardiac arrest while participating in SCBA Confidence training. The cardiac event suffered by this firefighter and the chain of events leading up to this line-of-duty death illustrate the importance of the recommendations in this advisory.

NIOSH co-authored this Safety and Health Advisory with the leading national experts of the American Red Cross, the creators of Firefighter Down: CPR, and Butler County (Pennsylvania) Community College’s Public Safety Training Facility.

Access the Safety and Health Advisory on NIOSH’s website.

(Source: NIOSH)

Highlights

NIOSH advisory on rapid removal of an unresponsive firefighter from SCBA and gear

NOAA invests $34 million in fire weather research

COPS Office guidance on use of specialized units in law enforcement agencies

Tribal Nations Training Week at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, March 9-16, 2024

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.

NOAA invests $34 million in fire weather research

Wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem, especially in Western states, and were once viewed as seasonal events, but climate change has caused wildfires to become a year-round threat.

Firefighters, land management agencies, emergency managers, local officials and frontline communities need enhanced technological capabilities for early detection, forecasting and monitoring of wildfires.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that it will award more than $34 million to six research universities in NOAA’s Cooperative Institute system to improve wildfire behavior modeling, forecasting, and wildfire warnings. Over the next five years, the funding will:

• Help NOAA build and deploy new observing systems that detect and monitor wildfires and their impacts.
• Advance high-resolution models to predict fires, emissions and air quality.
• Establish a new NOAA Fire Weather Testbed that will allow scientists and forecasters to evaluate experimental products and speed their transition to operations.
• Improve the ability of NOAA’s incident meteorologists (IMETs) to provide emergency support at fire locations.

This funding is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Learn more about this funding and the Cooperative Institutes who will conduct this research in NOAA’s Jan. 10 news release.

(Source: NOAA)

COPS Office guidance on use of specialized units in law enforcement agencies

Amid mounting public concern over the use of specialized units in police agencies, on Jan. 10, the National Policing Institute (NPI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) published Considerations for Specialized Units: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies to Ensure Appropriateness, Effectiveness, and Accountability.

Law enforcement agencies may establish one or more specialized units when these agencies and their community determine that a law enforcement response is required to address a problem which exceeds the capabilities of standard patrol units.

“Considerations for Specialized Units” is designed to support state and local law enforcement agency leaders and communities across the country as they assess the appropriateness of the use of specialized units and how to ensure necessary management and oversight of such units.

“Specialized units” are broadly defined to include a wide range of missions and expertise. They may have a tactical, investigative, enforcement, analysis, or community-oriented function. For example, these units may be needed for high-risk situations like those handled by SWAT teams or bomb squads, for specific types of crime such as human trafficking, or to foster police-community relations. While local and state law enforcement officers may serve on specialized units operated by federal law enforcement agencies, this guide focuses exclusively on units that fall under the control of local or state agencies.

The guide first provides guidance on assessing the need for a specialized unit. It then provides actionable guidance on establishing the specialized unit’s mission and culture, hiring the most suitable personnel and supervisors, developing innovative unit and personnel performance metrics, and establishing policies and practices to mitigate the risks of specialized units.

This report was commissioned in the wake of the killing of Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, on Jan. 7, 2023, which led to an examination of the Memphis Police Department’s use of specialized units by the DOJ’s COPS Office.

To develop the considerations in this report, the DOJ heard from police chiefs across the country who were assessing their use of specialized units. The information presented in this guide was gleaned from many dedicated experts concerned with improving policing and creating safe communities.

The considerations in this report are also a response to a report published in April 2023 by former members of the Task Force on 21^st Century Policing, entitled Task Force on 21^st Century Policing: A Renewed Call To Action. “A Renewed Call to Action” called for the development of policies and practices to encourage evaluation, monitoring, and oversight of specialized units within policing. The Task Force on 21^st Century Policing was established through an Executive Order on Dec. 18, 2014, with the mission of identifying policing practices that promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The final report of the Task Force, published in 2015, was a significant publication for police reform.

To learn more about this new guidance, see the DOJ’s Jan. 10 press release. Access the report in the COPS Office Resource Library.

(Sources: DOJ, NPI)

Tribal Nations Training Week at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, March 9-16, 2024

Registration is now open for the 9th Annual Tribal Nations Training Week at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Alabama.

This event is open to all personnel who work in an emergency response capacity and are affiliated with one or more tribal nations or the Indian Health Service, and those who work directly with tribal nations.

Tribal Nations Training Week will take place from March 9-16, 2024. The theme for this year’s weeklong training event is “Developing Generational Resiliency Through Training.” The deadline to register is Wednesday, March 6, 2024.

In addition to an extensive list of course offerings, the week will feature an executive session for tribal leaders or their designated representatives. The executive session is comprised of a Tribal Leaders Symposium, followed by Continuity of Government Operations Planning for Rural Communities, NIMS Overview for Senior Officials, a closed listening session with FEMA Headquarters and the Department of Homeland Security’s Tribal Advisory Council, a workshop discussion on the disaster declaration process and its requirements, and a Senior Officials Workshop for All-Hazards Preparedness.

CDP training is fully funded for state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency responders, to include roundtrip airfare, meals, and lodging. See the CDP’s 2024 Tribal Nations Training Week announcement for a complete list of course offerings. To register for the 2024 Tribal Nations Training Week, email David.Hall@fema.dhs.gov.

(Source: CDP, 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

CISA and FBI release cybersecurity guidance on Chinese-manufactured UAS for critical infrastructure owners and operators

On Jan. 17, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released, Cybersecurity Guidance: Chinese-Manufactured UAS, to raise awareness of the threats posed by Chinese-manufactured unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and to provide critical infrastructure and state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners with recommended cybersecurity safeguards to reduce the risk to networks and sensitive information.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has enacted laws that provide the government with expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by firms in China. The use of Chinese-manufactured UAS in critical infrastructure operations risks exposing sensitive information to PRC authorities. This guidance outlines the potential vulnerabilities to networks and sensitive information when operated without the proper cybersecurity protocols and the potential consequences that could result. 

This product is a continuation of CISA’s suite of products related to UAS cybersecurity, including Cybersecurity Best Practices for Operating Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Secure Your Drone: Privacy and Data Protection Guidance. 

For more information, please visit CISA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Resources webpage. 

(Source: CISA)

CISA and FBI release known IOCs associated with Androxgh0st malware

On Jan. 16, CISA and the FBI released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Known Indicators of Compromise Associated with Androxgh0st Malware, to disseminate known indicators of compromise (IOCs) and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) associated with threat actors deploying Androxgh0st malware.

Androxgh0st malware establishes a botnet for victim identification and exploitation in vulnerable networks, and targets files that contain confidential information, such as credentials, for various high profile applications. Threat actors deploying Androxgh0st malware have been observed exploiting specific vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution.

CISA and the FBI encourage organizations to review and implement the mitigations found in the joint CSA to reduce the likelihood and impact of cybersecurity incidents caused by Androxgh0st malware. For more information, visit CISA's Malware, Phishing, and Ransomware page.

(Source: CISA)

Data Breach Notifications and Identity Theft, 2021

Data breaches are events in which files or data from an entity (company, government agency, or some other organization) are stolen, lost, or posted on a publicly available website. They represent one way that personal information can be stolen.

On Jan. 9, BJS published Data Breach Notifications and Identity Theft, 2021. Key findings include:

• In 2021, 12% of all persons age 16 or older were notified that an entity with their personal information experienced a data breach in the prior 12 months.
• Victims of identity theft (24%) were twice as likely as nonvictims (11%) to learn that an entity with their personal information experienced a data breach in the past year.
• Victims of multiple types of identity theft (32%) were more likely than victims of existing credit card (25%), bank (16%), or email or social media account (23%) misuse to learn that an entity with their personal information experienced a data breach.

(Source: BJS)

Cybersecurity researcher finds school shooting emergency plans exposed online

More than 4 million records that included emergency planning and security documents from U.S. schools were recently discovered by an ethical cybersecurity researcher.

The 800 gigabytes of files and logs, which were linked to school software provider Raptor Technologies, included highly sensitive documents, including school evacuation plans, locations of doors that have broken locks and security cameras that don’t work, maps that showed overall building vulnerabilities, threat reports, safety drills, medical records, court documents relating to restraining orders, school shooting response plans, and more, reports Wired. The records were in a non-password-protected database and were dated from 2022 and 2023.

Fortunately, the records were found by an ethical cybersecurity expert who promptly informed Raptor Technologies about the leak, reports CBS News. The company then immediately secured the data.

(Source: Campus Safety 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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