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Volume 25 — Issue 3 | January 23, 2025

New study examines firearms in the prehospital setting and implications for safety of EMS personnel

A new study was recently published in the International Journal of Paramedicine (IJOP), examining how often emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in West Texas and Southern New Mexico encounter firearms during patient care, their awareness of agency policies, and their perspectives on integrating firearm training into the EMS curriculum.

This research addresses a critical topic for EMS safety and preparedness. Although firearm safety remains a significant concern among emergency providers, the frequency with which EMS workers find and handle firearms when evaluating patients in the field and the firearm safety training they have received remains largely unstudied.

The study, EMS clinicians in the West Texas area frequently encounter firearms during patient assessments with limited gun safety training, found that a significant number of prehospital clinicians reported they handled weapons during patient evaluation. The study suggests that clear agency policies and procedures should exist to help prehospital clinicians navigate weapon and firearm situations safely, but for most participants, these policies and procedures were not in place.

The study concludes that, based on these preliminary data, agencies may consider integrating firearm training in prehospital clinician education and simulation to adequately prepare personnel for the field.

The IJOP is an international forum for scholarly contributions and state-of-the-art research relevant to patient care and the growth and advancement of paramedicine. It is published by the National EMS Management Association (NEMSMA).

Read the full study and access all issues of the IJOP at https://internationaljournalofparamedicine.com/.

(Source: IJOP)

Highlights

New study examines firearms in the prehospital setting and implications for safety of EMS personnel

Suite of national wildfire activity dashboards now available in FEMA’s Geospatial Resource Center

Chemical Safety Board announces new product to provide the public with more information on serious chemical incidents

2025 Executive Fire Officer and Leadership Symposium, April 4-5 

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.

Suite of national wildfire activity dashboards now available in FEMA’s Geospatial Resource Center

A new suite of national wildfire activity dashboards are now available in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Geospatial Resource Center for use by the fire service and the public at large.

The dashboards provide insight about wildfire activity over the past seven days and historical wildfire trends over the past 10 years, based on the most authoritative, publicly available data sources. Communities can use this information to increase situational awareness about active wildfires and to take action to reduce risk of wildfire losses.

The Senior Leadership Dashboard details the wildfire activity and the conditions in each state, the number of personnel and vehicles on scene, the fire perimeter, the number of structures impacted, the current fire preparedness level, and the number of FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grant declarations.

The Historical Wildfire Dashboard provides information about historic fire perimeters and offers a glimpse at the cost of these large fires. Communities can see where fires have occurred in the past and gain a better understanding of local fire sheds. This information can be used to develop community wildfire protection plans or other hazard mitigation plans.

The Federal Interagency Dashboard summarizes current wildfire status affecting federal lands, including the number of personnel and type of equipment on scene, as well as the status of some of the largest wildfires.

A glossary is also provided to assist those new to wildfire management with the most current terms related to wildfire response and recovery. This information can be especially helpful for communications teams or public information officers when working with the media to inform people about wildfire activity and evacuation notices.

The national wildfire activity dashboards are maintained by FEMA’s Response Geospatial Office. For more information, please email FEMA-RGO@fema.dhs.gov.

(Source: FEMA)

Chemical Safety Board announces new product to provide the public with more information on serious chemical incidents

On Jan. 14, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released Volume 1: Incident reports – Events reported to the CSB under the accidental release reporting rule.

This volume is part of a new initiative to give the public more details about serious chemical incidents reported to the CSB since the agency’s Accidental Release Reporting Rule (ARRR) went into effect in March 2020.

Each Incident Report in Volume 1 includes a summary of the event and its probable cause – information that has not previously been released to the public.

This volume covers 26 accidental release events that occurred between April 2020 and September 2023 in 15 states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Together, the events resulted in 5 fatalities, 17 serious injuries, and approximately $700 million in property damage.

Learn more in the CSB’s Jan. 14 news release.

(Source: CSB)

2025 Executive Fire Officer and Leadership Symposium, April 4-5

The U.S. Fire Administration will host the 2025 Executive Fire Officer (EFO) and Leadership Symposium at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland on April 4-5, 2025.

The EFO and Leadership Symposium is an annual event for current and future fire and EMS leaders, EFO Program graduates and EFO Program students.

The goals of the Symposium are to provide a curriculum extension and update of the EFO Program; spotlight outstanding EFO student research; officially recognize recent graduates; facilitate dialogue and networking among USFA staff, EFO graduates, students, and leaders in fire and EMS; and provide high-quality presentations by private and public sector representatives.

Speakers will present on a wide range of topics, including fire service leadership, ethics, organizational management, emerging technology, modern fire protection, response to fast-growing fires; and more.

Registration is now open. See USFA’s Executive Fire Officer and Leadership Symposium page for more information on speakers, travel and lodging for the event, and registration instructions.

(Source: USFA)

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 advisory on how threat actors chained vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Service Applications

On Jan. 22, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), released Threat Actors Chained Vulnerabilities in Ivanti Cloud Service Applications. This advisory was crafted in response to active exploitation of vulnerabilities—CVE-2024-8963, an administrative bypass vulnerability; CVE-2024-9379, a SQL injection vulnerability; and CVE-2024-8190 and CVE-2024-9380, remote code execution vulnerabilities—in Ivanti Cloud Service Appliances (CSA) in September 2024.

CISA, and the use of trusted third-party incident response data, found that threat actors chained the listed vulnerabilities to gain initial access, conduct remote code execution (RCE), obtain credentials, and implant webshells on victim networks.

(Source: CISA)

CISA and FBI release updated guidance on Product Security Bad Practices

On Jan. 17, in partnership with the FBI, CISA released an update to joint guidance Product Security Bad Practices in furtherance of CISA’s Secure by Design initiative. This updated guidance incorporates public comments CISA received in response to a Request for Information, adding additional bad practices, context regarding memory-safe languages, clarifying timelines for patching Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs), and other recommendations.

(Source: CISA)

PowerSchool hacker claims they stole data of 62 million students

The hacker who breached education tech giant PowerSchool claimed in an extortion demand that they stole the personal data of 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers. PowerSchool is a cloud-based software solutions provider for K-12 schools and districts that provides tools for enrollment, communication, attendance, staff management, learning systems, analytics, and finance.

PowerSchool promised to release an incident report based on CrowdStrike's investigations on January 17, but that date has passed without a report being published. In the interim, PowerSchool has posted an update to its customer-only FAQ, saying customers can receive a confidential CrowdStrike fact sheet on what is known so far. PowerSchool also set up a dedicated public website that those impacted can monitor for further updates.

(Source: Bleeping Computer)

Treasury sanctions Chinese cybersecurity company, affiliate for Salt Typhoon hacks

The Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a Chinese national and a cybersecurity company based in Sichuan, China, for taking part in the Salt Typhoon hacking campaign that has swept up data from at least nine U.S. telecommunications companies.

The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named Yin Kecheng of Shanghai and the Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co. Ltd., as entities that had “direct involvement” in the Salt Typhoon campaign. Kecheng is described as an affiliate of the Chinese Ministry of State Security with over a decade of hacking experience.

Kecheng is also alleged to have been involved in a recent hack of the Treasury Department.

(Source: CyberScoop)

US experiences 47% of global utilities cyberattacks

A report from Trustwave SpiderLabs indicates a rise in cyberattacks against the utilities sector. Since 2023, there has been an 80% increase in ransomware incidents against utilities. According to the report, 47% of global cyberattacks against the utilities sector target the United States. Additionally, electrical infrastructure in the U.S. is an average of 40 years old. 25% have surpassed 50 years. This outdated infrastructure plays a role in the rise in cyberattacks against U.S. utilities.

The report also revealed ransomware groups increasingly targeting the utilities sector. Groups including Hunters International, Akira, Qilin, Conti and LockBit have been targeting utilities. Hunters International alone is responsible for 19% of attacks last year.

(Source: Security 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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