InfoGram

February 17, 2005

NOTE: This InfoGram will be distributed weekly to provide members of the emergency management and response sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. It has been prepared by NATEK Incorporated for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. For further information, contact the Emergency Management and Response - Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) at (301) 447-1325 or by email at emr-isac@fema.dhs.gov.

COOP Planning

Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7, dated 17 December 2003, designated the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) a national critical infrastructure. There are five basic disciplines that comprise the sector: law enforcement, fire and hazardous materials, emergency medical services, search and rescue, and emergency management. The designation officially recognized that the services performed by ESS personnel, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems are indispensable to the health, safety, and survivability of the American people and their institutions. ESS acceptance as one of the nation's critical infrastructures also reinforces the necessity for first response organizations and agencies to remain intact and operational during all hazards.

Because of the urgency for ESS organizations to maintain continuous operations during all emergencies, the EMR-ISAC has written about continuity of operations (COOP) in previous InfoGrams. Those articles provided an explanation of COOP and the importance for the availability of ESS services without disruption or incapacitation. The goal of every ESS entity should be to have a plan in place that specifies straight-forward, step-by-step recovery procedures to follow during and after a man-made or natural disaster. A COOP Plan identifies the critical and time-sensitive applications, vital records, processes, and functions that must be maintained, as well as the personnel and procedures necessary to do so. To promote the preparation of a COOP Plan with benefits for critical infrastructure protection, the EMR-ISAC offers the following salient points or lessons-learned from varied sources about COOP planning:

• Involve organizational decision-makers and key community leaders in the planning process.
• Acquire the total commitment of involved leaders to successfully finalize a COOP Plan.
• Obligate any planning to writing in the form of a COOP Plan and safeguard the document.
• Include pre-planning strategies as well as recovery activities.
• Pinpoint what would cause mission failure and how to mitigate those causes.
• Identify critical infrastructures and essential tasks that must continue regardless of circumstances.
• Prioritize these critical infrastructures and essential tasks for appropriate protective measures.
• Agree upon who will be responsible to complete each crucial response and recovery task.
• Prepare succession lists for department/agency senior leadership as well as any other essential paperwork.
• Select and equip an alternate site from which to sustain operations when necessary.
• Establish redundant voice and data communication/cyber systems.
• Determine actions when logistics (e.g., fuel, supply, and repair) are disrupted.
• Protect vital records, operations plans, etc., from damage or loss.
• Ascertain what automatic and mutual aid can be expected under all conditions.
• Annually train, test, evaluate, and revise the COOP Plan.

Protecting ESS Sensitive Information

As it pertains to the Emergency Services Sector (ESS), sensitive information generally consists of data about the personnel, equipment, structures, operations, plans, and training of municipalities and their emergency responders. Information of this type is particularly susceptible to adversary intelligence collectors because it can be used to weaken or destroy the survivability, continuity of operations, and mission success of communities and their first responder organizations.

According to the Interagency Operations Security Support Staff (IOSS), the best way to identify mission-critical information is to look at a department's plans and operations through the eyes of those who want to see the operations fail (i.e., domestic and international terrorists). The information they need to disrupt or incapacitate emergency operations is exactly the information that must be protected. As a reminder to ESS leaders, owners, and operators, security specialists believe the following information (not inclusive) will be especially helpful to America's opponents and, therefore, should be seriously considered for protective measures:

• Operational capabilities based on personnel, equipment, and training.
• Contingency plans.
• Standard operating procedures.
• Modes of communication.
• Response times and routes.
• Personal protective equipment.
• Automatic and mutual aid agreements.

Would you want a felon, serial arsonist, or terrorist to know all or some of this information? If not, then ESS authorities must ensure it is not easily obtainable, simply by observing, checking websites, taking pictures, going through trash, or asking a few innocuous questions around the station. Allowing adversaries and criminals to acquire this data is directly assisting them, and that means it is directly harming your emergency department.

Water Terrorism Preparedness Guide

Until recently, contamination of water with biological, chemical or radiologic agents generally resulted from natural, industrial or unintentional man-made accidents. Unfortunately, current terrorist activity has forced the medical community, public health agencies, emergency medical services, and water utilities to consider the possibility of deliberate contamination of American water supplies as part of an organized effort to disrupt and damage important elements of our national infrastructure. Now there is growing concern that chemical, biological, and radiological weapons may be used against the U.S. population with water as one possible vehicle of transmission or mode of dispersal.

The "Water Terrorism Preparedness Guide" states that the most likely initial indication that a water contamination event has occurred in a community will be a change in disease trends and illness patterns. This guidebook further conveys that "practicing healthcare providers and responders may be the first to observe these unusual illness patterns and must understand their critical role in detecting water-related disease resulting from biological, chemical or radiological terrorism."

The WaterHealthConnection website released the free online "Water Terrorism Preparedness Guide" that addresses the public health and security challenges resulting from intentional acts of water terrorism. This new website assists the medical and public health community as well as emergency response and public utility professionals. The guide is available for review and reference at http://www.WaterHealthConnection.org/bt.

Foodborne Illness Primer

The latest edition of "The Diagnosis and Management of Foodborne Illness" is available on the American Medical Association (AMA) website for review and downloading at: www.ama-assn.org/go/foodborne. The primer was produced by the AMA in collaboration with the American Nurses Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Agriculture.

The Foodborne Illness Primer mainly covers the diagnosis, treatment, and reporting of foodborne illness. This new edition includes sections on hepatitis A, noroviruses, antibiotic-resistant Salmonella, congenital toxoplasmosis, and intentional contamination. The AMA recommends this document to the medical community, public health agencies, and emergency medical services.