InfoGram

September 22, 2005

NOTE: This InfoGram will be distributed weekly to provide members of the Emergency Services Sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. 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.

CIP: An All-Hazards Discipline

Leaders at all levels of government and public service recognize the requirement to identify and protect critical infrastructures from the effects of a terrorist attack. Accordingly, much attention has been given to terrorism prevention and protection during the last four years since 9/11.

However, last year's four hurricanes in Florida and this year's Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama vividly remind decision-makers that natural disasters significantly disrupt and frequently destroy local and regional critical infrastructures. Therefore, the EMR-ISAC asserts that these hurricanes reinforce the necessity to accept nature as an occasional serious threat to the business of protecting and sustaining community critical infrastructures.

Because a natural disaster can be a force more powerful than al-Qaeda or any terrorist cell, the capabilities and plans to deal with nature acts should be refined and rehearsed. All-hazards emergency plans do not have to be perfect for every conceivable type of catastrophe. The plans should be reasonably comprehensive and adaptable to provide a strong basis to prepare for and respond to a variety of hazards while protecting critical infrastructures.

The security of critical infrastructures, citizen safety, and property protection are major imperatives for state and local leaders in response to varied disasters and emergencies. As states, counties, and municipalities pursue scarce resources to protect their critical infrastructures from terrorism, the EMR-ISAC recommends concurrent consideration of protective measures for those localities susceptible to any type of severe weather or nature activity.

Organization Recovery Tips and Planning Resources

The Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) offers the following recovery tips that may be helpful to the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) in areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina, and any other region of the nation affected by future natural disasters:

• Put safety first. Buildings, stations, and firehouses should be safe before personnel re-enter. Downed power lines and gas leaks should be reported and repaired as soon as possible. Damaged structures should be inspected by a structural engineer or contractor to determine the extent of destruction. Find an alternative location if it is unstable.
• Assess damages. Note damages to the structure, equipment, and property, including any stocked items or inventory. Report losses to the insurance company promptly.
• Plan repairs. Consider how to avoid further damage to the structure by making temporary repairs, boarding up windows or covering holes in the roof. If some areas of the building are unusable, determine if they can be partitioned. Experts suggest having the structure's sanitation systems repaired first.
• Clean up safely. Have anyone who does cleanup work wear protective eyewear, gloves, hardhats, and masks.

Additionally, the IBHS has resources available on its website such as an "Open for Business" toolkit that includes vulnerability assessment as well as guidance for minimizing risks. The toolkit guides the user through organizing the institution's critical information and reviewing its essential operations, with the goal of creating a continuity of operations plan. The full toolkit can be viewed and downloaded at http://www.ibhs.org/docs/OpenForBusiness.pdf (PDF, 14.3 Mb, Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Help). Also available at the IBHS website is "Getting Back to Business," a brochure that explains how to report losses, assess damage, and restore operations.

Observing Suspicious Behaviors

The Highway ISAC investigates incidents regarding reported suspicious behavior in relation to the operations of commercial fuel tankers. There are no positive indicators that reports received suggest pre-operational surveillance. However, the majority of reports considered suspicious in nature are received from individuals recognized as authorities in hauling specialized/HAZMAT cargo and professionals within their respective transportation field.

Of note are reports of suspicious vehicles intentionally maneuvering erratically around the truck for an extended period of time and cases of individuals engaging in surveillance activity, including the photographing or videotaping of operational activities. Preliminary analysis of the available information indicates that there are no discernable spatial patterns to the location of these incidents.

The Highway ISAC requests that members of the Emergency Services Sector advise of similar suspicious incidents in an effort to broaden situational awareness, continue information sharing on investigations, enrich research projects, and gain valuable input to direct to the highway community. Emergency personnel who observe suspicious behavior in regards to commercial vehicles hauling petroleum products should call the Highway ISAC at 1-703-838-1999 or email at hwisac@trucking.org.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance, offers free reproducible materials online to promote the second annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month. The EMR-ISAC joins the MS-ISAC in encouraging heightened cyber security awareness as computer usage increases dramatically within the Emergency Services Sector.

Among the materials being offered is a downloadable, reproducible calendar that can be "branded" for each specific organization that chooses to distribute it to the rank and file. The calendar's format is set up to alternate monthly calendar pages with pages that contain capsulized information on such topics as password protection, firewalls, viruses and anti-virus software, phishing, patching, recovery, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and possible symptoms of a compromised computer.

In addition to the calendars, free brochures, posters and an archived web cast are available at http://www.cscic.state.ny.us/msisac/ncsa/oct05/index.htm.