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Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post

Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 10 August 2023

Faith-Based Security Headlines

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against, and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

Multiple Physical Security Resources for Houses of Worship

An Insurance Board Security Resource Guide: PDF

This one-pager lists multiple resources that houses of worship can use to protect themselves by adopting a comprehensive and multilayered security strategy.

A Disaster Preparedness Manual for Churches 

This 24-page manual is a joint resource from United Church of Christ Disaster Ministries and the Insurance Board.

From the manual’s introduction: “This manual speaks to 1) how you can prepare your church as a building, 2) how you can prepare your church as a community and 3) how you can prepare your church to be ready to serve your wider community when an event occurs. There are specific preparedness steps you will need to take related to each of these ways your church exists in the world which will allow you to best be able to care for yourselves and your community during and immediately after a disaster.”

The United Church of Christ website also has a blog on Local Church Security: Resources and Best Practices.

4 Ways to Make Your Church Safer – Lifeway Research

This Lifeway Research product discusses the following steps to make your house of worship safer.

  1. Organize a team
  2. Conduct thorough safety assessments of your church  
  3. Develop a safety plan
  4. Prioritize training and preparedness

Emergency preparedness seminar for houses of worship and faith-based communities.

The New Hampton Community Church will be hosting an Emergency Preparedness Seminar for Houses of Worship and Faith-Based Communities on Saturday, Aug. 12, from noon to 3 p.m. Presented by New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Exterior door security, school resource officers parts of Tennessee school security for 2023-24

Public, private, and church schools in Tennessee have a new mandate: Keep exterior school doors locked or secured with an employee gatekeeper, even for after-school events when students are present.

The law in part is a response to a March 27 shooting of three children and three adults at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian Church in Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, after which the proposed legislation was enhanced.

While secure doors are a must, the following item discusses a vulnerability of badge-reader door security: Badge of Shame – Breaking Into Secure Facilities with OSDP

The Evolution of Risk Intelligence and How to Use it for Real-time Security (webinar)

This webinar will cover processing risk intelligence to defend businesses from all industry sectors. FBOs should be able to use some of the processes provided in this webinar.

Analyst Comment:

While the vast and varied number of physical-security resources and articles can be overwhelming, the current threats to Faith-Based Organizations (FBO) are also vast and varied.

An FBO’s preparations before an incident, and actions during an incident, can change the outcome of an attack. An FBO cannot do everything right away, but could do something today to start protecting against an attack. Having a threat-informed, risk-based approach to analysis, preparedness, and operations will allow FBOs to best utilize limited resources.

FBOs should consider finding a “champion” in your organization who will be passionate about physical security for your house of worship and providing the champion with the resources to protect your membership.

The Faith-Based ISAO website also provides a variety of physical security resources at Resource Library – FB-ISAO (faithbased-isao.org).

More Faith-Based Stories

With Chabad of Maui in wildfire evacuation zone, rabbi says ‘people are suffering’

TX: Missing Texas Pastor Phillip Loveday is found dead in Kinder Morgan truck

Multiple news-article links of White Supremacists, Militia Movements, and January 6th from Radical Reports: Extremists Links: Neo-Nazi White Supremacists Fantasy of ‘Ethnostate’ in New England

NY: Man threatens US Jewish summer camp staffer with machete (incident occurred in July)

NJ: Vineland church fire: What we know about blaze at Voice of Deliverance

GA: After church arson, two congregations come together in Lizella

WA: Unknown suspects burglarize Islamic Center of Federal Way

AZ: Man accused of setting Douglas church fires had sexist, homophobic motives, court records say

Bishops protest Biden administration’s addition of abortion to pregnant workers protections

Morris: Emails Show New York Times Collaborating with State Government to Target Orthodox Jews

House Judiciary Committee: ‘Multiple FBI field offices’ collaborated over anti-Catholic memo

New Orleans archdiocese failed to monitor priests accused of sexual abuse

Top evangelical says churchgoers view Jesus quotes as ‘liberal talking points’, warns Christianity ‘in crisis’

HUD Wants to Help Brooklyn Churches Build Affordable Housing

 Gen X Church Attendance Hit Hardest During COVID-19

UK: Arrests made after arson attack on mosque in Harlow

Canada: Suspicious fire at former church sparks arson probe

UK: Appeal launched after attempted burglary of church charity donation boxes in Stamford

Muslim Inmates Face Abuse in Russia, Rights Group Says

Armenian Christians Trapped and Facing Genocide: An Explainer

Kyrgyzstan: 60 mosques, madrasas shuttered in Osh region

13 Eritrean Christians released from prison in response to letter campaign

Cocaine cartels encroach on Unification Church’s Paraguayan paradise

Select All-Hazards Stories

Live Updates: Maui Fires Kill At Least 36; Hundreds Of Structures Destroyed In Lahaina

Utah man suspected of threatening President Joe Biden shot and killed as FBI served warrant

Over 12,000 tweets are calling for Trump’s assassination. Here’s how the Secret Service handles it

Candidate in Ecuador’s presidential election shot dead

New CISA Cybersecurity Strategic Plan Focuses on Fundamentals to Change the ‘Trajectory of National Cybersecurity Risk’

JOINT CTC-JSOU PRESS REPORT: The Compound Era of U.S. Counterterrorism. READ MORE

Southern Heat Wave; Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Southeast National Weather Service

Hawaii wildfires: how did the deadly Maui fire start and what caused it?

WHO Initial Risk Assessment COVID Variant EG.5

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report

Got COVID-19 tests you didn’t order? Don’t pay

Two Nigerian Nationals Plead Guilty, and One Sentenced to Prison for International Inheritance Fraud Scheme That Defrauded Elderly U.S. Victims

Attacker combines phone, email lures into believable, complex attack chain

GuLoader Malware Disguised as Tax Invoices and Shipping Statements (Detected by MDS Products)

This Is a Reminder That You’re Probably Oversharing on Venmo

With AI, Hackers Can Simply Talk Computers Into Misbehaving

AI Cyber Challenge

Biden-Harris Administration Launches Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge to Protect America’s Critical Software | The White House

CISA: The Power of Resilience.

RANSOMWARE TRENDS : H1 2023 Part-2

Microsoft Edge security advisory (AV23-473)

Chrome Beta for iOS Update

Chrome Beta for Desktop Update

Early Stable Update For Desktop

Chrome Beta for Android Update

Early Stable Update for Android

ZDI Updates

More Security-focused Content

Read a report detailing attacks on Faith-Based organizations following the Dobbs ruling.
Access the latest FB-ISAO Newsletter for additional threat analysis and upcoming event announcements.
Access all-hazards resources from public and private sector partners, curated by the FB-ISAO team.

The FB-ISAO’s sponsor Gate 15 publishes a free daily newsletter called the SUN. Curated from their open source intelligence collection process, the SUN informs leaders and analysts with the critical news of the day and provides a holistic look at the current global, all-hazards threat environment. Ahead of the daily news cycle, the SUN allows current situational awareness into the topics that will impact your organization. To sign-up for The SUN, please sign up below.

Today’s DAP highlights Multiple Physical Security Resources for Houses of Worship and has several articles on Hawaii’s wildfires. Every DAP also has More Faith-Based Stories and Select All-Hazard Stories. These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

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