Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 15 August 2024

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.

French government warns of ‘very high’ terrorist threat on Catholic solemnity

The French government is urging “extreme vigilance” in the face of a “very high” terrorist threat to religious demonstrations and places of worship on the solemnity of the Assumption, one of the most holy days in the Catholic calendar. Gérald Darmanin, the French minister of the interior, warned regional officials in a Tuesday message through the messenger app Telegram that the country is in a “very high level of terrorist threat.” He specified that “services, gatherings, processions, and pilgrimages” at sites traditionally associated with Marian devotion face particular danger, according to French news outlet BFMTV.

Analyst Comments:

According to BFMTV, the French minister of the interior instructed local officials to advise Christian leaders on preventative security measures to detect suspicious individuals or vehicles in front of places of worship.  The French government is also reportedly likely to deploy its anti-terrorist Opération Sentinelle forces at key pilgrimage sites, such as the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, where more than 30,000 faithful are expected to gather on the feast of the Assumption.

Due to continued terrorist threats, France has been under its highest threat security posture since March 24. Suspicious activity can be reported to French authorities here.

Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of every American. Here’s how to protect yourself

About four months after a notorious hacking group claimed to have stolen an extraordinary amount of sensitive personal information from a major data broker, a member of the group has reportedly released most of it for free on an online marketplace for stolen personal data. The breach, which includes Social Security numbers and other sensitive data, could power a raft of identity theft, fraud and other crimes, said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Information Research Group.

According to a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the hacking group USDoD claimed in April to have stolen personal records of 2.9 billion people from National Public Data, which offers personal information to employers, private investigators, staffing agencies and others doing background checks. The group offered in a forum for hackers to sell the data, which included records from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, for $3.5 million, a cybersecurity expert said in a post on X. The lawsuit was reported by Bloomberg Law.

Analyst Comments:

If you suspect that your Social Security number or other important identifying information about you has been leaked, experts say you should put a freeze on your credit files at the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can do so for free, and it will prevent criminals from taking out loans, signing up for credit cards and opening financial accounts under your name.

For more details, check out PIRG’s step-by-step guide to credit freezes. You can also sign up for a service that monitors your accounts and the dark web to guard against identity theft, typically for a fee. If your data is exposed in a breach, the company whose network was breached will often provide one of these services for free for a year or more.

Also see: Unconfirmed Hack of 2.9 Billion Records at National Public Data Sparks Media Frenzy Amid Lawsuit