Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 23 July 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.

TLP CLEAR: Joint FBI, Boston and Massachusetts State Police Responding to and Investigating Bomb Threats and Swatting Hoaxes Virtual Training.

FBI Boston and Massachusetts State Police will host four virtual training sessions on Responding to and Investigating Bomb Threats and Swatting Hoaxes for public safety dispatchers, law enforcement personnel, school administrators and decision makers. The sessions will take place on Thursday, July 25, 2024 via Microsoft Teams. Sessions are scheduled for 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. (EST). This one-hour training provides attendees an overview of the realities of bomb threats and swatting hoaxes and includes a detailed review of statistics and current trends seen across the country. The training will also cover the characteristics of hoax calls, law enforcement best practices for assessment and response, and the decision-making process for evacuation or sheltering in place. Click here to register.

Analyst Comments:

Faith-Based Organizations, especially those that operate schools, should consider attending this one-hour, online presentation to assist in their planning and preparation for bombing threats and swatting hoaxes.

Updates on Attempted Assassination of Former President Donald Trump

• Trump’s would-be assassin researched previous mass shooter Ethan (name omitted) and his family before attack
• Florida man arrested over threats to Trump, Vance
• Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns, sources say

Weekly Security Sprint EP 74. Information sharing and resiliency; CrowdStrike, MDM, and Health

The Gate 15 Security Sprint is a weekly rundown of the week’s notable all-hazards security news, risks and threats and some of the key focus areas for organizations to consider behind the headlines. Gate 15 team members discuss physical security, cybersecurity, natural hazards, health threats and other issues across our environment.

On this week’s Security Sprint, Dave and Andy discuss:

• FB-ISAO Releases an All-Faiths Analysis of Attacks on U.S. Houses of Worship in 2023. The collection spans the ideological, political, and religious spectra… The report, which includes key findings and implications for securing houses of worship, is available here
• Private-public partnership releases new bank resources for cloud computing adoption.
• Information Sharing!
• CrowdStrike Outage
• Donald Trump Assassination Attempt & Information Operations
• Health
• Ransomware

The above Gate 15 Weekly Security Sprint website also provides links to many security-related items of interest.

Information on other Gate 15 podcasts can be found at Podcasts (gate15.global).

The Gate 15 Interview – ENCRYPTION, part 2. A conversation with Elizabeth Nolan Brown and Jessica Dickinson Goodman: Encryption, privacy and why good intentions aren’t good enough. Plus Sunshine, Cincinnati & Community Radio

The Gate 15 Interview is a monthly interview between Gate 15’s Founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour and guests from throughout the homeland security risk management community addressing a wide range of all-hazards topics and issues.

In this second episode of The Gate 15 Interview, Andy Jabbour talks with Elizabeth Nolan Brown, senior editor at Reason and the author of Reason‘s biweekly Sex & Tech newsletter and Jessica Dickinson Goodman, current chair of the Chapter Seeding Committee of the San Francisco Bay Area ISOC Chapter and past-President.  This is the second of a two-part series on encryption. All three participants are members of the Global Encryption Coalition.

Jessica and Gate 15 are members of the Global Encryption Coalition.

In the discussion Liz, Jessica, and Andy discuss:

• Liz and Jessica’s backgrounds.
• Encryption 101 and why is it important. 
• What led you to join the Global Encryption Coalition.
• Liz’s journalistic background covering sex, tech, privacy and related matters at Reason.
• Are we too paranoid? 
• Law enforcement & legislation & breaking encryption.
• STOP CSAM, the EARN IT Act and Section 230.
• Protecting children vs. protecting privacy or protecting children and protecting privacy.
• Recommendations for law enforcement and legislators.
• Three Questions!
• And more.

Information on other Gate 15 podcasts can be found at Podcasts (gate15.global).