Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 25 June 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.

FBI Releases 2023 Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Report

The FBI is releasing the 2023 Active Shooter Incidents in the United States report to provide an overview of active shooter incidents to help law enforcement, other first responders, and the public better understand the levels of threats associated with active shooter incidents. The focus of the report encourages media, law enforcement, and public information officers to shift their focus from the perpetrators of active shooter incidents toward the victims, survivors, and heroes who stopped them, as well as the communities that come together to help in the healing process. 

• In 2023, the FBI designated 48 shootings as active shooter incidents. Although incidents decreased by 4% from 2022 (50 incidents), the number of active shooter incidents increased 60% since 2019 (30 incidents). The 48 active shooter incidents in 2023 occurred in 26 states and represent five location categories, including open space, commerce, education, health care, and residence.
• The FBI designated 229 active shooter incidents from 2019 to 2023. This represents an 89% increase in active shooter incidents (121) from the previous five-year period (2014–2018). The 229 active shooter incidents from 2019 to 2023 occurred in 44 states and the District of Columbia and represent seven location categories including commerce, open space, education, government, residence, health care, and house of worship… 
• Resources:
  • Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2023
  • Active Shooter Safety Resources

Related Articles;

• Active shooter incidents declined by 4% from 2022 to 2023, FBI report says

• UPDATE: Suspect fatally shoot self in active shooter situation near Hamilton Place Mall
• S. surgeon general declares firearm violence a public health crisis
• Trans Christian school shooter had homicidal fantasies before mass shooting: report (2023 Covenant School shooting)

Analyst Comments:

The FBI is urging the media, law enforcement, and public information officers to shift their focus away from the perpetrators. Emphasizing the perpetrator can encourage copycat perpetrators. Emphasizing the perpetrator can also cause future perpetrators to try out doing earlier perpetrators. For example, the FB-ISAO’s 1 December 2023 Daily Awareness Post  highlighted the arrest of a teen threatening to shoot up his church. “I’m going to get on the news next week and go down as the biggest church shooter on record against homophobic Christians.”

The FB-ISAO Daily Awareness Posts (DAP) regularly omits perpetrator names from headlines. The Dont Name Them campaign urges “Don’t sensationalize the names of the shooters in briefings – or in reporting about active attack events.”

The Don’t Name Them website provides the following:

• Some suspects are motivated by a desire for fame, notoriety, and/or recognition.
• When the media focuses on the attacker, they provide this fame, notoriety and recognition.
• This focus allows the attacker to accomplish one of their goals,and validates their life and actions.
• Media coverage can create a contagion effect producing more shootings.
• Some shootings/attacks may be prevented by removing one of the incentives.
• We encourage the media and others not to name the suspects or focus on their lives
• The shooters/attackers should be as unrecognized in their deaths as they were in their lives.
• Media coverage should focus on the victims and the heroes.

Faith-Based Organizations should consider reviewing the FBI’s Active Shooter Safety Resources website.

Taiwanese tech firms, universities, religious groups among targets in cyber-espionage campaign

The Record reports:

Suspected Chinese state-sponsored hackers were observed targeting dozens of organizations in Taiwan, including universities, state agencies, electronics manufacturers and religious organizations, according to new cybersecurity research.

…

“We also anticipate that Chinese state-sponsored groups will continue to focus on conducting reconnaissance against and exploiting public-facing devices, as this has proved a successful tactic in scaling initial access against a wide range of global targets,” researchers added.

Related Article:

• Chinese State-Sponsored RedJuliett Intensifies Taiwanese Cyber Espionage via Network Perimeter Exploitation

Analyst Comments:

As yesterday’s Daily Awareness Post stated, “… no organizations are immune from being targeted by ransomware gangs, and smaller organizations with less cybersecurity maturity can be attractive targets.” In addition to ransomware attacks, Faith-Based Organizations (FBO) are threated by cyber espionage, as shown in the above article.

FBOs are encouraged to review their organization’s basic cyber hygiene and ensure they are adhering to some of the recommended CISA cyber essentials.

“I’ve been paid to kill you but wish to spare you.” Death Threat Email Scams

Andy Jabbour, of Gate 15, shares a scam email that he recently received.

Analyst Comments:

Reviewing this scam email can help others be prepared for such scams and not fall for them.

The Gate 15 Interview – ENCRYPTION, part 1. A conversation with Sharon Polsky and Hanna Bozakov: A magic key to backdoor encryption can’t exist in a free and open society.

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 episode of The Gate 15 Interview, Andy Jabbour talks with Sharon Polsky. president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada and Hanna Bozakov, with Tuta Mail, the encrypted email service from Germany.  This is the first of a two-part series on encryption. All three participants are members of the Global Encryption Coalition.

They discuss:

• Encryption 101: What it is and why is it important.
• The Global Encryption Coalition and why they’re involved.
• Law Enforcement & legislation in Canada, Europe and broadly.
• Best privacy practices for individuals and organizations.
• Recommendations for law enforcement and legislators.
• Three Questions!
• And more.

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