Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 30 April 2025

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. 

Weekly Security Sprint EP 109. Cybersecurity reports, Casino blended threat, and vehicle ramming

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.

In this week’s Security Sprint Dave and Andy covered the following topics:

• Big 3
• Casino Hackers
• Vancouver Vehicle Ramming

Information on other Gate 15 podcasts can be found here.

UK Crossbow Attack Suspect put ‘Massacre’ Plans Online

On the evening of April 26, a 38-year-old man in West Yorkshire, England, attacked two women with a crossbow and firearm during the busy Otley Run pub crawl. Both victims were seriously injured. Police apprehended the suspect, who later died from self-inflicted injuries. The attack occurred amid large crowds celebrating a local soccer team’s season. The UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing is investigating and has stated there is no indication anyone else was involved.

Analyst Comments: In a Facebook post, the attacker referenced a “manifesto” written by the man who killed 51 people during shootings at a mosque and Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019. We continue to see extremist use past attacks as inspiration. While local authorities noted that the pub crawl is not a formal event, it is well known to draw large crowds both making it an enticing target, as well as difficult to secure. We have uploaded to the FB-ISAO Slack Workspace an (U//FOUO) document about the attack which is available for members to view. You can learn more about FB-ISAO membership here.

A Bomb Was Found Near a Church. Was It Targeted?

The article titled “A Bomb Was Found Near a Church. Was It a Warning?” from Christian Warrior Training discusses a bomb threat incident at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit. On December 4, 2023, police received a call about a bomb threat at the church, leading to an evacuation. The threat was ultimately deemed unfounded. However, during the investigation, a man’s body was discovered nearby, adding complexity to the situation

Christian Warrior Training uses this incident to highlight the increasing threats faced by churches and emphasizes the importance of preparedness. The organization, led by retired police sergeant Keith Graves, offers free online courses and resources aimed at equipping church security teams with the necessary skills to protect their congregations. ​

The article underscores the need for heightened vigilance and proactive measures in church security, suggesting that such threats, even if unfounded, serve as warnings that should not be ignored.

Analyst Comments: The article looks at the growing concerns around security threats to religious institutions. It allows readers to position places of worship not just as places of worship but also as potential soft targets in an increasingly unstable environment. This piece bridges two worlds: spiritual leadership and tactical defense. As always FB-ISAO has resources on Securing Facilities and People as well as hosted a series on Standing up Teams for places of worship.

Threat Actors Use “Swatting” to Target Victims Nationwide

The FBI has identified a recent rise in “swatting” incidents. This Public Service Announcement (PSA) aims to inform the public about the nature of swatting, offer guidance on how to protect against it, and explain how to report suspected cases. The FBI treats these threats with utmost seriousness and works closely with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies to respond to and investigate such events.

What is swatting?

Swatting is a dangerous and criminal act where someone makes a fake emergency call often claiming a life-threatening situation to provoke a heavy law enforcement response, such as a SWAT team, at a victim’s location. These hoaxes can cause panic, injury, or even death, and divert resources from real emergencies.

Victims can include public figures, schools, hospitals, places of worship, and transportation hubs, though anyone can be targeted. Swatting is typically used to harass, intimidate, or retaliate.

Criminals often gather personal information from public sources and use spoofing technology to hide their identity or make it seem like the victim made the call. Some even exploit compromised smart home devices to carry out the attack.

Ways to Protect Yourself:

The FBI urges the public to consider the following measures:

• Review your online presence for sensitive personal information that could enable malicious actors to conduct a swatting attack.
• Exercise care when posting content (including photos and videos) or sharing it with individuals online. Although seemingly innocuous, images and videos can be exploited or manipulated by malicious actors for criminal activity.
• Consider online resources and services that may aid in reducing or removing sensitive publicly available information.
• Use strong, unique passwords, and multi-factor authentication on all devices and accounts, including smart home devices.
• Discuss swatting with your family members or colleagues and have a plan in place in the event of law enforcement contact at your residence, business, or other location.

For someething like this, we can probably find an OSINT story to link to. Then we can include details that are in that story, and mention we’ve uploaded an FOUO doc to Slack, and when we do that we can indicate that is a member perk and link to where they can learn more about membership.

Since this has come up a few times recently, I just want to note that since this resrouce does specifically talk about providing resources for churches, it’s fine to use “church” as opposed to something more generic.