Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 30 June 2026

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.

The DAP will not be distributed on Friday, 03 July, as we pause to celebrate U.S. Independence Day.

Vetting the right security team for your church

The Church Executive article emphasizes that selecting a church security provider should go beyond comparing prices or equipment and instead focus on choosing a trusted partner with demonstrated experience protecting houses of worship. Churches should evaluate a provider’s industry expertise, references, employee screening and training practices, licensing, certifications, and ability to tailor security solutions to the congregation’s unique risks and culture. The article also recommends ensuring the provider can support a comprehensive security strategy including surveillance, access control, emergency planning, and ongoing maintenance—while maintaining a welcoming environment for worshippers. Ultimately, conducting thorough due diligence when vetting a security team helps churches implement effective, sustainable security measures that protect people, property, and ministry operations without compromising the church’s mission.

Analyst Comments: This article reinforces that effective security for houses of worship depends not only on technology, but also on selecting qualified and trustworthy security partners. As threats to faith-based organizations continue to evolve, conducting due diligence when vetting security providers including reviewing experience, training, credentials, and emergency response capabilities can help ensure security measures are tailored to the organization’s unique risks while preserving a welcoming environment for congregants and visitors.

The Next WannaCry Won’t Look Like WannaCry: Nine Years Later, Ransomware Has Evolved. The Resilience Fundamentals Haven’t.

The Gate 15 blog argues that the next major ransomware event is unlikely to resemble the 2017 WannaCry attack, which relied on a single widespread software vulnerability and rapidly spread across unpatched systems. Instead, future attacks will likely leverage artificial intelligence, automation, supply chain compromises, cloud environments, trusted third-party services, and blended cyber-physical tactics to achieve greater impact while avoiding detection. Rather than focusing solely on malware or encryption, attackers are expected to combine data theft, extortion, operational disruption, and attacks against critical infrastructure, creating cascading consequences across organizations and sectors. The article emphasizes that organizations should not prepare for the last major cyber incident but instead adopt a resilience-focused approach that prioritizes proactive risk management, timely patching, network segmentation, incident response planning, regular exercises, and cross-sector information sharing to better withstand the increasingly complex ransomware landscape.