Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 9 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.

Gaza war is a recruiting boon for terrorists, U.S. intelligence shows

The Washington Post reports:

“The State Department’s top intelligence official is warning that the war in Gaza is bolstering recruitment among terrorist organizations and providing “inspiration for lone actors” furious over the United States’ staunch support for Israel.

We’ve already seen that play out to some degree in Europe,” Holmgren said, referring to the arrests of individuals in Germany and the Netherlands accused of plotting attacks on Jewish sites.”

Analyst Comments:

FB-ISAO’s 6 June 2024 Daily Awareness Post (DAP) highlighted FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony that there is a threat of a coordinated attack in the U.S., similar to the ISIS-K attack in March at a concert hall in Russia.

The 17 June 2024 Daily Awareness Post highlighted multiple threats faced by houses of worship.

It is easy to become fatigued by all the threats faced by Faith-Based Organizations (FBO), but there is a need to remain vigilant. As the Hamas/Israel conflict continues, terrorist organizations and lone actors continue to be motivated to carry out their threats. Also, the ongoing debate about the President’s mental acuity may convince threat actors, including nation states, that this is the time to act.

Tabletop exercise scenarios: 10 tips, 6 examples

CSO defines a tabletop exercise as “an informal, discussion-based session in which a team talks through their roles and responses during an emergency, walking through one or more example scenarios.”

CSO details the following tips for conducting a tabletop exercise:

• Tailor your tabletop exercise to your business
• Go beyond just technical staff
• Get top-level management on board
• Choose your facilitator wisely
• Test people, not technology
• Ground your scenarios in active threat intelligence
• Get into character
• Don’t let the party get too big
• Give your exercise the time it deserves
• Create a safe space for experimentation — and failure

CSO also provides six sample scenarios.

Analyst comments:

Tabletop exercises are an excellent method for evaluating and improving current cyber and physical security operation and response plans.

Often, and due to lack of resources, Faith-Based Organizations (FBO) may not have a robust training program which may hinder their ability to conduct a tabletop exercise. There are many options available to FBOs that would like to conduct a tabletop exercise. CISA provides free tools to stakeholders to assist with conducting and planning exercises on a wide range of threat scenarios. In addition, FB-ISAO can assist organizations with planning HSEEP compliant exercises that provide a common approach to exercise program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning.

Weekly Security Sprint EP 72. Sequel week – hurricanes, FBI reports, ransomware

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 covered the following topics:

• Beryl!! & Hurricane Preparedness.
• Ransomware
• FBI Helps Public to Recognize Signs of Concerning Behavior
• Microsoft: Combatting AI Deepfakes: Our Participation in the 2024 Political Conventions
• CDC Reports Fourth Human Case of H5 Bird Flu Tied to Dairy Cow Outbreak

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).