DHS Awards $1.5M to Small Business for First Responder Emergency Alerts Technology Development

As emergency communications technologies adapt to an increasingly interconnected nation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) today announced it awarded more than $1.5 million to develop an Alerts, Warnings, and Notifications (AWN) Guidance Tool. The program planning app, which will be available through a portal at FEMA's website, is expected to provide customized resources, best practices and program templates to address the most pressing challenges of alert originators, helping public safety agencies at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels disseminate emergency and life-saving information.
“From the devastating wildfires on the West Coast to the very active Atlantic/Caribbean 2020 hurricane season to the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, there is a growing need to push actionable information out quickly to the public in order to save lives,” said Antwane Johnson, director of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) office.
S&T awarded $1,542,113 through its Long-Range Broad Agency Announcement (LRBAA) program to Corner Alliance, Inc., a small business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. and Boulder, CO. The research and development of this tool is a continuation of S&T’s partnership with FEMA in creating the IPAWS Program Planning Toolkit, aimed at assisting public safety agencies in minimizing alerting delays; planning for future alerts, warnings and notifications enhancements; facilitating interoperability across different technologies; and improving information sharing among emergency management and public safety officials.
“First responders rely on information to make life saving decisions, often with very little time to spare,” noted William Bryan, DHS Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology. “This tool will help public safety agencies respond quickly and decisively during emergencies or catastrophic events, and that allows the greater homeland security enterprise to be more prepared and resilient.”
The documents in the IPAWS Program Planning Toolkit were produced based on recent innovative changes to technology and derived from the collection of successful practices and lessons learned from hundreds of data points from stakeholders, including emergency managers, public information officers, alerting originators and administrators, and alerting experts.
“FEMA and DHS S&T plan to expand the toolkit into an online, user-friendly format that will allow stakeholders to download and print pre-filled planning documents with their information,” said DHS S&T Program Manager Norman Speicher. “Through this development, our team will continue utilizing a stakeholder validation process.”
To learn more about the LRBAA program, please visit https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/st-lrbaa.

Securing Cloud Services for Health: New report by EU Agency for Cybersecurity helps healthcare organisations securely adopt cloud services and prepare for cybersecurity challenges

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) published the Cloud Security for Healthcare Services report, which provides cybersecurity guidelines for healthcare organisations to help further digitalise with cloud services. Building on ENISA’s procurement guidelines for cybersecurity in hospitals, published early last year, this new report assesses the cybersecurity risks of cloud services and offers good practices for their secure integration into the European healthcare sector. The ENISA report comes as the European Commission is moving forward this year with the European Health Data Space initiative to promote the safe exchange of patients’ data and access to health data.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined an increased need for efficient – and secure – digital healthcare services. Cloud solutions allow for the flexible and rapid deployment of the electronic storage of data and electronic communications such as telemedicine. However, the complexity of legal systems and new technologies, as well as concerns over the security of sensitive patient data have slowed the healthcare sector in adopting cloud services.
EU Agency for Cybersecurity Executive Director Juhan Lepassaar said: “A resilient health sector relies on secure digital solutions. The EU Agency for Cybersecurity provides healthcare organisations with guidance to address cybersecurity concerns related to cloud services and is preparing an EU Cloud Cybersecurity Certification scheme, both of which aim to do just that.”
The report addresses these concerns by providing security guidelines for three main areas in which cloud services are used by the healthcare sector, namely for:
Electronic Health Record (EHR), i.e. systems focusing on the collection, storage, management and transmission of health data, such as patient information and medical exam results;
Remote Care, i.e. the subset of telemedicine supporting remote patient-doctor consultation;
Medical Devices, i.e. cloud services supporting the operation of medical devices such as making medical device data available to different stakeholders or for device monitoring.
For each of these use cases, the report highlights the main factors to be considered when healthcare organisations conduct the relevant risk assessment – for example, in terms of risk to sensitive patient data or availability of a medical service. These guidelines, however, are only a first step for healthcare providers to adapt securely to the cloud. More support is needed, such as established industry standards on cloud security, specific direction from national and EU authorities, and further guidelines from Data Protection Authorities on transferring healthcare data to the cloud.
The report also proposes a set of security measures for healthcare organisations to implement when planning their move to cloud services, such as establishing processes for incident management, defining data encryption requirements, and ensuring data portability and interoperability. The measures are proposed taking into consideration the draft candidate EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme on Cloud Services (EUCS) to ensure compatibility and requirements mapping. The Agency’s draft scheme is part of the larger cybersecurity certification framework aimed at enhancing trust in ICT products, services and processes across Europe. The draft scheme is open for public consultation until 7 February 2021.
The EU Agency for Cybersecurity will continue its work to strengthen the cybersecurity of Europe’s healthcare sector by publishing guidelines, promoting information sharing, collaborating with policy-makers and organising events such as the annual eHealth Conference, addressing the healthcare sector’s major cybersecurity challenges.

Resilient buildings offer protection and boost recovery

Resilient infrastructure protects people during disasters and enables communities to recover quickly in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.
Two examples from Vanuatu during and after Tropical Cyclone Harold – a Category 5 storm – illustrate the point powerfully.
During the devastating storm, the two classrooms of Balon School on the island of Santo served as official cyclone shelters protecting around 10 families (approximately 50 people) over two days during the worst weather. One week after Harold passed over the island of Santo, Balon School played an important role in local recovery efforts through the hosting of a psycho-social workshop to help locals deal with the compounded stress from TC Harold.
School teachers shared important information to help families recover quickly in a workshop that was coordinated by School Improvement Officers from the Sanma Education Office.
“The classrooms were very strong, very resilient. Once we closed the wooden shutters, only a small amount of water came in, mostly through the crack under the door, even though we could hear the wind whistling outside, moving trees and branches around and the rain crashing on the roof,” said School Principal John Harry. “There was no damage to either of the classrooms after the storm which meant we could start teaching again soon after.”
The example of Balon School highlights the value of disaster resilient infrastructure in disaster-exposed countries such as Vanuatu, where many of rural schools act as social and educational hubs for local communities.
Balon School caters for 150 students ranging from kindergarten through to Year 6. It was selected as a pilot under the Australian Government-funded Pacific Humanitarian Social Infrastructure as part of the Recovery Acceleration through Prefabricated Infrastructure Deployment (RAPID) programme.
Another good example of resilient infrastructure is Market House in Luganville, Vanuatu’s second major city.
Built in 1977, Market House was renovated in 2019 to strengthen its disaster and climate resilience so that its many vendors – predominantly women and including persons with disabilities – could continue to trade. The renovation included a Category 5 cyclone-resistant roof, more durable flooring and a new water drainage system to reduce the risk of flooding and damage during extreme weather events.
Cyclone Harold hit the town only six months after the renovations. Despite wind speeds of up to 270 kilometers per hour, the Luganville Market House sustained only minor roof damage. As a result, many of the more than 3,000 registered market vendors were able to start selling goods and produce within a week of the storm.
It is a good example of how climate-informed design, construction and renovation of social infrastructure strengthens local and gender-sensitive resilience in the face of increasing climate change threats and disasters. The renovations were under UN Women’s Markets for Change programme, which is mainly funded by the Australian Government.

Asia-Pacific resolves to move from crisis to resilience

In 2019, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNDRR) Global Assessment Report called on countries to abandon “hazard-by-hazard” risk management, in favour of a holistic approach that examines risk in the context of its impact in systems, including cascading impacts.
A year later, the COVID-19 pandemic presented the world with an unfortunate case study of how systemic risk, if left untreated, can snowball into a disaster and a global crisis.
However, the pandemic was not the only disaster of the year, as 2020 saw countries in Asia-Pacific deal with a perfect storm of dual and multiple disasters, including droughts, floods and typhoons.
For countries in the region to guard against future disasters and mitigate the compounded impact of disasters, a fundamental shift in risk governance at national and local levels is required.
The post-COVID recovery process is one avenue to embed this new approach in socio-economic development processes, to avoid the creation of new risks while risk-proofing development gains.
However, some preconditions need to be met to facilitate this transformation, including committed leadership, investments, engagement of all sectors and stakeholders, and an embrace of science-based multi-hazard risk reduction. All of these elements are in line with the commitments that countries made in the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
The 2021 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR), as the first major UNDRR regional platform since the onset of COVID-19, offers countries and stakeholders an opportunity to determine how these conditions can be met to achieve a transformation in risk governance.
With that goal, UNDRR and Australian Government, as the convener and host of the APMCDRR respectively, completed this week a major step in the roadmap to the ministerial conference, the organizing of the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction (APP-DRR) Forum.
The APP-DRR was organized on 1-2 December as a virtual meeting with 175 participants from 30 Asia-Pacific governments, over 10 intergovernmental organisations, several UN and international organizations, and stakeholder groups.
The Forum was kicked off with a statement by Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, who exhorted the participants to “think big and out of the box”. Opening remarks were made by the Australian Government:
"This forum is an important opportunity to take stock of how we're progressing against our Sendai commitments and to work together to accelerate this process," said Ms. Rebecca Bryant, Assistant Secretary at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, adding:
"Australia is firmly committed to working with countries to further enhance our region's resilience to disasters and to learn from each other's experience."
Of importance to the APMCDRR is building the disaster resilience of small island developing states in the Pacific. These countries are often the most vulnerable countries to extreme weather events, and still have to mobilize resources to counter a global pandemic.
Speaking on both aspects, the Honorable Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete, Minister of Health and Medical Services in Fiji, said:
“Our coordinates cannot change... we need to understand as a nation that we are prone to disasters. We are prone to cyclones, droughts and other extreme weather events, almost every year,” emphasizing that “as leaders in our own right, we must continue to make better decisions in building resilience to ensure that the devastating impacts of disasters are mitigated and reduced.”
To make the right decisions, countries need to strengthen their data collection systems and understanding of risk, which in turn contributes to the development of sound national and local disaster risk reduction strategies.
On that front, UNDRR noted that the region was making progress in reporting on several Sendai Framework indicators, as 67% of countries in Asia-Pacific have reported some data as of October 2020.
However, challenges remain around the collection of data that is disaggregated by sex, age and disability, which hinders the effectiveness of planning to ensure no one is left behind.
Moreover, countries continue to face challenges in adopting integrated approaches that combine climate change adaptation with disaster risk reduction and expanding their risk governance mechanisms to other sectors.
As the availability of funding is often a hindrance to the implementation of risk reduction strategies, UNDRR presented recommendations on how countries could finance risk prevention.
Green investment offers a particularly effective way to fund climate change adaptation and risk reduction measures, as is highlighted in a report that was launched by UNDRR at the APP-DRR, titled ‘Ecosystem-Based Disaster Risk Reduction: Implementing Nature-based Solutions for Resilience.’
However, as a result of the downturn in economic activity caused by the COVID-19 crisis, it might be necessary for governments to increase their support for green investments as part of their recovery efforts.
“Financially constrained firms have weaker environmental performance and COVID-19 could be detrimental to environmental investments. Going forward, there will be a need for some forms of public support to encourage green recovery,” said Dr. Hiroko Oura from the International Monetary Fund.
The APP-DRR was also an opportunity for countries and stakeholder groups to voice their priorities and concerns. These reflections were posted on the event page and will help inform planning for APMCDRR.

New community benchmark on water infrastructure resilience released

The Alliance for National and Community Resilience (ANCR) released the third of its Community Resilience Benchmarks—the water benchmark, which addresses resilience of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems.
ANCR’s Community Resilience Benchmarks (CRBs) support communities in assessing their resilience and developing strategies for improvement. These benchmarks take a coordinated, holistic look at the people, services and processes that make communities work.
The water benchmark was developed by a committee of subject matter experts co-chaired by Andy Kricun, Managing Director at Moonshot Missions and Senior Fellow at the U.S. Water Alliance, and Jennifer Adams, an emergency management consultant. Committee members included representatives from the American Chemistry Council, American Water Works Association, Codes and Standards International, Denver Water, Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association, Dupont Water Solutions, McWane, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Water is such an essential aspect of communities. We’re grateful for the contributions made by committee members to help capture the policies and practices that support resilience in this sector,” said Evan Reis, Executive Director of the U.S. Resiliency Council and Chair of the ANCR Board of Directors.
“We look forward to working with communities to integrate the Community Resilience Benchmarks into their current resilience initiatives,” commented ANCR Executive Director Ryan Colker. “Not only does the Water Benchmark provide an excellent enhancement to the provisions contained the Buildings and Housing Benchmarks, but it also helps communities determine how their water systems and utilities contribute to their resilience goals to inform future investments that help protect residents and businesses from disaster.”
Communities are encouraged to pilot the benchmark and provide feedback to ANCR to support updates. For communities interested in piloting the water benchmark.
ANCR is a joint initiative of the International Code Council and the U.S. Resiliency Council that brings together representatives from the public and private sectors to advance a holistic approach to community resilience.

Latest issue of World Security Report has arrived

The Winter 2020-21 issue of World Security Report for the latest industry views and news, is now available to download.
In the Winter 20-21 issue of World Security Report:
- Priority of Protecting Digital Critical Infrastructure Will Grow in 2021, by Chuck Brooks
- A view of Facility Industrial Control System Security, by Ron Martin
- The Need for Higher Level Strategic Approaches to Cyber Security, by Bonnie Butler
- Critical Infrastructure Protection Starts at the Perimeter
- Effective Security Options for Healthcare Facilities
- African Terror Groups ‘Rebrand’ as Islamic State
- IACIPP Association News
- Industry news
Download your copy today at www.cip-association.org/WSR

Supporting cities in advancing a holistic and systemic approach to resilience in Central Asia

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), within its project “Strengthening disaster resilience and accelerating implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia”, engages with the capital cities of Central Asia with the aim to support local governments to reduce risks and advance a holistic and systemic approach to urban resilience. The initiative is funded by the European Commission.
A network of focal points at the city administrations and interagency technical working groups are being established, including representatives of various departments of local and national governments, as well as risk analysis institutions, public councils and private sector. UNDRR will support assessments of Local Resilience Strategies and Action Plans of the five capital cities in Central Asian.
The initiative will contribute directly to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11) and other global frameworks, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda in the region. The importance of engagement with local governments is emphasized by the fact, according to the UNECE estimates, 65% of the total SDG targets globally need to be delivered by local authorities and actors.
Increasing climate and disaster resilience is a priority for the Governments of Central Asia. The region is highly vulnerability to climate change and exposed to a range of natural and technological hazards.
UNDRR will also provide support to the capital cities of Central Asia through its Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) launched in October 2020. Building upon the MCR Campaign success and lessons learned, it represents a new and unique multi-stakeholder initiative for improving local resilience. It lays out a broader offer of support to the cities than the MCR Campaign and enhances local resilience through advocacy, sharing knowledge and experiences, reinforcing city-to-city learning networks, injecting technical expertise, connecting multiple layers of government, and building partnerships.

EU grants €38 million for protection of critical infrastructure against cyber threats

The Commission announced today that it is committing more than €38 million, through Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme, to support several innovative projects in the field of protection of critical infrastructure against cyber and physical threats and making cities smarter and safer.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said, "Over the past years we have offered our support to research and innovation actions in the area of cybersecurity that contribute to better protecting key infrastructure and the people living in European smart cities. I am pleased that today we are able to offer yet another significant amount of funding through Horizon 2020 towards security, privacy and threat mitigating solutions.”

Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, added, "Securing network and information systems and enhancing cyber resilience are key for shaping Europe's digital future. As we are faced with a diverse array of cybersecurity threats, the EU is taking concrete measures to protect critical infrastructures, cities and citizens. More investments at EU and national level in innovative cybersecurity technologies and solutions are of paramount importance to strengthen EU's resilience to cyberattacks.

Three projects (SAFETY4RAILS, 7SHIELD and ENSURESEC) will work to improve prevention, detection, response and mitigation of cyber and physical threatsfor metro and railway networks, ground space infrastructure and satellites, as well as e-commerce and delivery services. Two additional projects (IMPETUS and S4ALLCITIES) aim at enhancing the resilience of cities' infrastructures and services and protecting citizens in case of security incidents in public spaces.

The projects are expected to start between June and October 2020 and will run for two years. The Research Executive Agency will manage the five selected projects and has finalised the preparation and signature of grant agreements with the beneficiaries.

The EU's financial contribution is provided in the form of grants that can be up to 100% of the project’s total budget. All projects were selected for funding under a competitive call for proposals Protecting the infrastructure of Europe and the people in the European smart cities, under the Societal Challenge 7 ‘Secure societies’ launched on 14 March 2019.

The support is part of the EU's commitment to build a strong cybersecurity culture and enhanced capabilities to resist and respond effectively to potential cyber threats and attacks.

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