The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) has released the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for June–September 2018. The report anticipates “above normal” potential for wildfires for the Northwest, Northern Rockies, and parts of California from July to September. The Southeast U.S. is projected to have "below normal" wildfire potential during the same period.
The EPA Water Security Division released the Earthquake Resilience Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities, an interactive document that explains earthquake threats to utilities in the United States and helps them utilities identify their vulnerabilities. Once utilities have identified their earthquake risk, they can use the guide to identify mitigation options and funding opportunities.
The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) has published an infographic of the 45 domestic terrorist attacks, disrupted plots, threats of violence, and instances of weapons stockpiling committed in 2017. NJOSHP defines domestic terrorism as violence committed by individuals or groups – including race-based, single-issue, anti-government, and religious extremist ideologies – associated primarily with U.S.-based movements.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has published to its Active Shooter Preparedness website four new active assailant guides to provide the critical infrastructure community with information regarding attack vectors used by terrorists and other extremist actors as well as corresponding suggested protective measures.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has published a report that summarizes the findings of various DOJ projects on how individuals become radicalized to terrorism and their implications for community members performing prevention and intervention efforts.
The FBI has released a report covering active shooter incidents in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013, examining specific behaviors that may precede an attack and that might be useful in identifying, assessing, and managing those who may be on a pathway to violence. The report points out that in 2017 there were 30 separate active shooting in the U.S., the largest number ever recorded by the FBI during a one-year period. Faced with so many tragedies, society has wrestled with the fundamental question of whether anything can be done to prevent attacks.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Science and Technology (S&T) has released the Watchtower mobile application, which allows organizations to track the locations and vitals of personnel responding to emergencies. In a traditional scenario, responders have to rely upon radios to communicate with one another and the command post, a process that can be time-consuming and beset with inaccurate and out-of-date information. The application is intended to overcome such challenges by automating the process and leveraging technology already used by many responders.
An article from the RAND Corporation discusses how new technologies allow certain individuals to play a outsized roles in geopolitics and world affairs. Drones and social media are at the forefront of these technologies and sometimes, as demonstrated by a real-life scenario that took place in Saudi Arabia in late April, can be used in conjunction with each other to further a malicious actor’s objectives. Furthermore, the malicious actor could actually be in the employ of a nation state, which have increasingly relied upon individuals and small groups as proxies in their campaigns.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has released the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Implementation Objectives for Local, State, Tribal, and Territorial Jurisdictions, the first revision since 2009. The NIMS Implementation Objectives identify specific activities involved in NIMS implementation for state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) organizations and jurisdictions. This update ensures objectives are consistent with the third edition of NIMS, released last year, and incorporates stakeholder input, resulting in a more useful tool.
Besides executing a direct strike with a nuclear weapon, where the device would be detonated at or just above an adversary’s city or other target, an attack can also be executed by having it explode high in the atmosphere and generating an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Conducting such an attack requires less sophistication, as the detonation location can be more approximate and as there are fewer risks of the device being countered by a adversary’s defenses, and yet could prove devastating.
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