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Just curious for some feedback - CERT volunteers marched in our little Independence Day parade. They offer a course in 'emergency preparedness training.' Seems like a good thing, but I'd like to hear from folks who know. thanks

CERT Training Session 4 This session was a practical test in which the CERT Volunteers were called to the location of a simulated disaster. In contrast to previous sessions, the practical test was held outdoors in the downtown parking lot of a metropolitan convention facility. Groups from a number of different cities participated in the event as well as teams sponsored by the national FEMA organization. The event was organized by professional staff of the participating cities. The organizers had decades-long experience with Fire and Rescue operations. There were approximately 50 CERT volunteers plus 50 role-player “disaster victim” volunteers attending...

CERT Training Session 3 As before, this session was held in a city facility and lasted for most of the day. This session went over “Unit 3” and “Unit 4” of the training materials – “Disaster Medical Operations”. The instructors reviewed information from the previous session on Triage procedures and basic First Aid. “Triage is not treatment. It is sorting”. This point was emphasized by the instructors. In a mass-casualty event the first thing the responders want to do is identify victims who are uninjured, or do not need immediate medical attention, and get them away from the incident site...

CERT Training Session 2 As before, this session was held in a city facility and lasted for most of the day. Almost all of the previous attendees from session 1 returned for session 2. There were a small number of new students as well. The morning portion went over Government responses to terrorist incidents; “Unit 8” of the training documents. This material comes straight from FEMA, and is mainly concerned with Chemical, Radiological, Biological, and Nuclear attacks. The FEMA managers seem to be obsessed with such possibilities. This is rather curious, since even the training materials mention that 80% of...

CERT Training, Session 1 A posting on another blog suggested that “preppers” should learn about the Incident Command System used by FEMA and that this might best be done by taking some of the courses offered by that agency. See your tax dollars at work, so to speak. A CERT course was available and scheduled nearby. I decided to attend. “CERT” stands for “Community Emergency Response Teams”. This program is sponsored on a national level by FEMA and is based on volunteer organizations first created about thirty years ago by the Los Angles Fire Department. CERT makes explicit use of...

In a rare move that highlights the severity of the security hole in one of the Web's most popular browsers, the Homeland Security Department's Computer Emergency Readiness Team says to stop using Internet Explorer until Microsoft can fix it. Security firm FireEye said that it is currently being used to attack financial and defense organizations in the US via Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11. Those versions of the browser run on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, although the exploit is present in Internet Explorer 6 and above.

Oath Keepers is instructing its 30,000 members nation-wide to form up special teams and sub-teams in each Oath Keepers chapter, at the town and county level, modeled loosely on the Special Forces “A Team” (Operational Detachment A ) model, and for a similar purpose: to be both a potential operational unit for community security and support during crisis, but also, as mission #1, to serve as training and leadership cadre, to assist in organizing neighborhood watches, organizing veterans halls to provide community civil defense, forming County Sheriff Posses, strengthening existing CERT, volunteer fire, search-and-rescue, reserve deputy systems, etc., and...

Monday morning Tulsa Today posted an analysis by veteran New York journalist and the recipient of seven Long Island Press Awards, Joan Swirsky, titled, “The Great Birth Certificate Scandal/Cover-Up of ‘08” questioning the missing Barack Obama birth certificate and his eligibility to serve as President of the United States. ImageTwo hours and 10,000 page views later, our local Internet Service Provider and domain hosting service, Tulsa Connect locked us off the Internet. This action was taken without warning or formal notice, but after several telephone conversations the picture became clear. Our agreement with Tulsa Connect was for “shared hosting” service....

US CERT (the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team), is advising people to ditch Internet Explorer and use a different browser after the latest security vulnerability in the software was exposed. A statement on the CERT site said: "There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites." CERT otherwise recommends users to set security settings to high and disable JavaScriptMalicious code, dubbed variously as "Scob"...

US CERT (the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team), is advising people to ditch Internet Explorer and use a different browser after the latest security vulnerability in the software was exposed. A statement on the CERT site said: "There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites." CERT otherwise recommends users to set security settings to high and disable JavaScript Malicious code, dubbed variously as...

IIS 5 Web Server Compromisesadded June 24 US-CERT is aware of new activity affecting compromised web sites running Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) 5 and possibly end-user systems that visit these sites. Compromised sites are appending JavaScript to the bottom of web pages. When executed, this JavaScript attempts to access a file hosted on another server. This file may contain malicious code that can affect the end-user's system. US-CERT is investigating the origin of the IIS 5 compromises and the impact of the code that is downloaded to end-user systems.Web server administrators running IIS 5 should verify that there is...

How many FReepers feel they would be ready for a blackout right NOW? What do you do that makes you feel like you are or are not? How about personal safety.

<p>Security researchers believe they have identified a new breed of Trojan horse that is infecting machines on the Internet, possibly in preparation for a larger coordinated attack.</p> <p>However, experts have been unable to pin down many of the details of the program's behavior and are unsure how many machines might be compromised by the Trojan.</p>

A security hole in the XDR Library provided to a number of vendors by Sun Microsystems Inc. could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on an affected system or cause a denial of service, according to an advisory from the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC). The flaw also affects the widely used Kerberos authentication software that allows users to securely log on to remote systems. The vulnerability exists in XDR (External Data Representation) libraries derived from SunRPC (remote procedure call) used in products from Sun, as well as from Apple Computer Inc., IBM and a number of Linux and Unix...

Status: DECIDED Timothy Joe Emerson, Petitioner v. United States Docketed: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit March 5, 2002 (99-10331) ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feb 28 2002 Petition for writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due May 6, 2002) Mar 28 2002 Order extending time to file response to petition until May 6, 2002. May 6 2002 Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed. ay 22 2002 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of June 6, 2002 Jun 10 2002 Petition DENIED.

........... Survival in an Insecure World To defeat cyberterrorists, computer systems must be designed to work around sabotage. David A. Fisher's new programming language will help do just that Image: STEVE MELLON DAVID A. FISHER: PROGRAMMING PIONEER Ten years ago, hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 180 days. First job: programming multiprocessor mainframes in 1965 at Burroughs. "We'll never see another plane hijacked and crashed into a building, because passengers now will sacrifice themselves if necessary to thwart it. That's an example of an emergent algorithm that contributes to survivability." As one of the primary lines of defense against...