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  • January 15, 2019 2:47 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from Security Management

    ​Following the spike in terrorism activity and related convictions over the past two decades, a new national security challenge is rapidly approaching: the release of dozens of terrorists from prisons around the world. Sentencing those involved in extremist activity is notoriously challenging. It often relies on unrelated criminal convictions or the charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization, which results in sentences of 13 years on average. This means that those convicted in the years following 9/11 are approaching their release date.​

    In the United States, about 25 Americans charged with terror crimes are expected to be released by 2021, and that number will jump to 72 in 2025. At least 80 terrorists will be released by the end of the year in the United Kingdom, and the first man to be convicted in connection with 9/11—a Moroccan man living in Germany—was released from prison in 2018. ​

    “If you go to jail, it doesn’t mean you’re not a terrorist when you come out,” said Michael McGarrity, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, during a session at GSX 2018. ​

    While the soon-to-be-released prisoners may be monitored, there is currently no way to track those convicted of terror-related crimes—legislation establishing a national database has continually stalled. And, according to Jennifer Hesterman, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and vice president of business resiliency and education services at Watermark Risk Management International, LLC, there are no effective deradicalization programs within the prison system.

    ​The people arrested in al Qaeda plots after 9/11 are coming out of prison in the next couple years, and they have not been rehabbed. It’s a concern to me,” Hesterman said during another GSX 2018 session. “They are coming back out and we can’t keep track of them; we don’t have the resources. We’re not actively trying to work with them and train them to go the right direction.”

    A lot has changed in the terrorism landscape over the past decade, and both Hesterman and McGarrity said counterterrorism efforts are struggling to keep up with the rapid evolution of recruitment, detection, and communication techniques between terror organizations and potential extremists around the world. While McGarrity said extremist recidivism rates tend to be low following a prison stint, it is challenging to detect and act on concerns about further radicalization.

    “Never before have we seen so many individuals inspired and willing to take direct actions,” McGarrity said. “We’ve arrested more subjects over the past two years—many times we have to arrest them on nonterrorism charges, whatever it is to take that person off the street before they commit an attack. We’ve consistently arrested 100-plus people a year since 2015. We have seen how the message has evolved. ISIS encourages and empowers them to take action on their own, ​and anyone is a worthy target.”

    The top terror threat to the United States continues to be homegrown violent extremists—those who are recruited and radicalized online. 

    “Radicalization is online—there are far too many subjects in the U.S. being radicalized online in their basements,” McGarrity noted. “These aren’t tough people who went to training camps. They were radicalized online, socially awkward, and are not meeting mentors or other operatives.”

    Hesterman outlined the methods used to radicalize individuals and described the people who tend to fall prey to such efforts. There are two types of lone actors, she said—one that is well-adapted to society and makes the choice to leave society, and another is not well adapted, and society leaves them.

    “I’ve seen cult of jihad up close and personal, and it’s powerful,” Hesterman said. “They know how to hook people, target the message to the audience. They’ll use rap music for teenagers or target the message to professors. They have people all day online looking for disgruntled people they can seek out. They isolate them—don’t tell anyone we’re having this discussion—then they encourage them. This is a long process, but the people in the violent ideology business, they are patient.”

    It can be exceedingly difficult to identify potential homegrown extremists due to the nature of online-only radicalization and encrypted communications platforms. Additionally, there’s no one demographic that is especially susceptible to radicalization—previous homegrown extremists have tended to be male and 19 to 25 years old, but that number is trending lower. Hesterman showed instances of extremists who target children through English-language workbooks that use jihadist beliefs as examples, and McGarrity pointed out several occasions in which teenagers attempted to plan jihadist-inspired attacks.

    McGarrity also noted that teenagers can be especially susceptible to jihadist influence due to the violent aspect of it—and that can make it difficult to know what role the ideology plays in their radicalization.

    “Teens are more attracted to violence than propaganda,” McGarrity explained. “Ideology can be a source of inspiration, but they are motivated to act in violence. We had one subject who said the reason why he wanted to kill others was that he was inspired by ISIS, Hezbollah, and the white supremacy movement. Is that someone who’s really a stalwart educated in the ideology that he’s following, or someone looking to commit violence?”

    However, violence isn’t the only threat. Both McGarrity and Hesterman emphasized the role that nonviolent extremists can play in the radicalization and terrorism landscapes.

    “We’re struggling with this area—radical preaching, writing, or think tanks,” Hesterman noted. “What we do is give them platforms because we think it will let off steam if a group is going to boil over—we think that’s a vent—but they’re still able to get their message out. A group crosses a line when they do not further peace or harmony in society. If that line is crossed, they are recruiting. This is hard, because there are legitimate groups that cross that line.”

    McGarrity agreed, noting that the threat of so-called “keyboard warriors” who never set foot on a battlefield cannot be discounted. Samir Khan, a Pakistani American living in North Carolina, was recruited to become the editor and publisher of the English-language Inspire magazine, writing articles such as “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” out of his parents’ basement.

    To combat the ever-evolving threat, McGarrity said it is more important than ever for the FBI to work with state and local law enforcement officials, as well as the private sector. 

    “The bystander is one of the most important tools in our fight against terror attacks,” McGarrity said. “The human intelligence community is important. We get about 15,000 tips a year and rely on partnerships with state and local law enforcement to sound the alarm.”

    Joint terrorism task forces—the approximately 150 groups across the country that combine intelligence officials and counterterrorism specialists to fight radicalization in their communities—are key to community cooperation, McGarrity said. “If we did it alone, we would not be successful,” he said.

    When it comes to the private sector, the FBI wants to provide learning in targeted sectors to understand the threats they may be able to identify. “The CSO is not who needs that training,” McGarrity noted. “We need to work with people on front lines. The more we can tell them about threats and what to look for, we get better leads. From the retail and transportation sectors, leads have been incredible—we get thousands.”

    Hesterman said that deradicalization—which is especially important now that extremists are leaving prisons and coming back from the front lines in Iraq and Syria—has a long way to go.

    “If we tell people their ideology is wrong, we have to tell them what is right, and how to replace that,” she said. “We have to offer an alternative, and that’s hard for us. That’s a huge dilemma. It’s hard for us to argue with them because they have taken the bait. If they think their beliefs or way of life are under attack, they lash out.”

    Both McGarrity and Hesterman argued that, despite the shrinking numbers of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and the seemingly low profile of al Qaeda groups, the terror threat remains critical. And the impending release of radicalized individuals from prison is a stark reminder of that.

    ​“The war on terror is not ending any time soon,” Hesterman concluded. “We’ve been able to dislodge ISIS in geographical areas, but the battlefield is the mind, and ideology is the glue holding this together. Terrorism isn’t geographically somewhere—it’s a battle of ideas. We’re part of the environment and problem, and what we do impacts this situation. Humility is a powerful tool in this fight.”​

    See Original Post

  • January 03, 2019 5:39 PM | Anonymous
    Most of IFCPP's certifications have a 3-year term. Please contact us right away to find out your certification status. We are offering HALF OFF of re-certifications through January 31. 

    Each level of certification supersedes the previous level, so re-certification is required for the highest level only. 

    CIPS & CISS - Regularly $65, now $32.50
    CIPM & CIPM II - Regularly $95, now $47.50

    Re-certification for CIPS, CISS, CIPM, and CIPM II designations can be attained by completion of this questionnaire, according to a system of professional development and continuing education points. We are now offering Continuing Education Units via our online Learning Management System to help our members more easily attain re-certification. 

    Re-certification is also available for CIPS & CIPM by re-taking the courses online.

    Please contact us with any questions and to find out your certification status.


  • January 03, 2019 3:37 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from PBS News Hour

    Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West’s iconic national parks on Monday, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.

    “It’s a free-for-all,” Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said by telephone Monday, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas within the park that are overwhelmed.

    “It’s so heartbreaking. There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules then I’ve seen in my four years living here,” Snider said.

    The 10th day of the partial federal government shutdown, which has forced furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees, has left many parks without most of the rangers and others who staff campgrounds and otherwise keep parks running.

    Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.

    “We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts,” Garder said. “We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety.”

    “It’s really a nightmare scenario,” Garder said.

    Spokespeople with the Interior Department did not immediately return emails seeking comment on Monday.

    National Park Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum had said as the shutdown took hold that “national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures.”

    In practice, that meant on Monday that many park toilets were closed or filled to overflowing, despite holiday crowds.

    Campers at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California’s deserts were reporting squabbles as different families laid claims to sites, with no rangers on hand to adjudicate, said Ethan Feltges, who operates the Coyote Corner gift shop outside Joshua Tree.

    Feltges and other business owners around Joshua Tree had stepped into the gap as much as possible, hauling trailers into the park to empty overflowing trash bins and sweeping and stocking restrooms that were still open, Feltges said.

    Feltges himself had set up a portable toilet at his store to help the visitors still streaming in and out of the park. He was spending his days standing outside his store, offering tips about the park in place of the rangers who normally would be present.

    “The whole community has come together,” Feltges said, also by phone. “Everyone loves the park. And there’s a lot of businesses that actually need the park.”

    Some visitors have strung Christmas lights in the twisting Joshua trees, many of which are hundreds of years old, the Los Angeles Times reported.

    Most visitors were being respectful of the desert wilderness and park facilities, Joshua Tree’s superintendent, David Smith, said in a statement.

    But some are seizing on the shortage of park staffers to off-road illegally and otherwise damage the park, as well as relieving themselves in the open, a park statement said. Joshua Tree said it would begin closing some campgrounds for all but day use.

    At Yosemite, Snider, the local resident, said crowds of visitors were driving into the park to take advantage of free admission, with only a few park rangers working and a limited number of restrooms open.

    Visitors were allowing their dogs to run off-leash in an area rich with bears and other wildlife, and scattering bags of garbage along the roads, Snider said.

    “You’re looking at Yosemite Falls and in front of you is plastic bottles and trash bags,” he said.

    See Original Post


  • January 03, 2019 3:34 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from the AP

    A man accused of shooting dead four people at a Jewish museum in Belgium in 2014 after fighting alongside extremists in Syria appeared in court Thursday amid high security, as preparations began for his trial next month.

    French national Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, is accused of “terrorist murder” for gunning down the four with a handgun and an assault rifle in the Brussels Jewish museum in May 2014. His alleged accomplice, Nacer Bendrer, 30, also appeared in court.

    Nemmouche has said he was involved but did not carry out the killings.

    The slaying was one of the first in Europe involving so-called foreign fighters — often young, radicalized people who trained or fought with the Islamic State group or other extremists — who returned home to commit atrocities like the November 2015 Paris attacks and the Brussels suicide bombings four months later.

    Nemmouche’s lawyer Sebastien Courtoy said his client “is here to proclaim his innocence.”

    Asked whether Nemmouche would testify, Courtoy said that “if circumstances require it, he will speak. He’s not mute.”

    Security camera video from the May 24, 2014 killing shows a shooter wearing a baseball cap coolly gun down two people at the museum entrance, then pull out an assault rifle to spray the others from a doorway.

    It was over in 82 seconds and the killer strode away. An Israeli couple visiting the city and two museum workers were killed.

    Nemmouche, who is believed to have fought alongside Islamic State members in Syria, was captured in France almost a week later. He had been under surveillance by French and Belgian security services. French authorities also identified him as one of the jihadists who kept four French journalists hostage until they were freed in April 2014 in Syria.

    The trial is expected to start on Jan. 10, although defense lawyers have requested a two-week delay to examine extra evidence submitted by prosecutors. It is expected to last six to seven weeks.

    See Original Post

  • January 03, 2019 3:29 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from Security Today

    The massive spam campaign that sent bomb threats to hundreds of thousands of users across the U.S. and Canada in December, and caused evacuations of buildings across several cities, was carried out by the same group of spammers responsible for the recent wave of extortion scams, two cybersecurity firms said.

    "Multiple IPs involved in sending these bomb threats also sent various types of sextortion email that we say in the previous campaign," Jaeson Schultz of Cisco Talos told ZDNet. 

    The bomb threats sent last Thursday tried to scare users by threatening to detonate a bomb at their workplace if the victim didn't pay $20,000 worth of Bitcoin within a few hours.

    The spammers behind the campaign stopped sending bomb threats on Friday, most likely after they realized the campaign would not yield any results, especially after the FBI, police and media told everyone to ignore the threats and not pay the ransom.

    The firms believe this is why the wave of sextortion emails happened. When one campaign failed, they moved on to another one. 

    "The attackers have returned to their empty threats of harming the individual recipient," Schultz said. "This time, they threaten to throw acid on the victim."

    A copy of an email carrying the latest threat said that a person had "set me the order of empty acid in your visage," and that the recipient needed to pay for the threatener to be "inactive." 

    In October, another Cisco Talos report revealed that the group behind this week's bomb threats, at that time operating just using the "sextortion scheme" made $146,380 in just three days.

    See Original Post

  • January 03, 2019 3:22 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from IBNA

    The glass roof of the Duveen Gallery in London’s British Museum, the room where the Parthenon Sculptures are exhibited, is leaking water following heavy rainfall in the UK capital.

    On Friday morning IBNA witnessed the drip of water landing only centimetres away from the statue of Iris, in the area of the gallery where marble figures from the Parthenon’s west pediment are located.

    The floor on that spot was covered in absorbing cloth and yellow signs warned about the slippery floor.

    There was no sign of water having landed on the statue of Iris or Amphitrite, also very close by.

    Indeed the British Museum have stressed that no water has hit the sculptures and no damage has been sustained, admitting the problem.

    In a statement a spokesperson for the Museum said: “There was a minor incident during recent very heavy rainfall when a small amount of water entered the gallery. None of the sculptures was damaged and the issue has been dealt with.”

    Prompted to explain why water kept on dripping next to the statue, the Museum spoke of “a small residual leak” and pledged to continue monitoring the situation closely and to address the issue with the roof as urgent.

    The initial statement added that the Museum “take our collection care responsibilities very seriously, the preservation of the collection is of fundamental importance to the British Museum.”

    The glass roof parts of the gallery looked eroded by time and nature - which may explain the leak- and not only over the west pediment statues.

    It is worth reminding that one of the constant arguments of the British Museum against calls for the reunification of the Sculptures before the New Acropolis Museum was built was that Athens had no appropriate facilities to host them.

    Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, issued this statement: “We hope that the leak is fixed swiftly and that there is no damage to the sculptures. We would continue to urge the British Museum to consider the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles in the Acropolis Museum where they can join their other halves.

    See Original Post

  • January 03, 2019 3:11 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from Allied Universal

    When I hear the term “security guard” used in popular culture, why does it personally elicit a reaction of disappointment for me? As Chief Administrative Officer for America’s largest security firm, how our security professionals are perceived is part of my job. Words have the ability to shape our perception, and when I hear the term “security guard,” I feel  that the important role our security professionals play is diminished.

    My company believes the word “guard” does not convey the level of respect, professionalism and training necessitated of today’s security professionals. The terms "security officer" or "security professional" are universally used in all of our internal and external references. I am proud that Allied Universal has established this standard of respect for security professionals. Indeed, it is great to see that many other security companies have followed suit and abandoned verbiage that highlights the use of the word “guard.”

    Security officers are hard-working, highly trained men and women who are our country’s first responders. Security professionals have a wide range of skills – from the sensitivity to deal with lost children to the ability to respond to and effectively address significant incidents. Security officers are often put in high-risk situations as they confront and detain criminals engaged in theft, trespassing, gang activity, and every other manner of unlawful behavior that occurs where many people congregate on a daily basis. 

    I invite you to evaluate your perception of security professionals and think about the critical role that they play in keeping us all safe.

    See Original Post

  • January 03, 2019 3:04 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from India Today

    A majority of museums and cultural repositories in India stand at risk of suffering "grave damage" in the event of a major fire, an international expert has cautioned and suggested that a disaster management plan should be properly implemented by these institutions.

    Vinod Daniel, an India-born Australian and a top museum specialist, said the fire at the National Museum of Brazil, in which a massive collection of it was destroyed, holds valuable lessons for developing countries, including India.

    "The fire in Brazil this year and the one which gutted the National Museum of Natural History in Delhi in 2016, should serve as grim reminders about the perils our invaluable treasures face, due to lack of or inadequacy of a disaster management plan, particularly against fire incidents," he said.

    The 56-year-old, who is also a board member of Paris-based International Council of Museums (ICOM), said, museums in India should immediately do a risk management exercise.

    "Once they conduct the exercise, I reckon, the biggest threat that will emerge for them would be fire. Also, at present, a majority of museums, old libraries and cultural repositories do not have proper disaster management plan in place, so that stand at risk of suffering grave damage in case of a major fire, as it happened in Brazil," Daniel told PTI in an interview.

    However, some of the museums, such as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly named the Prince of Wales Museum of Western), do have a management policy and a roadmap to deal with such incidents, he said.

    Daniel, also chairman of AusHeritage, a non-profit cultural heritage network in Australia, suggested that besides having a good plan for safekeeping, museums should invest in documentation of artefacts and training of staff for proper handling of exhibits, in the wake of a disaster.

    "Biggest risks to collections in developing countries, like India are natural disasters such as earthquake and flood, and fire, which totally destroys. In case of a fire, a museum serious about these issues will have a proper fire alarm system, have a list of key contact people, and team of first responders, who know where are the rarest collections, and try rescuing those.

    "They would also know what kind of substance to use for extinguishing the flames, whether it is gas or something else, to put out fire on books, manuscripts and artefacts. Lack of knowledge ends up damaging more than a fire," he said.

    India currently has about 900 museums, from state-owned to private and local museums, said Daniel, an IIT-Delhi graduate and an IIT-Madras alumnus, who started his career with the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in the US as a conservation scientist and then moved to Australia from there.

    India also has some of the oldest and fascinating libraries with rare, rich collection of books, like the Connemara Library in Chennai, he said.

    "The collection is majestic, and so is the building, but when it comes to fire disaster management plan there, it leaves a lot to be desired," he lamented.

    The Sydney-based expert also claimed that not much fund is diverted towards creation of fire-safety mechanism as "it is not seen as an visible, attractive exercise by many politicians compared to say cutting a ribbon to inaugurate a new gallery".

    He also pitched for introduction of more courses in museology in various academic institutions to inculcate the value of history and heritage among the people, especially the youth.

    Asked, what will be the future of museums in the digital ages, Daniel, who has worked with museums in Mumbai, Chennai, Egypt and Myanmar, among other institutions, responded in a very optimistic tone.

    "Based on existing research, I can say that the fascination for seeing the original object has not changed, even in the age of virtual reality and internet. Virtual reality can never replace the experience of seeing the original artefacts or paintings. So, people still queue up outside Louvre Museum (home of the Mona Lisa) or the National Palace Museum in Taipei," he said.

    Daniel asserted that newer technologies should be used by museums to enhance the experience of visitors, and virtual experience is for those people, who either live far-off from the museum or do not have access to the place. So, one experience does not cut into another, he said.

    He also said that China and Singapore have invested big on museums, among other countries.

    "China already has some of the biggest museums, and now it is building 200-300 museums every year. Singapore, particularly stands out, since till 1990s, the country was in poor shape and after its economy picked up, it made heritage an important part of its policy-making, and set up a National Heritage Board," Daniel said.

    See Original Post


  • January 03, 2019 2:57 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from Information Age

    The cybersecurity threat continues to worsen. In the first half of 2018, the number of cyber breaches soared over 140% from a year earlier, leading to 33 billion compromised data records worldwide, reports Gemalto, an international data security company. Malicious outsiders sparked more than half of the 944 breaches and accounted for roughly 80% of stolen, compromised or lost records. Identity theft continues to lead data breach types, but financial access incidents are escalating in severity as well. The issue of cyber security and small and medium-sized companies is becoming vital.

    The United States continues to be the favorite target, and data breaches at major US enterprises continue to grab the headlines. In 2018, the most notable breaches have occurred at Adidas, FedEx, Jason’s Deli, Macy’s, Under Armour, Nordstrom’s and most infamously, Facebook.

    Small and medium-sized companies are increasingly targeted

    As for cyber security and small and medium-sized companies, many are realizing that they are viewed as attractive a target as the larger companies. Cisco’s 2018 SMB Cybersecurity Report found that 53% of mid-market companies in 26 countries experienced a breach. For these companies, the top security concerns are targeted phishing attacks against employees, advanced persistent threats, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks and the proliferation of employees allowed to use their own mobile devices.

    Malware of all types is a huge problem. It is becoming more difficult to combat as cyber-attackers get more adept at developing software that can evade traditional detection and employ more sophisticated malware.

    For small and medium businesses, one breach often puts a victim out of business. That’s because 54% of all cyber-attacks cause financial damages exceeding $500,000, the 2018 Cisco SMB cybersecurity report shows. That price tag along with a damaged reputation are hard to survive. If they do survive, they still face significant system downtime that averaged eight hours or more in the last year. Further, such companies often lack the IT talent, budget and technologies to prevent, uncover and respond to an attack.

    How to better defend against cyber-theft

    Unsurprisingly, there is no easy solution – and none is likely within the near future – to prevent data breaches. But all businesses, especially small and medium sized companies can become better prepared and more adept at protecting against cyber-crime.

    Here are five actions concerning cyber security and small and medium-sized companies that can be taken to become more security-conscious:

    1. Conduct a security audit. Learn how secure your network and other security systems are, where vulnerabilities exist and how to resolve them. If you consider cybersecurity insurance — currently the fastest-growing insurance — or have coverage from a business insurer, the insurer can usually refer you to resources to assist in the audit.

    2. Ensure you have a proper backup system. And make sure it is easy to access in case you need to restore one piece of the system rather than the entire system. Enterprise-level cloud systems can help.

    3. Examine all the entry points into your system and consider where they are vulnerable. These include all your workstations, communications and mobile devices as well as employee access cards, the internet and cameras.

    4. Assess your system threats. These include client lists, passwords, data logs, backups and emails, and anyone who specifically has access to the system, including customers and vendors.

    5. Put a prevention system in place to defend against intruders. Put yourself in the place of the cyberattacker and consider the possible ways the attacker could access your system and steal your data. If your internal IT staff isn’t experienced enough to handle, entrust a third-party firm, because the prevention system must cover physical and digital security.

    It will pay to increase spending on cyber-security protection, developing qualified cyber security personnel and, perhaps, hiring a chief information security officer. Global spending on cyber security products and services is seen exceeding $1 trillion cumulative from 2017-2021, compared to a global cyber security market of just $3.5 billion in 2004. Businesses seem to be getting the message, but not fast enough, as far cyber security and small to medium-sized companies, the message needs to be absorbed much faster.

    Cyber Insurance attracts more small and medium business

    Cyber Insurance is another purchase small and medium businesses are considering. The overall market grew substantially in 2017 with direct premiums written surging 32% to $1.8 billion and policies in force rising 24% to 2.6 million, reports A.M. Best, the insurance rating and information firm. The reinsurance giant Munich Re foresees the cyber insurance market doubling by 2020, and it notes that cyberattacks could threaten the existence of SMBs.

    In general, small and medium businesses are finding increased accessibility for cyber security, more customized policies and increased oversight by state and federal regulators. In addition, large enterprises are expected to increasingly mandate cyber insurance for small businesses. Indeed, a report by Statistica, an online market research and business intelligence portal, found that nearly 30% of small and medium businesses purchased cyber insurance in April 2017 for contract compliance reasons.

    With the continued spike in cyber breaches, it’s clear that all businesses, must improve their security. Simply investigating all security alerts received will help since over half now go uninvestigated. More small and medium businesses  say they realize how critical it is to have a secure, protected network and system. Unfortunately, some only recognize it after they’ve suffered an attack costly to their reputation and their business.

    See Original Post

  • January 03, 2019 2:44 PM | Anonymous

    Reposted from the New York Times

    Last year was the third consecutive year that the rate of firearm deaths rose in the United States. While public mass shootings like the one in Las Vegas make up a small percentage of firearm deaths, they have changed the national conversation.

    More people died from firearm injuries in the United States last year than in any other year since at least 1968, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    There were 39,773 gun deaths in 2017, up by more than 1,000 from the year before. Nearly two-thirds were suicides. It was the largest yearly total on record in the C.D.C.’s electronic database, which goes back 50 years, and reflects the sheer number of lives lost.

    When adjusted for population size, the rate of gun deaths in 2017 also increased slightly to 12 deaths for every 100,000 people, up from 11.8 per 100,000 in 2016. By this measure, last year had the highest rate of firearm deaths since the mid-1990s, the data showed.

    It was the third consecutive year that the rate of firearm deaths rose in the United States, after remaining relatively steady throughout the 2000s and the first part of this decade.

    “It is significant that after a period of relative stability, now the rates are rising again,” Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the C.D.C.’s National Center for Health Statistics, said in a phone interview.

    While there are signs that the movement to prevent gun violence gained momentum this year — state legislatures passed a surge of new gun control laws, gun control groups outspent the National Rifle Association in the midterm election cycle and the medical community recently took on the N.R.A. over an assertion that doctors should “stay in their lane” on gun policy — the findings underscore that even after such efforts ramped up after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, gun violence continued its dizzying assault on America.

    Suicides have historically made up most deaths by firearm in the United States, research shows.

    In 2017, about 60 percent of gun deaths were suicides, while about 37 percent were homicides, according to an analysis of the C.D.C. data by the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, a public health think tank. (The group is a sister organization of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, an advocacy group that works to oppose the N.R.A.)

    Suicide over all has been on the rise for more than a decade and is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the health statistics center. But researchers say firearm homicide has ticked upward recently and also helps explain the rise in gun deaths since 2015.

    Among other public health problems, drug overdose deaths have also been surging, a trend that continued in 2017. About 70,000 people died from drug overdoses last year — almost double the number that died from guns, the health statistics center reported.

    Mr. Anderson said there could be a correlation between drugs and gun deaths. While the gun death rate is higher than it has been in some time, he noted that it was even higher in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, which corresponded with heroin and crack cocaine epidemics.

    “Now with the fentanyl issue and at the height of the drug overdose epidemic, now we are seeing rises in gun deaths,” Mr. Anderson said.

    Dakota Jablon, who analyzed the C.D.C. data for the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, noticed another trend underlying the data: state-by-state variations, which she believes could reflect differences in gun laws.

    For example, Kansas, which received an F from the national advocacy group Giffords Law Center’s gun law scorecard, had increases in both its firearm suicide and homicide rates over the past decade. New York, which was given an A-minus, had both rates decrease, according to her analysis of C.D.C. data.

    “Some states are doing incredible work,” Ms. Jablon said. “They are passing these lifesaving policies that are clearly working.”

    Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician who is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, said that the rise in firearm deaths was a result of “a national unwillingness to take this problem seriously.”

    In 1996, under pressure from the N.R.A., Congress stripped the C.D.C. of its budget to study the health effects of shootings and prohibited the agency from advocating or promoting gun control.

    “We have decided as a country not to do research on this problem, so we don’t understand it,” said Dr. Wintemute, a leading researcher on gun violence who identified himself as a member of the N.R.A.

    A gunman killed 26 people at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in 2017. Mass shootings have occurred recently at schools, music venues and houses of worship.

    But recently, mass shootings — at schools and music venues and houses of worship — have rocked the American consciousness. Though public mass shootings make up no more than 1 percent of all firearm deaths, Dr. Wintemute said, they have changed the dynamic of the conversation.

    “I’ve been working on this problem full time since the early ’80s and there has never been a time like the present in which everybody feels some personal sense of risk,” he said.

    This spring, student activists led March for Our Lives protests across the country, after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., left 17 dead. More recently, doctors weighed in after the N.R.A. took aim at their profession in a tweet: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” Physicians, in turn, shared painful stories about treating gunshot victims.

    In an interview at the Tedmed event in November, the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, defended the right of doctors to talk about gun violence.

    “It is absolutely within physicians’ lanes to talk to their patients about ways that they can be safer,” said Dr. Adams, an anesthesiologist by training who has worked on gunshot victims and is a gun owner himself. “And that includes seatbelts, that includes bicycle helmets and that includes having a discussion about whether or not you have firearms in your home and whether or not you’re keeping them safe.”

    Despite the recent increase in firearm deaths, Dr. Wintemute said he had reason to be optimistic for the future.

    “For the first time in our history, everybody has a sense of personal involvement,” he said, adding, “That universal sense of personal risk might just lead to an increase in willingness to do something about the problem.”

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