Here’s an amazing find, thanks to those good folks at the US Fire Administration Library. 290 titles are included so far, with topics ranging from technical reports on investigations of specific fires, to public education, to training manuals for firefighters and educational material for administrators. Technical overviews, such as “Fire in the United States: 1986-1995“, transcripts from Congressional hearings and special reports and analysis are also included, making this resource indispensable for researchers. Like anything from Google, it’s easy to search, either within individual titles or the entire collection; someone has also very helpfully organized the titles into a few specific subjects, such as arson, fire prevention, etc.

New hurricane guides available
“The Hampton Roads Emergency Management Committee and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and VDEM have redesigned the Virginia Hurricane Guide. As part of the Ready Virginia public information campaign, the guide contains essential hurricane season information, such as evacuation routes, traffic reversal plans along Interstate 64, bridge/tunnel/ferry closure plans in the Hampton Roads area and family preparedness.

New sections of the guide explain staying in place versus evacuation, the importance of storm surge, and how public shelters are designed to help evacuees. The revised evacuation route section clarifies that I-64 is only one of many evacuation routes, and the guide gives detailed instruction about how to make a family emergency plan, get an emergency supply kit and stay informed during emergencies.

For the 2009 hurricane season, 250,000 copies of the guide were printed; most will be distributed by state and local agencies, private businesses and nonprofit organizations. Any organization interested in distributing the guides should contact the VDEM Public Affairs Office at (866) 782-3470. An interactive, Web-based version is also available at www.ReadyVirginia.gov. A federal homeland security grant paid for the printing costs.”

Gov. Tim Kaine has approved the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Operations Plan Pandemic Influenza Incident Annex VI, now available at http://www.vaemergency.com/library/plans/index.cfm. The annex represents nearly two years of collaboration with many state agencies and provides guidance for non-medical response operations in Virginia to a pandemic influenza event.

Because it’s relatively local, I thought I’d pass this along to anyone interested…

Homeland Defense Journal Training Workshop (R)

Emerging Trends in Crime and Attackers in Cyber Security Workshop
How Criminal Groups Impact US Business and Government

November 6-7, 2008

Arlington, VA

For additional details on this course and all of our Intelligence and IT Security Training, go to www.HomelandDefenseJournal.com.

Registration Time: 8:00 AM
Program Starts: 8:30 AM
Wrap-up: 4:00 PM

Here is a full list of our fall line up of Intelligence and Facility Security Training Courses & Workshops.  For additional details, go to www.HomelandDefenseJournal.com.

·         Methods and Process of Obtaining a Facility Clearance and the Roles and Responsibilities of a Facility Security Officer Workshop Aug 12-13, 2008Arlington, VA

·         Basic Understanding & Preparation of the DD-254 – A 1 day workshop on the Methodology & Preparation of the DD-254 & your Contractual Security Requirements Aug 14, 2008 Arlington, VA

·         Mail Center Safety & Security Workshop Sep 9, 2008Arlington, VA24, 2008Arlington, VA

·         Homeland Security Intelligence Workshop Oct 23-24, 2008 Arlington, VA

·         Managing Workplace Violence – A two day Workshop on Implementing a Detect, Prevent and Protect Strategy to Implement a Workplace Violence Prevention Program Oct 28-29, 2008 Arlington, VA

·         Developing Effective Physical Security Measures Workshop Nov 10-11, 2008 Chicago, IL (Course held at the Sears Tower)

·         Building Security for Managers – A 1.5 Day Conference Focusing on Commercial, Residential and Mixed Use Building Life Safety and Physical Security Challenges & Solutions Nov 12-13, 2008 Chicago, IL

·         Methods and Process of Obtaining a Facility Clearance and the Roles and Responsibilities of a Facility Security Officer Workshop Dec 2-3, 2008 Arlington, VA

·         Basic Understanding & Preparation of the DD-254 Dec 4, 2008 Arlington, VA and December, TBD, 2008 San Diego, CA

·         Basic Geospatial Intelligence Workshop October TBD, 2008Arlington, VA

About this Training Workshop:  Emerging Trends in Crime and Attackers in Cyber Security Workshop

The “enemy” in today’s society is able to conduct their intelligence collections and attacks from any cyber-café in the world – miles or oceans away from their target by just using the Internet. Criminal groups have been using online methods and the Internet to further their business operations and goals. Targets of their activities have included US businesses and US government entities. As the Internet grows and becomes more diverse and prolific, so to have organized groups and individuals. The Internet has opened numerous avenues for perpetrators to conduct their business in increasing quantities and qualities.

This workshop will concentrate on information regarding the organized (and not so organized) criminal groups and how they impact business and government organizations. Topics will include: terrorism, activists, hackers/phishers, organized crime, child pornographers, and fraud rings. A discussion on how these groups operate, who they target, how they fund their operations, and how they cross-communicate will be included. The discussion and workshop will also include how to stay on top of these threats and design mitigation strategies to better protect your organization.

Topics Include:

·         A comprehensive look at 12 different criminal groups and how they operate online including: hackers, phishers, ID thieves, terrorists, activists, child pornographers, organized crime, black market goods distributors, espionage, human traffickers, drug traffickers, and lone wolves.

·         The motivations and goals of these criminal groups.

·         A review of various components of the Internet – where the dangers are, where the risks and vulnerabilities are, and what the criminals are doing online.

·         Descriptions and explanations of the visible and hidden Internet and how these criminal groups are using the Internet to further their operations and business.

·         Trends – how organizations are currently being targeted, what the threats are and how to protect your organization.

·         Future and anticipated threats – and how to combat them.

You Will Learn: 

·         Who the threats in the cyber-world are and what are they doing

·         An understanding of the criminals’ sources, methods and operations

·         Mitigation Strategies – what can the organization do to combat these threats

·         Anticipation of Future modus operandi – what will be the next move for these criminal groups and how can organizations decrease their vulnerabilities?

Who Should Attend:

·         Management in the fields of Intelligence, Security, and Counter Terrorism

·         IT Security

·         Counter-Intelligence

·         Analysis and Investigations

·         Risk Management

·         Competitive & Business Intelligence

About the Instructor: 

Dr. Terry Gudaitis specializes in forensic psychology with application to intelligence and investigations. Terry is currently the Cyber Intelligence Director at Cyveillance. Before joining the team at Cyveillance, she was the Director of Open Source Intelligence at SAIC, and prior to SAIC she was Chief Behavioral Scientist at Psynapse Technologies, LLC. Terry has also held positions as a team member and lead investigator of computer incident response teams for SAIC, Global Integrity Corporation, Predictive Systems Inc., and Network Security Corporation. Terry became the only cyber-crime profiler in the commercial information security industry who provided a business differentiator for her incident response teams as well as for the field of cyber-intelligence. She expanded and altered the classical profiling methods used in homicide, serial crime, and terrorist investigation and adapted them for the applied use in computer crime investigations and internet-based cases.

Terry gained a foundation for her expertise as an operations officer and behavioral profiler at the CIA’s Counter Terrorist Center. At CIA, she was responsible for developing terrorist profiles, assessments of informants, and managing targeting teams. In addition to her corporate related work, Terry has served on the United States Secret Service Advisory Board for Insider Threat, regularly presents at national and international conferences, and has authored publications in numerous security-related journals and books.

Workshop Location:

The workshop will be held in the Homeland Defense Journal Training Center in the Jefferson Plaza Building at 1421 Jefferson Davis Highway (7th floor), Arlington, VA 22202. Public parking at the facility is available for $10.00 early morning special (before 8:00am) or $18.00 all day. The Jefferson Plaza Building is just two blocks from the Crystal City Metro Station on the blue and yellow line. Please note: the parking garage is located on Crystal Drive.

 Registration Fee: 

·         Government attendees: $699 per person

·         Small Business: $749 per person

·         Industry: $799 per person