June 2015
UPDATE FROM THE CRDR
Catch up with the Center for Regional Disaster Resilience
What's Up - From CRDR Director Eric Holdeman

This edition of the update has bad news and good news. 

 

The bad news is that the Center for Regional Disaster Resilience was not selected as Northeastern University's application to become a Center of Excellence for Critical Infrastructure. PNWER and the Center had partnered with Northeastern University to be part of their team and to work on critical infrastructure interdependencies here in the Pacific Northwest.  

 

Unfortunately we just heard that our team was not selected and the University of Illinois was awarded the project. Now for the good news: As part of our work to prepare for the potential award, we had recruited a variety of people and organizations to make up an Advisory Group.  Even though the Center of Excellence fell through, we would like to maintain an active Advisory Group to continue working with the Center to advise us and serve as a forum for sharing information among the members.


 

Watch for more news in the coming weeks on how the Advisory Group will move forward. 

If you are from one of the Canadian provinces and interested in personally participating, we are seeking to increase representation from our northern membership.
 
FirstToSee.org Phase 2

The Pierce County Information Technology Department was successful in obtaining additional funding to continue to improve the FirstToSee social media management system.  

 

Much work has already been done to make the system more capable and intuitive to use.  Pierce County will be using the system during the U.S. Open to monitor social media centered around that sporting event.  

 

One of improvements made to the system was the recent addition of a Windows Phone App for FirstToSee.

 

Previously the App was only available for iPhone and Android phones.  Now all types of handheld devices can be set up to use the App and contribute information on situational awareness.  

 

We expect to have more information on all the new features in Phase 2 of FirstToSee once they have been tested in real life during the U.S. Open.
FirstNet and Washington Access Pass Meetings Update
Participants give their input for FirstNet and Washington Access Pass initiatives 
The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's Center for Regional Disaster Resilience and its partners, the Washington State University Division of Governmental Studies and Services
and the Washington State Emergency Management Division, recently held six Statewide Resilience Initiative Workshops across Washington State.

The workshops provided an opportunity for more than 300 emergency response personnel and other public and private stakeholders to gain an understanding of the FirstNet and Access Pass initiatives and to give their valuable input to the projects.

FirstNet is a new national program intended to provide a nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to first responders and associated disciplines and organizations that provide services during emergencies and disasters. These digital services are also targeted towards the public and private owners and operators of critical infrastructure.

See Upcoming Events for the next round of FirstNet meetings.

AccessPass: Economic recovery after a disaster depends on businesses gaining access to impacted areas to restore services. The CRDR is supporting the Washington State Emergency Management Division (EMD) to obtain stakeholder input on effective solutions for how to design and implement the AccessPass; envisioned as a way to providing authorized personnel in government, utilities and the private sector access to their facilities and critical infrastructure following a disaster.

The CRDR and our partners will continue to do one-on-one outreach to stakeholders unable to make it to the FirstNet workshops, as well as distribute surveys to first responders to assess their needs for the FirstNet network. We will provide findings to federal experts as they draft coverage plans for individual states.

Upcoming Events
Cyber security
Biosecurity and Agroterrorism Luncheon Seminar
Boise, ID
June 23, 2015
12:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Idaho State Department of Agriculture
2270 Old Penitentiary Road. Zip: 83712

Join the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security, the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Center for Regional Disaster Resilience, and the Idaho Department of Agriculture for a lunch discussion on improving your organization's security and partnerships across the agriculture industry and state. Learn about agroterrorism and other current risks to agriculture including the growing cyber security threat, ways to strengthen your own response to records theft, controls hacking and continuity of operations, and resources your organization can use for prevention and response to incidents.

Idaho Cyber Security Infrastructure Interdependencies Exercise
Boise, ID
October 8, 2015
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
St Alphonsus Regional Medical Center
McCleary North Auditorium
1055 N Curtis Rd. Zip: 83706

Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security and the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) Center for Regional Disaster Resilience will be hosting a scenario-driven discussion-based table top exercise in Boise on October 8. Cyber threats are increasing every day, putting the economy and our personal information at risk. Through this event, participants will improve their own cyber plans by challenging their planning assumptions, gain a greater understanding of their interdependencies and build relationships with others across the state. In addition to facilitated discussion, we will hear from experts on cyber security preparedness and response and supervisory control and data acquisition systems.

FirstNet
FirstNet September Regional Meetings 
Watch for more details on a series of regional meetings that will give an update on the FirstNet program current and future activities. Attendees will mark up a map indicating areas requiring additional wireless digital coverage. 

Tentative dates and locations
Tri-Cities: September 9 
Spokane: September 10 
Vancouver, Washington: September 15
Tukwila: September 17
Disaster Resilience and Cybersecurity Session coming to PNWER Annual Summit in Montana

Please join us and more than 500 leaders in government, business and academia from the northwest United States and Western Canada for the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's 25th Annual Summit, held July 12-16 in Big Sky, Montana. 

The Disaster Resilience & Cyber Security Session will be held the morning of Monday, July 15. 

Here's a look at the session agenda:

Drones, Body Cameras & the Law
John Gordnier, Consultant for Practical Solutions Intelligence Law, will explore efforts of the legislative and judicial systems to adjust privacy concepts to the "digital/metadata" age of communications. 

New technology solutions are being rapidly fielded. This session will explore the potential consequences of these developments on the need for use of UAVs [drones], body cameras, ALPRs [automated license plate readers] and other data collection technologies to be accompanied by laws and policies addressing privacy. An interactive 
workshop aimed at developing the outlines of such policies will be incorporated.

Emerging Threats in Cyber Security
Federal, State, and Private Sector partners discuss their strategy to foster partnerships for information sharing on the dynamic threat picture of cybersecurity. What information sharing mechanism is working best in their respective discipline? Where are the gaps when it comes to the cyber threat mitigation and where can the process be improved? 

The panel welcomes your questions and input to the discussion to help prevent the next cyber-attack on a business or infrastructure system.
  • Randy Middlebrook, DHS - Moderator
  • Wendy Friedrich, DHS
  • Brad Richy, Idaho Homeland Security
  • Nathan Shoop, Zoot Enterprises

The Disaster Resilience & Cybersecurity session is just one of 22 policy sessions at the summit that will address some of the biggest cross-border challenges in the region: transportation, workforce development, energy, market access, mining, water policy, border issues, expanding natural gas markets, energy and environment, trade and economic development, tourism, higher education and innovation. 
Partner Events
Earthquake Preparedness Summits

Kent, WA 
June 17, 2015
Simpson Strong-Tie Training Facility
22083 64th Ave. S., Kent, WA. 98032

Portland, OR
June 18, 2015
Providence Willamette Falls Community Center
519 15th St., Oregon City, OR. 97045

These free events focus on earthquake preparedness for businesses, and are built on free resources; the QuakeSmart Community Resilience Program, developed by the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This new, innovative program is tailored to recognize efforts that improve business continuity in the event of an earthquake or other natural or man-made disaster.

Learn more about this free program at www.quakesmartcommunity.org.
Drone photo by Gabriel Garcia Marengo on Flickr; used under license. 
The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) launched the Regional Disaster Resilience and Homeland Security Program in November 2001 with the goal of improving the Pacific Northwest's ability to withstand and recover and to protect its critical infrastructures from all-hazards disasters.
2200 Alaskan Way Ste. 460 | Seattle, WA 98121 | (206) 443-7723