Re: <SPAM> Re: emergency alert system

["John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH, CISSP" <bambenek.infosec () GMAIL COM>]

Highly unlikely?  Terrorists have done this before.  If you're in the
terrorism business, you know about Omagh, and even if the bombers in Omagh
didn't intend a "fake bomb threat" everyone saw how "good" a strategy it
would be.

The system could be used for other uses, but the expectations are set now
and people will follow directions with these systems.  Yeah, you could
flashmob with Facebook, say, but you have to establish a relationship to get
people to follow the directions.  You send out a fake emergency text message
with instructions, they will be followed unquestioningly.

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 11:10 PM, Brad Judy <Brad.Judy () colorado edu> wrote:

>  The reality is that most campuses will never use these for active
> shooters, terorrist attacks, bombs, etc.  They will most often be used for
> things like campus closures, threatening weather (tornado warnings,
> hurricane coming, etc) and other more slowly unfolding events.
>
> To entirely dismiss them because they aren't instantaneous, perfectly
> effective communications mechanisms is short-sighted.
>
> A point was raised that there may be a mis-match between expectations and
> reality with these services.  I expect that is true on many campuses, but
> this is an expectation setting problem.  This may translate into a
> communications/documentation issue, vendor relationship management issue or
> other issue on any given campus.  Figure out what your system is really
> capable of and make sure people who make decisions and receive the
> notifications understand the limitations.
>
> As for shutting down campus for firecrackers, that's where you need good
> people and procedures between the event and the notification.  Having this
> type of notification system doesn't make that decision making process any
> better or worse, it just changes the notification mechanism.
>
> As for exploiting such a system to increase casualties in an attack,
> first, this is an extremely unlikely scenario.  Second, if it were to
> happen, one would get higher numbers coming to a quad using existing
> technologies like Facebook/MySpace/blogs/e-mail to advertise a flashmob or
> free food.  Having one of these services would not notably increase the
> chances of this scenario.
>
> Some of the motivation for deploying these solutions might be misplaced,
> but that doesn't mean they can't be useful and effective tools.  Whatever
> FUD went into the motivation, this kind of counter-argument has far more
> FUD.
>
> Brad Judy
>
> IT Security Office
> University of Colorado at Boulder
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:
> SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] *On Behalf Of *John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH,
> CISSP
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:37 PM
> *To:* SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> *Subject:* [SECURITY] <SPAM> Re: [SECURITY] emergency alert system
>
> We're all technological here (I assume), so I don't need to convince you
> that they are not life-saving devices.  If you have an active shooter, you
> aren't going to get SMS out in time before the event is over.
>
> The big problem is that with SMS systems in specific, they are insecure
> and insecurable. Anyone, from anywhere in the globe can send an SMS as
> anyone else without any real effort. This is important because you create a
> system where people are trained to obey unquestioningly, immediately and
> without thought. You don't want them analyzing the message, you want them to
> do X.  Insert the panic component as well, and most higher thought is out
> the window for most people.
>
> Now, take a scenario similar to the Omagh bombings. Basically, they called
> in a fake bomb threat to the courthouse and people were evacuated basically
> to where the bomb really was. Modify the scenario a little bit.  Spider
> facebook to get cell phone numbers, or heck, just use the area code and
> exchange and blast all the numbers, either way, you get alot of people with
> text messages.  Tell them to head to an open location, quad, whatever.
> That's where your suicide bomber is and his body count increases
> dramatically when a bomb goes off open-air with people standing around.  A
> bomb inside is no picnic, but you have walls and such that starts to
> dissipate the impact.  You go from dozens killed to hundreds.
>
> Now of course, that's worst case scenario... but think of the pranks a
> moderately tech-savvy frat boy could pull. It'd be a game of simon says.
>
> Add on top the very low threshold that is demanded in which these systems
> are activated, 99 times out of a 100 (at best) you are dealing with false
> alarms.  Someone with a can of spray paint not only shut down a university
> for a week, it shut down unrelated schools simply because they were within a
> mile or so. To be somewhat aggressive, at least the French know who they're
> surrendering to. We've slamming these systems in place with the expectation
> and policy to engage them far more than is effficient.  A couple of frat
> boys with a few M80s could should down finals that they didn't study for,
> for instance.  Remember, most people can't tell the difference between an
> M80 and gunfire.  It doesn't matter, if the police don't here it, they
> wouldn't know either and they have to respond as if a mass campus shooting
> is eminent, no matter how much a stretch it is.  No one wants to be the one
> who didn't connect the dots, after all.
>
> That's about a quick brain dump.
>
> EQ should have an article on this next time out from me and my RA.
>
> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 4:09 PM, HALL, NATHANIEL D. <halln () otc edu> wrote:
>
> > Mike Iglesias wrote:
> > > John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH, CISSP wrote:
> > > > *sigh*
> > > >
> > > > These systems are really a very very bad idea.
> > >
> > > I won't argue with you on that point.
> >
> > Could you tell why you believe these systems area bad ideas?  I am
> > curious why you are against them.
> >
> > --
> > Nathaniel Hall, GSEC GCFW GCIA GCIH GCFA
> > Network Security System Administrator
> > OTC Computer Networking
> > (417) 447-7535