October is the 14th National Cyber Security Awareness Month

This month marks the 14th annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month and the 7th anniversary of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ campaign! 

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month which is an annual campaign to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. The Internet touches almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life, whether we realize it or not. National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) is designed to engage and educate public and private sector partners through events and initiatives to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity, provide them with tools and resources needed to stay safe online, and increase the resiliency of the Nation in the event of a cyber incident.

Weekly Themes

NCSAM 2017 will focus on a different cybersecurity issue for each week in October. 

• Week 1: October 2-6 – STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Simple Steps to Online Safety.
  This week's focus: All members of the public can take some simple actions to protect themselves online and to recover in the event a cyber incident occurs.  Week 1 will address the top consumer cybersecurity concerns, provide simple steps to protect against these concerns, and help the public understand what to do if they fall victim to cybercrime.
  
  (We'll expand on these next few weeks' themes in upcoming blogs.)
• Week 2: October 9-13 – Cybersecurity in the Workplace is Everyone’s Business
• Week 3: October 16-20 – Today’s Predictions for Tomorrow’s Internet
• Week 4: October 23-27 – The Internet Wants YOU: Consider a Career in Cybersecurity
• Week 5: October 30-31 – Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Cyber Threats

REMEMBER: All of us have a role in securing our part of cyberspace, including the devices and networks we use. Use this month's focus on cyber security to jump-start your efforts at keeping our cyberspace safe and secure all year long.

Visit these cyber resources for comprehensive guidance on maintaining your personal and business cyber security:

• StaySafeOnline.Org
   - https://staysafeonline.org/resources/
• StopThinkConnect.Org
• United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team
• DHS: National Cyber Security Awareness Month Site

Image credit: https://staysafeonline.org/ncsam/

Emergency Tip: June's Do1Thing.com Prep Task - Unique Family Needs

GOAL FOR JUNE: Be aware of and prepare for your family’s unique needs.

Do1Thing.Com's Goal for June: Make sure your family's unique medical, physical and pet needs are covered during a possible emergency.

Below is a list of things the Do1Thing team recommends you can do to achieve your goal this month.
Choose at least one, and complete it!

• Talk with family members to identify your household’s unique needs.
• Make a plan to make sure pets are taken care of in a disaster.
• If you or someone in your household has a disability, create an evacuation plan that works for them.

Visit this month’s Do 1 Thing topic page for fact sheets, videos and additional resources on ensuring your family gets the correct emergency information.


Background

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Tasks”
3. Do that one thing!

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Please see my January 2015 post about the entire Do 1 Thing program for additional information.

Image credit: Do1Thing.Com

Emergency Tip: May's Do1Thing.com Prep Task - Work, School and Community

Do1Thing.Com's Goal for May: Make sure your Work, School and Community are prepared for emergencies.

Below is a list of things the Do1Thing team recommends you can do to achieve your goal this month.
Choose at least one, and complete it!

• Make sure emergency procedures are in place for your workplace or school.
• Give emergency kits to people who count on you (college students, elderly parents, etc.).
• Know how others in your community will respond in a disaster.

Visit this month’s Do 1 Thing topic page for fact sheets, videos and additional resources on ensuring your family gets the correct emergency information.


Background

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Tasks”
3. Do that one thing!

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Please see my January 2015 post about the entire Do 1 Thing program for additional information.

Image credit: Do1Thing.Com

Emergency Tip: April's Do1Thing.com Prep Task - Food

Do1Thing.Com's Goal for April: Make sure your family has enough food on hand for an emergency.

Below is a list of things the Do1Thing team recommends you can do to achieve your goal this month.
Choose at least one, and complete it!

• Buy a three-day emergency food supply for your household. You don't have to buy an extra three-day supply all at once - buy a little extra each week and shortly you'll have enough! (Also don't forget extra food for your pets.)
• Take steps to make sure food in your refrigerator and freezer will stay safe. Really watch the temperature of your refrigerator and freezer during a power outage. Cook and eat perishable foods first, saving the canned and dry food for later during an emergency.
• Make sure you can meet any special dietary needs in your household. If your family members need special foods or have food allergies, make sure you have enough of the proper ingredients and take the required preparation equipment if you have to evacuate.

Visit this month’s Do 1 Thing topic page for fact sheets, videos and additional resources on ensuring your family gets the correct emergency information.


Background

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Tasks”
3. Do that one thing!

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Please see my January 2015 post about the entire Do 1 Thing program for additional information.

Image credit: Do1Thing.Com

Emergency Tip: March's Do1Thing.com Prep Task - Shelter

Do1Thing.Com's Goal for March: Practice what your family would do if they needed to evacuate or shelter-in-place.

Below is a list of things the Do1Thing team recommends you can do to achieve your goal this month.
Choose at least one, and complete it!

• Identify the best storm shelter in your home and practice getting to the shelter with your family.
• Learn how to safely shelter in place.
• Make a Go Bag for emergency sheltering.

Visit this month’s Do 1 Thing topic page for fact sheets, videos and additional resources on ensuring your family gets the correct emergency information.


Background

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Tasks”
3. Do that one thing!

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Please see my January 2015 post about the entire Do 1 Thing program for additional information.

Image credit: Do1Thing.Com

Note: The March emergency planning post unfortunately slipped to April. Look for the actual April article soon along with even more frequent postings in the coming months!

Emergency Tip: November's Do1Thing.com Prep Task - Emergency Supplies

Do1Thing.Com's Goal for November: Make sure your family has the important items that it needs when leaving your home in a disaster.

Below is a list of things the Do1Thing team recommends you can do to achieve your goal this month.
Choose at least one, and complete it!

• Gather your emergency supplies in an accessible place.
• Create an emergency supply kit for your pet, your car, and your workplace or school.
• Stash some cash in case ATMs and credit card machines are not usable in a disaster. 

Visit this month’s Do 1 Thing topic page for fact sheets, videos and additional resources on ensuring your family gets the correct emergency information.

Background

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Tasks”
3. Do that one thing!

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Please see my January 2015 post about the entire Do 1 Thing program for additional information.

Image credit: Do1Thing.Com

Emergency Tip: October's Do1Thing.com Prep Task - Power

Do1Thing.Com's Goal for October: Make sure your family is able to safely meet its basic needs during an electrical outage.

Below is a list of things the Do1Thing team recommends you can do to achieve your goal this month.
Choose at least one, and complete it!

• Have flashlights ready in an easily accessible place and check batteries in flashlights and radios.
• Acquire and learn how to safely use a portable generator.
• Create a power outage plan and decide what you can do before, during and after a power outage to minimize the effect on your household.

Visit this month’s Do 1 Thing topic page for fact sheets, videos and additional resources on ensuring your family gets the correct emergency information.

Background

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Tasks”
3. Do that one thing!

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Please see my January 2015 post about the entire Do 1 Thing program for additional information.

Image credit: Do1Thing.Com

Emergency Tip: September 30th is National PrepareAthon! Day!

September is National Preparedness Month 

 - And today, September 30th, is National PrepareAthon! Day!

From Ready.gov/prepare:

OVERVIEW OF AMERICA’S PREPAREATHON!

America’s PrepareAthon! is a nationwide, community-based campaign for action to increase emergency preparedness and resilience. Each spring and fall, America’s PrepareAthon! will provide a national focus for individuals, organizations, and communities to participate through drills, group discussions, and exercises to practice for local hazards.

Campaign Goals
Increase the number of individuals who:

• Understand which disasters could happen in their community;
• Know what to do to be safe and mitigate damage;
• Take action to increase their preparedness; and
• Participate in community resilience planning.

To learn more about how you can play a role in your community’s preparedness, visit www.ready.gov/prepare. 

For more information on National Preparedness Month, visit Ready.gov/September or follow the campaign on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/readygov, on Twitter, at https://twitter.com/Readygov,

Images credit: FEMA.gov

Emergency Tip: Ring in the New Year with Do1Thing.com

Do 1 Thing is a 12-month program that makes it easy for you
 to prepare yourself, your family, and your community
 for emergencies or disasters. 

Happy New Year!

Now that we've all recovered from our New Year's reveling, it's time to look ahead and prepare for this year's upcoming events.

Being prepared for disasters and emergencies can seem like a big job. Many people don't know where to start, so they never start at all. With Do 1 Thing you can take small steps that make a big difference in an emergency.

do1thing.com

Do 1 Thing is a web-based, twelve-month preparedness program that focuses on a different area of emergency preparedness each month. Remember: emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

It’s as easy as:

1. Click on this month’s topic
2. Select one of the easy “Things to do”
3. Do that one thing!

If you follow along for an entire year, you will be better prepared to handle most disasters and emergencies. You can jump in anytime and you don’t have to do things in any order. (All 12 things are in the little yellow box on the left of the website.) You can choose whatever topic you like.

Resources

Do 1 Thing/Resources contains a variety of downloadable resources to help you promote the Do 1 Thing program and help the people you care about become better prepared for emergencies and disasters. Includes fact sheets, PowerPoint presentations, brochures and flyers, plus videos.

They'll Remind You!

To keep you on track, Do 1 Thing will send you an email reminder of each month’s topic. If you sign up, the website will help you keep track of your progress. It’s free, completely optional and they promise to never share your information with anyone. Ever.

Background

Do 1 Thing is a non-profit organization that wants to help build stronger communities. When people in our community are prepared, emergency responders can help more people. When people are prepared themselves, they can help their neighbors.

So visit http://do1thing.com/ today and get started preparing yourself, your family, and your community right now!

Image credit: Copyright http://do1thing.com/

Emergency Tip: Best Apps for that New Holiday Device

Don't forget to add the weather and emergency alert apps
to that new device! 

Congratulations on your new phone and/or tablet!

During this holiday season, many of us will receive a new smart phone or tablet and will instantly start filling the new gizmo up with apps for Facebook, Twitter, Minecraft, etc.

Don't forget the really important apps - the ones that can really help your family in a crisis.

Best Apps to Keep You and Your Family Safe

A) First off, let's start with Weather Apps - these are useful every day.  Here are my 2 favorites, but searching in your device's App Store for "weather" will provide dozens of great ones.  Important: Make sure your app has push alerts for weather emergencies.

1. WeatherBug - Nobody else (besides the National Weather Service) has their own commercial-grade weather and lightning observation network in the United States. 
2. AccuWeather - This app has a very unique interface with hour-by-hour forecasts right on the main screen.

B) Next up are Emergency-specific Apps. My favorite series of apps in this category are from the Red Cross. Searching in your device's App Store for "Red Cross" will produce a dozen apps that are very helpful and very specific to regional emergencies.

1. Red Cross Mobile Apps - They have apps for First Aid, Blood Donations, Floods, Earthquakes, Wildfires, etc. Download the apps that apply to the emergencies you may face. These apps are US-focused.
2. For other parts of the world, use the search function in your App Store and look for "disaster alert", "emergency planning" or "emergency preparation". Adding your country or state to the search will most likely result in specific apps for your region, produced by either your government or a private organization.

For my friends in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) has produced an excellent alert app: Massachusetts Alerts.

• Massachusetts Alerts is customized for Massachusetts and in addition to providing alerts and critical information about ongoing incidents and disasters, Massachusetts Alerts will also provide preparedness tips and information, and direct users to online resources to help them prepare for, manage during, and recover from the wide range of natural, technological and man-made hazards that threaten the residents of the Commonwealth.

C) Finally, set up and practice with your device's Texting, Video Chat, and Location Apps. These apps aren't as cool as the one's listed above, but during emergencies, texts may get through when the voice lines are all tied up. Also, being able to locate a family member's phone remotely will provide much needed information and peace of mind during an emergency. Make texting and other methods of communication part of your Family's Communication Plan. 

So enjoy all your new technology this week - and don't forget to add a few helpful apps for when things get really exciting!

Image credit: Copyright Patrick W. O'Connor.