You’ve been hacked! Cyber-attacks seem to be a constant concern for many organizations and 9-1-1 is not excluded.  Benjamin Gairrett, ENP, Information Technology Support Manager at the El Paso-Teller County 9-1-1 Authority shares some recently discovered vulnerabilities and how the Authority was impacted. He also gives updates in 9-1-1 technology in part one of this three-part episode!

In this episode Ben discusses:

• Changes in work environments within the 9-1-1 industry and movements to remote and hybrid work
• Benefits and capabilities of remote dispatching and call-handling 
• Technical requirements and specs for remote work environments
• Satellite network that provides high-speed internet to remote locations
• Migration and redundancy in data centers and technology
• Virtualization and disaster recovery​​​​​​​
• Recent cyber-attacks and organization vulnerabilities
• Social engineering
• What users can do to prevent being hacked

Ben references:

• Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
• Elon Musk’s company, Starlink
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
• White hat, black hat, and gray hat hackers
• Unified access gateway (UAG)
• Public Safety Communications article How One ECC Installed Remote 9-1-1 Operations
• Arlington County VA ECC Takes on the Pandemic with Remote Capabilities
• Episode 49: FirstNet Helps Emergency Communications Center Adapt during Pandemic