Cybersecurity agency holds safety exercise with Jewish community

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently held a tabletop exercise in collaboration with the Secure Community Network (SCN), a Department of Homeland Security Initiative for the American Jewish community.

The purpose of the exercise was to examine how federal and state law enforcement and interagency partners would react to threats of violence. The scenarios were based on current events.

“The threats we face as a nation are vast; people with differing ideologies are constantly looking for ways to interfere with our daily lives and, more importantly, to disrupt our democracy and beliefs,” Brian Harrell, CISA assistant director for infrastructure security, said. “Through strong and proven organizations, such as SCN, the Jewish Community has established itself as the premier group that sets standards for the rest of the faith-based community on incorporating security protocols in their daily operations.”

The Department of Homeland Security has partnered with SCN and its members on a number of initiatives over the past decade. The purpose of these initiatives was to conduct training and exercises, develop and disseminate technical resource documents, and improve threat information sharing.

The department also has conducted one operation-based exercise, two bomb-threat management awareness webinars, six discussion-based exercises, and eight active-shooter-preparedness workshops recently with the Jewish Community.