Unknown's avatar

About rusnivek

Emergency Services

DHS requesting social media info revision on ESTA and I-94W forms

Interesting to see that DHS is requesting a question be added to the ESTA and into the I-94W English (11-11) FINAL (reference only) form.

Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier. It will be an optional data field to request social media identifiers to be used for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information. Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case.

Current Actions: This submission is being made to extend the expiration date with a change to the information collected as a result of adding a question about social media to ESTA and to Form I-94W, as described in the Abstract section of this document. There are no changes to the burden hours or to the information collected on Form I-94, or the I-94 Web site.

Type of Review: Revision.

Affected Public: Individuals, Carriers, and the Travel and Tourism Industry.

IMG_1915

Interesting.

@rusnivek

 

 

BWC + Ohio EMS +Ohio SFM = free #Firefighter transition certification training

FISCAL YEAR 2017 STATE FIRE MARSHAL VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER I TRAINING GRANT PROGRAM OVERVIEW AND APPLICATION
Thanks to a generous allocation of funds from the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation, the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of State Fire Marshal (SFM) is pleased to announce the availability of the Volunteer Firefighter I Training Grant. This grant provides funding in State Fiscal Year 2017 (ending June 30, 2017) to pay for the costs of providing Firefighter I or Firefighter I Transition certification courses free of charge to select students by SFM approved class providers.

FY17+BWC+SFM+Volunteer+FFI+Training+Grant+package

FISCAL YEAR 2017 STATE FIRE MARSHAL VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER I TRAINING GRANT PROGRAM OVERVIEW AND APPLICATION
Thanks to a generous allocation of funds from the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation, the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of State Fire Marshal (SFM) is pleased to announce the availability of the Volunteer Firefighter I Training Grant. This grant provides funding in State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2017 (ending June 30, 2017) to pay for the costs of providing Firefighter I or Firefighter I Transition certification courses free of charge to select students by SFM approved class providers. By partnering with eligible class providers, it is the goal of the SFM to ease the costs to local governments, promote shared services and broaden the availability of these courses throughout the state. Grant funding is limited to $454,711.44 state-wide and will be dispersed to compliant course providers on a first come first serve basis. “Select students” are volunteer firefighters affiliated, as members, with fire departments that pay premiums (or local jurisdictions that pay on behalf of the fire department) to the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation state insurance fund in accordance with Section 4123.35 of the Revised Code and are otherwise in compliance with the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation regulations (“compliant fire departments”).

Now go and get your Fire/Rescue Department some free training!

@rusnivek

Threats in the comments on Periscope make it difficult

In this time of evolving technologies, we all try to keep pertinent and stay in our lanes for information.

On social media, it’s hard to keep up with the new platforms. And basically impossible to keep up with the live-broadcast platforms.
During the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, we had all kinds of threats pop up. One of them is displayed below.


Let’s break this down for a minute.

This is social media platform is Periscope. It’s a live broadcast streaming app that is real time so the user had to type that into the broadcast in real time. Which means it wasn’t a scheduled post or timed post.

A threat of “we gonna kill trump” from @Mexhiee was posted to the comments live on periscope.

An easy search on Twitter (remember Twitter/Periscope are associated) – will find that there are no users that have the handle @Meexhiee. Using Twitter’s native search bar, you can see that the term “Meexhiee” was only used once.


Remember, people can create a periscope account and not create a Twitter account (Periscope’s sign-up verification will be your phone number with a confirmation code send via SMS. Additionally, you can also start an account and then quickly delete it too).

Yes, indeed it isn’t as easy as just Googling “Meexhiee” or going to Wikipedia for an easy search.

Remember, social media is only one part of the puzzle when gathering information.

Stepping back, there are “social media experts” out there that claim to have found the magical tweet that saved a life, the survivor who is buried in the rubble, basically the diamond in the rough. Know the differences between “experts” with showmanship vs expertise with field experience.

Don’t be fooled by the pizzaz, learn by real practitioners who have been there, done that.

@rusnivek

Threats in the comments on Periscope make it difficult

In this time of evolving technologies, we all try to keep pertinent and stay in our lanes for information.

On social media, it’s hard to keep up with the new platforms. And basically impossible to keep up with the live-broadcast platforms. During the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, we had all kinds of threats pop up. One of them is displayed below.


Let’s break this down for a minute.

This screenshot is on the social media platform is Periscope. Periscope is a live broadcast streaming app that is real-time 720p video and audio. So all the comments shown above have to be typed by users into the broadcast in real time. Which means it wasn’t a scheduled post or timed post. No automation.

As you can see, a direct threat of “we gonna kill trump” from @Mexhiee was posted to the comments live on periscope.

An easy search on Twitter (remember Twitter/Periscope are associated) – will find that there are no users that have the handle @Meexhiee. Using Twitter’s native search bar, you can see that the term “Meexhiee” was only used once in February 2013.


Remember, people can create a periscope account and not create a Twitter account (Periscope only sign-up verification will be your phone number with a confirmation code send via SMS. Additionally, you can also start an account and then quickly delete it too).

Yes, indeed it isn’t as easy as Googling “Meexhiee” or going to Wikipedia for an easy search.

Remember, social media is only one part of the puzzle when gathering information.

For those Public Information Officers (PIOs) monitoring live streaming social media, it is a time suck to have to intently watch each periscope broadcast, even with multiple screens, for specific comments and then have to screen shot the actual comment in question. Even worse, if you are doing real-time assessment and threat action ops, your time is now even more limited in sending the right information to the Operations Section Chief (OSC), SWAT Team, or Quick Reactionary Force (QRF) for immediate intervention.

Stepping back, there are “social media experts” out there that claim to have found the magical tweet that saved a life, the survivor who is buried in the rubble, basically the diamond in the rough. Know the differences between “experts” with showman ship vs expertise with field experience.

Don’t be fooled by the pizzaz and showmanship, learn by real practitioners who have been there, done that.

@rusnivek

August is a 9-5-6 squared kinda month

July was a success – phew! Now on to August.

First and second week, I’ll be in the left coast – Region-9 baby!

Third week will be in Columbus, Ohio (CBus!) for a few Emergency Management classes. A little love for the home state.

Fourth week I’ll head down to Oklahoma to teach with their state health department on some social media in Region-6 baby!

Fifth week, I’ll get a chance to present at the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Conference.

fema_regional_map

It’s a 9-5-6 squared kinda month.

Just trying to keep up with the pros…

@rusnivek