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About the op911 news. We review technology that deals with emergency operations. Our readers include law enforcement, intelligence, information technologists, op-sec, fire response, bomb squads, swat, and other first responders. Op911 and www.op911.net is published by Hitech LLC., an independent media company that specializes in print and web based readership. Op911 describes emerging technologies, new tools and analyzes their commercial, economic, social, and political impact. All contents copyright 2006, Hitech LLC. Email suggestions or comments to ops@op911.net

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A central duty of any good leader is the ability to convey knowledge and ideas. It’s not easy to translate complex ideas into short, succinct phrases to your staff. First you need to know the local language, or vernacular, of your staff and you need a decent vocabulary. So this month we will learn a word that is new to some and “old school” to others. To start with a hint, this word is similar to nepotism, also with a meaning close to the word “naïve”. My definition of this word is this: Ethnocentric means you understand something that is in your nearby world, but you tend to ignore or understand less the other things that are further outside of your realm.

Where do you see ethnocentrism? You see it everywhere there are people, especially groups of people who have a certain knowledge or culture that they are familiar with. You see it with police agencies, fire fighters, college fraternities, you name it. Anywhere there is a bias for something because you know that technology but not another technology, it is ethnocentric thinking.

My suggestion is to keep an open mind and present the issue of ethnocentrism as a natural occurance for one. Don’t just say, “you dumb ethnocentric cops need to enlighten yourselves and get educated.” A better approach would be to point out the fact that it is natural to be ethnocentric regarding ideas, knowledge, processes and such. It is easy to believe a product or process is the best way of doing things. People begin to make value judgments on other ways of doing things, without even really understanding the other product, idea, or process.

Create an emphasis on the fact that people just need to get another viewpoint and experience the other way of doing things. Point out that the process is not so unique or original that there is no other way. This is sometimes easier said than done. Wars and plagues have been caused by ethnocentric thinking that was engraved over generations. It’s not easy to convince people especially when they have years of working with a certain technology or process. Present the alternatives with optimism that they may not be much better, but that you are looking to explore alternatives. As the alternatives are examined, your team may find ways to better understand their process and how they can improve it. Again it’s natural to be ethnocentric but not to be naïve about the world. Eventually you will get them to break out from ethnocentric thinking.

Make sure your staff looks at their world with a wide angle lens! Examine the costs of doing business inefficiently because your staff doesn’t want to change a process or explore new techniques. There are usually always alternate ways of doing business.

Cows are great, I mean what would we do without chocolate milk? I myself would be an unhappy camper without my favorite treat. For this segment, we are not talking about milk COWs though. We are talking about cellular COWS. No, these are not cows with cellphone trackers. These COWS are mobile cell sites used in an emergency or large event.

COW stands for Cell On Wheels. They are usually small trailers that telcos setup for temporary cellular coverage.

Just like a real cow, a cell on wheels supplies a necessary resource. That resource is communications! The use of COWS are dictated by either user demand or cellular provider request. Basically anywhere there is a need for cellular voice or cellular data coverage.

Well if you are a leader of a large group and you pay Nextel thousands a month in cellular bills, you probably can just call them and ask. Now there probably needs to be some type of emergency or special event going on where cell coverage is going to be pushed to it’s limits or there is none presently.

Some cellular companies only have the vehicles in one state that serves two or even five or six states. These vehicles roll and can take hours even days to arrive on site. In Anaheim California there was a fire this spring along highway 241. The leaders requested a COW and it was setup almost 36 hours after it was originally requested.

There are too many cellular technologies, frequencies and providers to have a single truck perform all cellular service. It probably is possible to have a contract setup with a cell provider so that a COW is available within X number of hours.

Another option is to have your own infrastructure and COW. Meaning if you have a radio system of your own or one that complements another cellular provider, you could own a COW for use anytime your staff needs one setup. Keep in mind that cellular type systems are expensive propositions and usually only large cities can afford them.

I for one am an advocate for cities owning their own infrastructure, whether it is fiber down the street or a county owned cellular system only for public safety. Many agencies already have complex and expensive voice packet systems. Many of these use technology very similar to cellular providers, or in some cases the exact same technology.

And for your information, New York city is setting up a government cellular system just for public safety. . .and the cost is 500 million!

Below is a picture of a NEXTEL cellular service truck, or COW. COW= cellular on wheels.

You may see a cell tower on a trailer like the one below. This looks like a cow, but is actually a cellular JAMMING system made by antennasystems.com. This company makes small portable jammers and large trailer mounted jammers that can jam cell transmissions for miles in every direction!

Of course large jamming devices are overkill usually, and killing cell phone signals is pretty much the opposite of what a COW usually does. And it’s really only used in very unique situations like military use in Iraq. Small jammers are used sometimes at events to STOP people from using their cell phones. Keep in mind the law, they could be illegal!

Places that are civilized probably find more harm than good done with a cell jammer. Jammers usually block all phone signals, some being able to jam a specific cell phone technology frequency band (like 800 mhz).

On the scene of an emergency there should be little time wasted in figuring out the process for requesting a cellular on wheels (COW). Practice the process! Know how long it will take and keep other options open for emergency communications.

The demographics of those being arrested are so diverse that many European counterterrorism officials and analysts say they have given up trying to predict what sorts of people are most likely to become terrorists. Age, sex, ethnicity, education and economic status have become more and more irrelevant.

In the Netherlands, officials said they are seeing an increase in the number of young teenagers.

In neighboring Belgium, people are still perplexed over what drove Muriel Degauque, 38, a blond, white Catholic, to convert to Islam and travel to Iraq to blow herself up in November 2005.

In Britain, three of the suspects arrested in last summer's alleged transatlantic airline hijacking plot were religious converts who grew up in north London's affluent suburbs. One was the well-to-do English son of a Conservative Party activist; he worked in a bar and loved the movie "Team America."

European authorities said the trait patterns of those arrested on terrorism charges are constantly shifting.

In an interview, the author of recently completed Dutch study of 242 Islamic radicals convicted or accused of planning terrorist attacks in Europe said that many local police agencies have been slow to abandon profiling, but that most European intelligence agencies have concluded it is an unreliable tool for

spotting potential terrorists. "How can you single them out? You can't," "We should focus more on suspicious behavior and not profiling."

Last month we looked at hacked ATM machines, or Automated teller machines. Now we are again look at some of the risks involved in electronic systems.

There have been people trying to create better security at ATM’s. In my opinion, the banks have not done enough to keep you and your money safe. People have tried to put legislation to create safer ways of using ATM’s. Here we see another ATM problem, called the card skimmer.

A card skimmer reminds me spy technology. As a former contractor for an intelligence agency, I have seen my share of spy equipment. This one is an add-on to a device that adds spying functionality to everyday equipment. Examples? A paper shredder comes to mind in East Asia. The hotel offers the paper shredders to the overseas traveler as a convenience. Little do they know it also scans the document BEFORE being shredded and copies the data over the shredders powerline to a nearby computer!

So our modern day criminal takes a spin on the spy tech shredder and puts a reader in front of the ATM reader, similar to the spy shredder that the wonderful hotel offers for FREE.

As you look at the ATM card skimmer, keep in mind other uses of this technology. Do you have high security gates or locks that use credit cards? Imagine what a smart thieve or terrorist could do with this skimmer placed in front of your high tech lock. With a bit of social engineering thrown in, the “gate technician” comes to your place of work to do maintenance on the gate.

I had to replace the card reader, it should work fine now.”, says Dan the criminal.

“Oh great. Have a nice day.”, says you perky staff member. Busy reading the latest updates to her myspace.com, she didn’t check his credentials and so it is unknown to her that the criminal has just been given the green light. Now he will be able to read the security cards put into the machine and easily duplicate them. No one notices as the card reader was “repaired” recently. The new card reader looks slightly different.

A few weeks later a robbery takes place and most of your hard earned equipment is stolen. “How did they get through the security gate?” will be the first question.

Keep in mind that just because it is “high tech” does not equal high security. It may not be safer then “low tech” security equipment. Sales people keep this in mind when bragging about your “high tech” systems.

This is the back of the card reader. The reader has a FireWire (IEEE 1394) interface that

can be read by most home computers. So the skimmer stores the data in memory, skimming hundreds of credit card and ATM numbers. The skimmer is then removed and the criminal takes it back to his home, where he downloads the information into a computer and can then recreate the cards for his own personal use. That data doesn’t have the PIN of the card. An enterprising thief could work around that, especially if the skimmer records the time and date. The criminal, using a telescope, could watch you type in your pin. Recording the date and time of PIN entry now gets everything he needs to siphon your bank account. Scary? Yes!

The card skimmer here was found and removed by a local police officer. Obviously he had a good eye to notice the difference between the modified ATM and unbugged ATM.

People will do anything for money. You have heard it before, but look at the lengths people will go to for the American dollar. Here are some more examples of very creative ATM skimmers.

This model would be a “second generation skimmer” in that it involves another device to retrieve users PINS from the keypad. Another key feature is the “wireless skimmer” operation in which all information is relayed via radio back to the criminal. I’m sure after the smarter thieves discovered the pain of lost equipment, they went to remote and wireless card skimmers. This one was from Texas, land of big oil and ATM theft. Here we see the skimmer being attached to the front of the ATM. The skimmer is battery powered and transmits the magnetic strip via a 802.11 radio.

Here a innocent looking pamphlet holder is used to hold the wireless camera. The camera transmits video of the users pushing the keypad. This way the thieves have the PIN code to the ATM card as well. The skimmer send the binary information on the card itself. This thieve has both PIN and account number ready to steal some of your money!

Now you just have to think, could this happen elsewhere? What about to the locked storehouse where you keep all the disaster recovery equipment? What if your valuable disaster recovery equipment was stolen and you didn’t find out until the disaster? I find this very irritating, as you don’t want too much security for certain things that are critical to life support. I have been in disaster response teams where we had much needed supplies only miles away but no one had a key to the super high security locked container. So people waited for 24 hours before they had cots and blankets to sleep.

Attempt to balance security with operational need. Keep in mind modern electronic security devices may be no better than a high security mechanical lock.

What is a mishap and how could have it been prevented? This is always the question when something goes wrong. We all know mistakes happen. Is there really anything one can do to avoid mistakes? Here are some things to look at from the California Training Institute. Doing some homework may help you understand mishaps. As a leader in an organization you may have to report on or investigate accidents. Understanding human behavior is an important part of this.

Basically we are talking about mistakes. Simple mistakes. Whether it is bad judgment, lack of knowledge, or any of the other possible problems, there is training to help you understand potential issues related to emergency personnel. The idea is to first understand human behavior with respect to error.

When it comes down to it, we are trying to make people better and more efficient. Pretty easy right? But do we do the right thing under stress? I think trying to understand the behavior of people under stress is difficult.

It’s hard enough to try to get people to change their behavior when NOT under stress. But let’s look at some ideas of how to manage human error.

Instead of talking about human error, use the term “human performance”. Human performance is better in describing real world scenarios where there is a little distinction between good and bad. Just like technological systems, human performance varies and we are not fool proof. Keep your perspective on performance. What seems ridiculously easy on paper isn’t always the case.

• Assist in constructively assessing policies and procedures, based on knowledge of human behavior.

• Develop risk assessments for tactical operations (high security, SWAT, high risk warrant service, etc.).

• Understand the relationship between situational awareness and mishap potential.

• Predict the performance of an individual or team based on a given level of situational awareness.

• Understand the affects of stress on memory functions, on performance, and on the decision making process.

• Understand the common and uncommon causes of fatigue and identify the physical and mental symptoms and their affect on decision making.

• Apply three key decision types and understanding when and how they are typically used in routine and abnormal situations.

A friend called me up the other day asking for a good satellite data provider. I thought, hmm. So I asked a few questions.

After a few minutes he told me they had looked at a provider called wildblue satellite. I did a quick lookup on the internet while we talked, and sure enough it was cheap and very affordable from what I have seen. I determined it would be for their emergency operations center, or EOC. Oh oh, that made me think about all sorts of possible issues.

But then I had questions. Here I summarized some things to look at for data communications, specifically satellite communications.

1. How can the dish be moved to a different location if the EOC moves? That would be a good thing to try. Is it a difficult process that takes two hours to re-setup? If so, is that ok? Do you need a licensed technician to do it?

2. Can it provide multiuser capability? Sometimes these consumer devices are only made for ONE session, and not designed for multi-users going through it.

3. Does the satellite fast enough to do VOIP calls (skype, things like that). Satellite voice is effected by the delay of getting the signal to the satellite and back. Some systems have too much delay and voice is noticeably delayed.

There are better satellite systems for "mobile command posts" type scenario that are much easier to move around. Do they want this dish to move to the command post?

But keep in mind that your county communications can help in this role as they may have satellite systems on trailers they lend out to agencies in need.

My thinking was that is “that’s great”, but what if every agency needed to borrow the trailer/dish at the same time?

Keep in mind that satellite data prices are usually paid per megabyte, and the prices are starting to go down and will continue as more satellites are put up.

This Hughes one I found a few weeks ago, it is a versatile satellite systems for emergencies. It can easily be mounted but also moved to anyplace where you need satellite communication.

Put some cameras and electronics in a small compact device and you have a spy ball. Two companies make these devices for hostage events. Both are designed to be thrown in the window of a building where a hostage situation is taking place. If the bad guys don’t throw the ball back out the window, you have a live streaming video of the room sent wirelessly to a computer screen. These small devices are somewhat expensive but could come in very handy.

Check out the Remington spyball. This device is small and versatile. Geek factor of 10. Remington gives you a nice padded case and good documentation. Throw a Remington spyball into the scene and jump back to safety. You have to see this thing! Watch the video on their website. It’s a awesome tool.

Then there is the Dragon Egg. Weighing two pounds, this device has four cameras that provide 360 degree video images.

Again, very handy if it can see the scene. Same idea, throw it throw a window and watch video of the scene taking place.

We will be looking into various products and doing evaluations of technology. If you have a device, process, or service you think is great, let us know. We will give you some press one way or the other, and it’s never always negative. J Remember bad press is sometimes good! Understanding your product and customer is key to your success. Tell us about your product or send us a demonstration model. Contact us using the phone # and email found in the front page of op911.net.

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More reading and surfing. Click these resources and find more on emergency operations at:

Things that helped make this issue: Maple flavored tea, GIMP for windows, pistachios by the cup, Mysql, salted peanuts, chocolate flavored protein powder (sugar free), lithium polymer batteries, vending machine tea, Google Toolbar, Microsoft Word, Ethereal, PDF995 free pdf converter, HP Notebooks (with that kick-ass EtherTronics 802.11 antennas built in), grant money from UASI, taxpayers of Anaheim, rasberry tea from Canada, Textpad, Namo Webeditor, Macromedia DreamWeaver, Samsung TFT dual LCD monitors, and an occasional nod from the Bassets.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Sun Tzu, 500 B.C.