MCP Insights

The Key Buzzword at MCP These Days Is ‘Growth’

Last week, Mission Critical Partners (MCP) announced the acquisition of MTG Management Consultants (MTG), a Seattle-based firm that provides strategy and management services to local, county and state government entities. The acquisition further strengthens MCP’s credentials as the leading provider of consulting services—as well as data-integration, network and cybersecurity solutions—for public safety and justice sector clients.

More on that in a bit—but first, a history lesson that will provide some context for this development.

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Apple iOS Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Exploited in Wild

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

This week there is a new critical alert that requires the mission-critical community’s immediate attention.

Advisory Overview

Apple announced that it has learned of three zero-day vulnerabilities affecting its iOS (formerly iPhone operating system). One of the vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-1782) affects the system kernel, allowing for privilege escalation; the other two (CVE-2021-1870, CVE-2021-1871) are present within the system’s WebKit Safari browser, allowing for remote code execution (RCE). According to Apple, all vulnerabilities have been patched in iOS 14.4.

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Threat Actors Abusing Windows RDP Servers

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

This week there is a new critical alert that requires the mission-critical community’s immediate attention.

Advisory Overview

The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) service for Microsoft Windows devices operating on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 3389 can be used in an amplified attack, potentially resulting a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on a target. A system that is involved in, or is the target of, such an attack could experience partial or total degradation in usability. It is recommended that RDP services be available exclusively via virtual private network (VPN) services. If that is impossible, then RDP via UDP port 3389 should be blocked.

Vaccinating 911 Telecommunicators Is a National Imperative

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of life for most Americans and our nation’s emergency responders particularly have been affected by the disease. Like first responders working in the field, 911 professionals (i.e., telecommunicators, aka call-takers and dispatchers) working in public safety communications also have suffered. Many 911 authorities that are already experiencing dramatic staffing shortages are struggling to keep the coronavirus out of their emergency communications centers (ECCs) through the use of masks, social distancing, enhanced cleaning measures, temperature checks, and quarantining measures. 

The Seven Best Cybersecurity Resolutions for the New Year

Cybersecurity continues to be a persistent problem for government agencies, including those operating in the public safety and justice sectors. These entities must be constantly vigilant in their efforts to prevent breaches, a task made incredibly difficult given the ingenuity of cyberattackers, the fact that the number of attacks continues to increase at a dizzying pace, and the reality that attack vectors evolve seemingly by the hour. Nevertheless, while fighting the battle isn’t easy, it is essential.

MCP Makes Best-of-Breed Technology Procurements Easy and Painless

Since the firm’s launching 12 years ago, Mission Critical Partners has participated in hundreds of technology procurements. We are proud that our clients trust the support that we provide. The foundation for that trust can be found in two important factors.

Cybersecurity Advisory: SolarWinds Orion Compromise Updates

As part of our effort to inform our clients about potential and serious cybersecurity issues, MCP provides advisories about vulnerabilities and exploits that could threaten the operations of their critical communications networks. Sign up to receive these advisories in your inbox as soon as they are released.

Government and private-sector organizations continue to release updates concerning a variety of topics related to the SolarWinds Orion compromise. In December, SolarWinds Orion, a prominent information technology (IT) monitoring and management solution, was compromised via a backdoor exploit by a sophisticated state-sponsored cyberattacker. The application was discovered to be communicating with unknown third-party servers through traffic deliberately designed to mimic normal activity. This compromise was highly sophisticated and affects many public and private organizations across the world.

In this article, we have provided information regarding several important SolarWinds-related developments.

Be Wary of Using Commercial Broadband Networks for Public Safety Voice

More than ever, broadband communications networks are essential to the public safety and justice communities. Such networks easily transmit highly bandwidth-intensive files, e.g., video and building floor plans, that would choke a narrowband network. Such files enhance situational awareness for incident commanders and other officials—as well as emergency responders and jail/prison officers—by orders of magnitude, which in turn helps them do their jobs better.

But there’s a flip side to broadband communications networks of which the public safety community needs to take seriously. Such networks typically are owned and operated by commercial entities, and because of this public safety agencies that contract for broadband services typically do not receive the performance guarantees and—even more importantly—the visibility into these networks that they’re used to receiving from the networks that they own and operate, for example, their land mobile radio (LMR) systems.

Consequently, public safety agencies should proceed carefully when they consider whether to contract with any commercial entity for broadband services.

A Three-Pronged Strategy for Integrating Data into Public Safety Operations

A recent blog examined the need for public safety and justice agencies to integrate data into their daily operations. This integration has two distinct but interrelated elements—data gathering/exchange and data leveraging. Data needs to be captured effectively and efficiently, and then flow seamlessly between agencies, departments and their field personnel, and between disparate networks and systems. The data needs to be actionable so that it can inform the decision-making process and be made available to any authorized user whenever they need it.

2020—Year in Review

The year 2020 was fraught with challenges, most notably those generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Public safety and justice agencies from coast to coast were forced to implement, virtually overnight, new operational strategies that became necessary because employees were unable to work in their brick-and-mortar facilities, either due to illness or various shelter-in-place orders. In some cases, agencies had to rapidly execute protective measures for those employees who could arrive at work, driven by social-distancing mandates.

Here’s What Mission-Critical Agencies Should Do About the SolarWinds Breach

Last week a serious cybersecurity breach concerning SolarWinds’ Orion network- and remote-monitoring platform was revealed. Orion has been implemented by a great many organizations, including the White House, the Pentagon, the U.S Department of energy and many other government agencies and technology companies. 

This cyberattack was particularly clever, in that the perpetrators designed the malware to look like Orion software files with a signed certificate. When the user deployed what he or she thought was a legitimate update, the malware was distributed. The traffic looked exactly like Orion traffic, so there were no red flags; consequently, it was easy to overlook the breach, which is why it was so widely distributed. Learn more about how this breach can impact public safety agencies by registering for MCP's cyber briefing today at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Leading by Example—T-Mobile Steps Up for Public Safety

This year was plagued by much hardship and sorrow, yet heartwarming stories and demonstrations of great leadership abound. From the heroic frontline workers battling the coronavirus to the pharmaceutical companies’ development of life-changing vaccines in record time, leaders are rising to the challenges. Similarly, the public safety community has had its fair share of challenges in 2020, especially those related to implementing Next Generation 911 and its life-saving capabilities, but now, as we wind down the year, an unsuspecting leader in public safety has emerged—T‑Mobile.