By Chetrice Mosley-Romero

September is National Preparedness Month and this year’s theme is “Prepare to Protect. Preparing for disasters is protecting everyone you love”.

If you think about it, even for a minute, it’s a lot to take in. And, as we’ve discovered that disasters, sadly, come in all too many forms.

If you’re a part of an emergency management agency (EMA) – regardless of the size of the community you serve -- you already know that everyone, it seems, is counting on you to do it all; everything from prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery, whether it’s natural, man-made, or an act of terrorism, including a cyberattack.

Keep in mind, too, that a disaster – these days – goes beyond the physical elements that we’re used to dealing with in emergency management, instead it’s now  compounded by a cyber incident or an attack. Bottom line, it has the potential to make a bad day so much worse.

Fortunately, here in Indiana, there exists a “playbook” that’s designed to take out some of the complexities related to cybersecurity while, at the same time, providing an invaluable resource with the tools to help people stay protected, as much as possible.

Known as the Indiana Emergency Manager Cybersecurity Toolkit, it was developed by the Indiana Executive Council on Cybersecurity (IECC) and is organized into four main sections, including:

• A survey to assist emergency managers in working with their partners to develop emergency and continuity of operations plans;
• Cybersecurity incident response plan template;
• Training and exercise guide; and
• Additional resources to help deal with new and pervasive threats.

It’s FREE and we invite you to download the full Emergency Manager Cybersecurity Toolkit today!  It can be used a  as a complete guide or piece-by-piece, depending on how detailed you want to go with your planning and what you would do in the event your organization experiences a cyberattack or incident.

For more information related to emergency response and recovery, visit the Indiana Cybersecurity Hub. And be sure to come back to the site for the latest information and updates to the Toolkit!