For many people, 911 is their first point of contact in the event of an emergency. In recent years, however, local 911 centers across the United States have found themselves overwhelmed due to the pandemic or other disasters, leading to long wait times and slow responses, as well as complaints from residents, according to Lawfare Blog.
Now, 911 lines are increasingly facing other threats that challenge the trust citizens have in their services, as they become more common targets for attacks by cybercriminals or other malicious actors. While so far there’s no evidence of organized nation-state level campaigns, there’s been multiple indications of individuals targeting 911 services at the local level, through various means, including hardware, software, and wetware. With the increasing adoption of Next Generation (NG) 911 services, the challenges of maintaining a good cyberdefense for emergency services are only expected to grow, as the new features of being able to receive emergency calls through voice, text, or video also opening new vectors for attack.
To help defend against these challenges, and to ensure a robust and stable system, additional funding will be required at the national level, so that all systems can update equally, rather than in a patchwork manner. As has been seen before, with systems being increasingly integrated, these networks which we rely on in emergencies are only as strong as their weakest links.
Source:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/911-we-have-emergency-cyberattacks-emergency-response-systems
