It’s a growing problem. The nation’s emergency communication system is highly vulnerable to attacks. 911 communications can be disrupted or spoofed with ease.
Without financial reward, the volume of attacks against emergency communication is surprising. Motivations vary -- some do it for mischief, but it’s also used to disrupt businesses, and could conceivably be used to divert police away from a crime in progress. And there’s also been a huge rise in swatting.
Swatting
Swatting is the practice of calling the emergency services and reporting a serious crime involving firearms in the hope of getting a heavily armed SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team to a target’s house. Some just want to see a SWAT team in action; others carry out the deception as an intentionally harmful action against a victim. The deception has tremendous potential to result in an accidental fatality.
Swatting has been successfully carried on against journalists and celebrities. A 12-year-old boy successfully got SWAT teams dispatched to the houses of actor and tech investor Ashton Kutcher and pop star Justin Bieber.
Hiding From The System
In some cases, the limitations of communication systems allow malicious persons to go unnoticed. When calls are made to the emergency services the telecommunications provider routs them to the local 911 team, along with as much information as possible about where the call is located. With wired systems that’s limited to what subscriber information they have on file, but some mobile calls can also include GPS and all include data on which cell tower the caller is using.
Malicious callers can find ingenious ways to hide their location from authorities. In the case of the preteen swatter, the child used a text telephone (TTY) used by the disabled, to call in the false report. These terminals are transferred to an operator, who will forward the call to the emergency services and relay the information, thus circumventing much of the location and user information usually included in calls.
The emergency call centers themselves can contribute to the problem. These used to be airgapped from a hospital’s administrative systems but increasingly they are merged to save on money and network maintenance and are therefore much more susceptible to a denial of service attack against the telephone or computer systems.
Hard To Fix
Increased ability to indentify caller location could help law enforcement track down and apprehend malicious callers. Evolving a common security testing structure for phones and networks would help protect against attacks, as would producing another step into the call process – asking callers to press a number for language preference. While it would help safeguard emergency communication it would also slow it down. When seconds can make the difference between life and death, this lag becomes an impediment to public safety.
The best fix is also the hardest to make. The more advanced a system is, the harder it is to disrupt or attack. With tight budgets, most local authorities are not in a position to make the upgrades, especially in the relatively remote chance their systems would be targeted.
At the end of last year, the nation’s wireless carriers and public safety industry groups reached consensus concerning improvements in locating cellular 911 callers. The plan, which was the fruit of over 8 months of debate and discussion, exceeded earlier proposals made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The voluntary agreements will lead to a solution for accurately locating indoor 911 callers, including their vertical location in high-rise buildings. With the increased use of cellular phones, public safety dispatchers say fewer 911 calls arrive with an accurate location, or with no caller location at all.
Wireless carriers reported that future technology will provide public safety dispatchers with a “dispatchable” location, in some cases right to the office or desk of a caller. Within nine months the carriers will demonstrate a “pre-standards” solution, and then meet certain accuracy standards over the next five years leading to three-meter vertical 911 caller accuracy in 2019.
Carriers reached a similar agreement to deploy text-to-911 features on their networks.
The plan is not without detractors who have urged the FCC to abandon the proposals put forward by wireless carriers, citing that current technology can’t provide accurate wireless location information. This is disputed, however, by APCO and NENA.
According to chair Tom Wheeler, the FCC will consider new rules on 911 location accuracy during its first meeting of 2015 on January 29 , and it’s likely the final rules will split between the commission’s own proposal and a the carrier agreement reached last November.
Wheeler confirmed the commission’s ongoing public safety concerns about accurate wireless location technology. “Since I arrived at the Commission, one of our top public safety priorities has been improving the effectiveness of 911. A particular area of attention has been to improve location accuracy for indoor wireless 911 calls.”
Commenting that previously most cellular usage was outdoors, he noted, “But times have changed, and so has technology. The vast majority of 911 calls now come from wireless phones, increasingly from indoors.”
Wheeler addressed the controversy surrounding the roadmap agreement issued my APCO, NENA, and wireless carriers. “The roadmap proposal is a big step forward, but we also understand and appreciate the valid criticisms raised by some public safety stakeholders.”
“We have listened,” Wheeler continued, “and learned from all sides in this debate…I am circulating an order to my fellow Commissioners that takes advantage of the good work done by the carriers, APCO, and NENA, while also providing confidence-building measures and backstop thresholds that set clear targets and deadlines for improving indoor location and hold parties accountable for results.”
Wheeler made no comment on how the Commission’s proposed regulations and the roadmap agreement would be combined.
In critical situations, a few minutes can easily spell the difference between life and death. Any lag or gap in communications between callers and emergency response professionals imperils the slender thread that sustains swift response.
Emergency telephony faces a major hurdle when the public makes 9-1-1 calls from their cell phones. Currently, there is low location accuracy for wireless 9-1-1 calls. Because the overwhelming majority of these calls are made from a mobile device, the gap in knowledge leaves first responders at a considerable disadvantage in trying to locate those in need of emergency assistance.
The technologies that allow cell phones to be located are suited to outdoor situations. When calls are made indoors, the technology often fails. Compounding the difficulty of indoor emergency calls is the fact that location technologies at present cannot inform 9-1-1 call centers what floor a call originated from. In tall buildings providing emergency help can be very like finding a needle in a haystack.
Realizing that the inability to locate indoor cell phone locations reliably is a dangerous gap in our emergency communications safety net, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau earlier this year issued a proposal detailing rules first responders should adhere to when answering calls from mobile devices. The Bureau is satisfied there is now in place sufficient technology to close the gap on cellular emergency calls.
The problem, then, is a matter of implementation.
Last month the four major wireless carriers and two national public safety associations (NEEA and APCO) made a major step forward by issuing their own roadmap toward achieving indoor location accuracy. A comprehensive document, the roadmap lays out public safety outcomes and a timeline to guide implementation.
The response to the roadmap has been mixed. Some have urged the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to abandon the roadmap, citing concern for accountability, the pace of implementation and achievement, as well as measures of effectiveness. Critics would like the Bureau to return to its original proposal.
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau will continue to accept comments and suggestions on the APCO/NENA/Carrier Roadmap until December 24th. The Bureau addresses the issue:
“How might the recent APCO/NENA/Carrier Roadmap best help close the 9-1-1 wireless location accuracy capability gap?
“Given commitments made to implement the Roadmap, what specific elements of the previous FCC proposal remain relevant and what elements are not sufficiently covered in the Roadmap?
“How might the Commission use the full record to close the wireless 9-1-1 indoor location capability gap effectively, affordably, expeditiously in a measureable and accountable manner?
How do we ensure that legitimate privacy and security concerns are appropriately addressed?”
Closing the gap on wireless calls is one of the most important public safety issues facing 9-1-1 and emergency first response in this country. Hopefully, a careful consideration of the Bureau’s proposal and APCO/NENA/Carrier Roadmap will produce a clear set of rules and implementation guidelines.
