Out of the system. Which is why weve been encouraged by the fccs latest rules and working with industry to improve geotargeting. The citywide message that went out the following monday looking for the suspect ultimately led to his capture. That was ultimately successful. It would have been more successful, however, if we were able to embed an image in that message as opposed to indicating the public should go to the media to see the picture. And, you know, as you know i live in new york city as well. Were unique compared to some other geographic areas of our country because we have subways. Define difficulties of the alerts effective in the subways . I forget how many millions of riders we have every day. And because of our subway system, that is also a target for potential terrorist attacks. Do you find that the alert system is adequate in the uniqueness of trying to push those messages out to people who might be riding on our subways . If youre able to get Wireless Service in your device, which is the case in most subway stations, you should receive the wea message. The challenging part would be if youre in between stations where theres not Wireless Service, i know the mta is working on improving that, that said we are in touch on a regular basis through our Emergency Operations center watch command with the control center. If we need to get a message to the mta, we talk to them directly dozens of times a day about lots of incidents. Mr. Bergmann, can you talk about uniqueness of subway riders are protected as well as people aboveground . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Certainly happy to. We continue in the Wireless Industry to be supportive of the wireless Emergency Alert program, recognize the Important Role that it plays. You talked about the importance of that, that it played in the chelsea bombing. And in response to that were continuing to do things to make wea Even Stronger by improving the geotargeting, building in the ability to access embedded links so you can get pictures, and actionable information. Thats very much a focus for us. In terms of coverage, our members, i know, have worked closely with the subway authorities, and have Wireless Service now in i think all 284 of the stations in manhattan, queens and the bronx. As mr. Krakauer said, that challenge is inside the tunnels and getting access to the tunnels. Trains run, you know, 24 7 to make sure that you can deploy there. But Wireless Infrastructure siting is one of our Top Priorities, Building Infrastructure out there to get as much coverage and as much capacity as possible is one of our Top Priorities in the Wireless Industry. In my last minute, would you talk a little bit about right now i could send you a photograph of my 2 1 2yearold daughter. Mr. Krakauer can shoot out a photograph of the chelsea bomber. What are the obstacles . Are we going to be able to overcome those . Weve certainly strengthened our capability to send an embedded link so you can get the picture. Sending it in the message involves additional capabilities. Part of the way we built wea is using a different technology, Cell Broadcast Technology, we did that to make sure we could get the message to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, within seconds, not within minutes. Thats different than a typical text message you and i might send. If i send it to three people in this room, you might get the text message right away, and somebody else might get it five minutes or an hour later. We want to make sure the message gets there immediately. Thats really been the focus and the priority. My limited understanding, my vcr still flashes 12 00 back home. And you have to tell younger people in the audience what a vcr is. Its the less amount of data in the message will get it out quicker, the more complicated the data is, or the more space that it will take up, the slower the message delivery is . You put your finger on it. I would think about it in two ways. One is, the technology was built using this Cell Broadcast Technology that wasnt built to incorporate that multimedia. Thats an additional capability that we have to build out. And the second piece is just making sure that were being cognizant of congestion on networks, looking to send out a message to 8. 5 million in new york city, we want to make sure those networks are available to contact public safety, or to contact their loved ones in the case of an emergency. Since we only have two other members to ask questions, im going to take liberty to ask you one more. Are we able to overcome our alerts take priority in messages, as youre saying the system might be clogged with people sending texts to one another. Are our alerts able to take priority over nonemergency messages . Thats exactly right. Thats why we built this specific technology to make sure wireless Emergency Alerts get there quickly. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Payne. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Gaynor and mr. Krakauer, in the days following false alert in hawaii last month, we realize that we dont necessarily train for mistakes. How are you adjusting our training and exercise policies to ensure that people working for you understand what to do if there is a false if a false alert does go out . Thank you, mr. Payne. We have a generally robust Training Exercise Program Within the agency, and with our extended partners. This is an opportunity to look at, unfortunately, an unfortunate incident in hawaii and take advantage of those. Weve gone back to square one, weve had people assigned to actually make these systems work, have the authority to do it. Actually, monitor how its done, make sure they know how to do it. Make sure if theres a shortfall in understanding of the system and theres many systems we rely on, that they know how to do it. Its readily available. Time is of the essence when these things happen. And so weve really doubled down on making sure that we really, truly understand the system, so the hardware, all the things that go into it. And really the function of the system. Because this requires a human in the chain. And with a human in the chain, theres going to be some difficulties with making mistakes. I think the best way to avoid mistakes, or increase that time is you have to touch it, you have to do it, and you have to do it for real. You just cant read about it in a book. Were all about training and exercise to make sure we can do it should you ask us in a minute, or in, you know, a month, or a year. We want to be able to do it flawlessly and seamlessly. And your training is germane to rhode island, what theyre doing in hawaii would probably you all have different policies and training . Or is there an overall guide to what you should be working on . So i think when it comes to how we interact with the federal systems, we proscribe to the federal exercises in procedures and policy. Every state is unique in how they apply that to their jurisdiction. I am unfamiliar with the exact protocols hawaii had. I would imagine that many of these protocols and policies are similar throughout the united states. But again, im going to take a guess that every state has unique protocol they follow. And its up to us as state directors to make sure its the right size for your state, the right size for the hazards you deal with on a daily basis, and making sure the public understands when that message goes out its for real. Okay, thank you. Mr. Krakauer . Thank you, sir. So with respect to training, we our public warning team trains on a weekly basis. We call it wea wednesday in new york city. Our public warning team is required to send out a test message. It does not go out to the public. We wait for the acknowledgment codes from ipaws. With respect to policies and procedures, we view wea as a twoperson job in new york city, both during training and live Emergency Operations. There is a public warning specialist on the keys entering the message, filling out the form to make sure we hit all the check boxes, and get all the information necessary so that it does go out to the public when the emergency is happening. Standing right behind them is an on duty supervisor who is making sure that policy and procedure is being followed to the letter. Those trainings are custom to the Software Applications we have in new york city, which are different than they have in rhode island, or different than they have in hawaii. Theres not one Software System that integrates with femas system. Its up to local jurisdictions what they ultimately purchase. Okay. And to you gentlemen once again, alerts and warnings are used to warn the public of both natural and manmade disasters. And when an alert goes out, is it important that the followup advice, Government Entities issue is consistent . Can you talk about how you coordinate public messaging among relevant state and local agencies, and neighboring jurisdictions when appropriate after an initial Emergency Alert goes out . Sure. So in new york city, once we issue an alert, a lot of our neighboring jurisdictions also receive alerts through the ipaws system or distribution list. The neighboring jurisdiction Emergency Managers, actually a protocol that new york state institutes. And, you know, soon after or leading up to an emergency, we all get on a Conference Call and share what our individual jurisdictions are doing, what our message is, and act as consistently as possible. Okay, thank you. Mr. Gaynor . The state, we have a policy called a state Emergency Notification policy that has all major stakeholders involved. There are certain processes and protocols we use in that, similar to new york. I think the first thing we do with key decisionmakers is we have a Conference Call, whether thats on our telephone or on hizn, depending what the subject matter, and then multiple groups within our state system called code red communities that we can notify. So whether its a local Emergency Managers or hospitals, or its all of them together, we can with some fidelity we can tailor that message and get it to those groups pretty quickly. Okay, thank you, mr. Chair, ill yield back. The gentleman yields the chair recognizes the gentleman from rhode island who is kind enough to invite mr. Gaynor to be a member of our committee. I want to thank our panel of witnesses and thank you for your testimony. I particularly want to extend a personal welcome to our director vma peter gaynor. Hes doing in my estimation an excellent job as our director. Its an honor to have you here today. Let me start out with mr. Gaynor and asking if theres anything else you wanted to add. Again i understand the has used its statewide system code red, and also ipaws to issue alerts about weather events. Any further descriptions youd like to offer to describe the use of the alerting system and importance of Emergency Alerts and warnings to the citizens of rhode island . Thank you, congressman, for inviting me here today. Its a pleasure to be here. Looking at what has happened across the country, what happened today, what happened in hawaii, we want to take advantage of this opportunity never to let a crisis go really unused. We want to take advantage of that. I have a particular interest now to understand not only the systems like wea and eas, but really how all these systems are strung together in a scenario. So whether fema is announcing some sort of indication or warning over the National Alert system nwos, what does that really mean for a state . What actions are they asking us to do . What actions is fema doing on behalf of the state . And how do we interact and how do we get that right down to the lowest level . As a state director im in the middle between the federal government, and im talking about a major catastrophic event, you know, how do you, you know, meld those two worlds together to make sure you save time, get a clear concise message to everyone affected so they can take proactive and protective measures to save themselves, their families and their community. Thank you, thank you. And again to you, mr. Gaynor, and our other witnesses are also welcome to comment. But obviously cybersecurity risk remains one of the risks that rhode island and most of the states is least prepared to mitigate given the challenges associated with it. How could an incident targeting our Emergency Management systems, including alerts and warning systems, affect your agencys ability to operate . I think its everyones worst nightmare, that you cannot use the systems we rely on every day, you know, the cell phone is everyone has one. Its how we communicate. And the question that i have been asked, my staff, my fellow directors in new england and others, is, you know, what happens if we cannot communicate via these things that operate perfectly in a blue sky scenario . How do you actually take those alert warnings and get them down to the local taxpayer resident in your community . How do you do that . Im not sure i have the answer. I think one of the gentlemen up here is the backbone of how we do it now is the radio system. And that is it. But should the radio system fail, whats next . And i think we probably have to take a deeper look into that. I think cyber is a threat that is here to stay. Its Touching Every system that we build. And we probably have to take a real hard look about if all that fails, what are we going to do . Sure. Good points. And its one of my worst case scenarios, too, and things that keep me up at night as well. Let me turn to mr. Bergmann and mr. Matheny. While the alert in hawaii last month originated from an authorized sender, alert disseminators like broadcast and wireless providers are not immune from unauthorized use of warning systems, demonstrated in 2013 when pranksters actually hacked the Emergency Alert systems of local broadcasters in at least two states, and issued false alerts about an impending zombie apocalypse. These alerts were swiftly debunked. The potential remains to severely undermine trust in the system. So to that point, what are the members of your organizations doing to secure Alert Systems like eas or wea, and the new atsc 3. 0 standard from unauthorized access, including by cybermeans . Anything you want to comment there . Sure. Ill start. We certainly take cybersecurity very seriously. And as an organization weve been working with our members, and we informed a Cybersecurity Task force, a group of cios and chief Information Security officers that meet regularly to share best practices. We have also had numerous seminars and webinars, educating our members on good practices. We have a member portal that we have set up that has access to different resources. And were in the process of developing a more extensive educational program. We really encourage the use of the nist framework which really plays on a lot of things around whats referred to as cyberhygiene. The idea of managing your passwords in a correct way, of setting up your equipment around and behind appropriately configured firewalls and protected networks, as well as who has physical access to the equipment. So were working quite diligently to make sure that folks are engaged on cybersecurity, and creating the most secure as possible systems. Thank you, congressman, for the Wireless Industry security is amongst our highest priorities. Were focused on protecting against cybersecurity threats. We would really say on a 24 7, 365 basis. On a 24 7, 365 basis. We know the threats continue to evolve, but our members are very focused on it in terms of their everyday practices. The equipment they deploy and the practices that they use, the personnel and they also embrace the cybersecurity framework, as well, too, and have worked within ctia. We have a Cybersecurity Working Group that convenes 30 members to share best practices, to share information. Theyre very oriented around Risk Assessment and risk management. So we Work Together to try to address those issues. We also work closely with our partners in the federal government, as well, too. We work closely with the secs Advisory Committee to look at threats to the alerting systems and coordinate with our partners at dhs on a daily basis to try to make sure that were assessing and appropriately responding to any threats. Very good. My times expired, but i want to thank our witnesses for testifying here today. Thank you for the insight and your input and the job you do to keep people safe. I yield back my time. Because you came all of the way here and your expertise is so valuable to us we each want to ask one more question. This committee has items f through r hearings. We dont just gather testimony. We actually do something with the information that you provide us with. So to everyone on the panel, i would just like to ask, what would you like to see this committee do whether it be in the area of Emergency Management, responding, whether it be in the area of wireless or in broadcasting, what could this committee do to help you to protect the citizens of this nature this nation better than were already protectioning them . Sure. Thank you very much. I think if i had one ask to make it would be to ask for your support of the viewer protection act. As i mentioned earlier, were in the process of the repack. We have over 1,000 tv stations moving 700 radio stations that will be impacted and in the context of what were talking about today, those are all Emergency Alert providers. They are all a part of this system and we cannot afford to have any of them taken off line because of a time line that is unreasonable or because of lack of funding and chairman pai has testified that there is a significant shortfall in funding and we also believe that probably to the tune of about 1 billion and so we would love to see support for the viewer protection act. Thank you, sir. Mr. Bergman. Ill highlight three things for you. The unique role in terms of making more spectrum available and thats key to increasing capacity. The second is Congress Also plays a key role in terms of promoting infrastructure deployment and we talked about coverage earlier. By enabling the Wireless Industry by building out the wireless networks, we can increase the ability to target those messages and we are invested in making sure that were exchanging best practices that alert originators and have access to the information about the tools that are available and so working together to promote those kinds of best practices would help, as well. Thank you very much, mr. Gainer . I go back to my Training Exercise theme. I think in the past weve tested systems to see if the systems work. Can you get that message from point a to point b, and i think thats important. So i would like to see more scenariobased alert warning and the training and exercises and you can do it for a state and you can do it for a region and you can do it for the country and pick a scenario that is applicable and run that through the entire course, right . Make sure it works from beginning to end and through all of the systems and prove that you can get that message out should the local, state or federal government need to do it. So again, more realistic training is what id like to see. Thank you, sir. Mr. Greco . Mr. Chairman, i would highlight two things. We thank you and the members of the subcommittee for your continued initiative and preserving that money, we think in light of todays threats its very important that that money continue to not just be preserved, and increased in terms of public warning. The other thing i would note to the committee is that the situation highlighted a good question for us as local Emergency Managers is our state and local governments the right avenue to respond to a National Threat from a state actor, and we think that the federal government should look at making that a federal responsibility as part of the whether its fema or Homeland Security or the department of the defense. The government is in the best position to detect a threat from the state actor and issue warnings initially from the general public, and time is of the essence and local authorities are not in the best position to make those notifications. I thank you all for your testimony and your candid answers to my questions and the rest of the panel, and i want to thank each of you for your dedication and commitment to the safety of our nation. The chair recognizes mr. Payne. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Bergman, as you know, mobile customers are able to opt out of most alerts. As i mentioned in my opening statement, i am concerned that the false alerts and an alert fatigue could, in fact lead to people to opt out of wea alerts. And today, mr. Krakow suggested that Congress Eliminate the optout option. Does the ctia agree . Thanks, mr. Congressman. So youre exactly correct. Today consumers are able to opt out of amber alerts and imminent threat alerts, but not president ial alerts and thats part of the warren act. I think from my perspective we would defer from policymakers on the importance of opt in
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