ENISA report recommends improvements to emergency service communications
Emergency service organisations need to work more closely with each other, and with the public, including using social media during incidents.
Emergency service organisations need to work more closely
with each other, and with the public, including using social media during
incidents. That’s according to a new report, Emergency Communications Stocktaking, prepared by Analysys Mason in
collaboration with and on behalf of the European Network and Information
Security Agency (ENISA).
Analysys
Mason was commissioned by ENISA to assess how the technology and processes used
in emergency responses could be improved, with the aim of providing guidance to
policymakers in EU Member States and EU organisations.
The report can be found
at http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/report-looks-at-improving-emergency-communications.
Communications
technology is important for all organisations, but for the emergency services it
can be a matter of life and death. The way they communicate - internally, and with
other emergency responders - can make the difference between an efficient operation
and a serious situation turning into a crisis.
Emergency Communications Stocktaking is based on a series of interviews conducted with a
range of stakeholders working directly in crisis response, as well as
representatives from regulatory areas and the ICT industry. The aim was to
identify good practice and highlight potential gaps and barriers to effective
crisis communications. In post-crisis reviews of major incidents, including the
7/7 bombings in London in 2005, inter-agency communications are often
identified as a problem. The report highlights a range of issues that can
contribute to difficulties, and which, if corrected, could make emergency
communications far more effective. Issues include the development of different
communications standards and practices between, for example, police and
ambulance services, and technology failure in crisis situations. The report
also suggests that in the age of 24-hour news and social media, there should be
formal processes for using electronic information from the public to improve
‘situational awareness’, i.e. to understand how events are developing at an
incident in real time.
The
report makes a series of recommendations to Member State governments, competent
authorities, service providers and the bodies of the EU aimed at:
- developing improved inter-agency crisis communications technology and procedures
- defining standards in crisis communications technology and procedures
- encouraging the uptake of data services in emergency communications, particularly in the area of public interaction.
“ENISA is truly a pace setter for information security in Europe,” commented Duncan Swan, Partner at Analysys Mason. “This report pulls together a wealth of reference material that will be invaluable to organisations not only in Europe, but worldwide, which are involved in Public Protection & Disaster Recovery (PPDR), and emergency communications in particular."
Source: Analysys Mason