The Wireless Emergency Alerts Project Collection
The Department of Homeland Security Directorate for Science and Technology worked with several industry and academic partners to develop, test, and evaluate WEA. The SEI researched the challenges of guiding alert originators in how to integrate into WEA.
Publisher:
Software Engineering Institute
Abstract
The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS), is a national capability for delivering geographically targeted alerts to the public on mobile devices. The WEA service transmits three types of alerts: presidential alerts, imminent threat alerts, and America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) alerts.
WEA is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS will modernize the nation’s alert infrastructure and add new ways to warn people of imminent threats. WEA integrates mobile phones and the internet with traditional Emergency Alert System radio and television broadcasts.
The Department of Homeland Security Directorate for Science and Technology worked with several industry and academic partners to develop, test, and evaluate WEA. The SEI researched the challenges of guiding alert originators in how to integrate into WEA. This effort produced nine reports.
Collection Contents
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Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) Cybersecurity Risk Management Strategy for Alert Originators
March 31, 2014 • Special Report
By The WEA Project Team
In this report, the authors describe a cybersecurity risk management (CSRM) strategy that alert originators can use throughout WEA adoption, operations, and sustainment, as well as a set of governance activities for developing a plan to execute the CSRM.
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Study of Integration Strategy Considerations for Wireless Emergency Alerts
February 19, 2014 • Special Report
By The WEA Project Team
This report identifies key challenges and offers recommendations for alert originators navigating the process of adopting and integrating the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service into their emergency management systems.
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Best Practices in Wireless Emergency Alerts
February 19, 2014 • Special Report
By John McGregor, Joseph P. Elm, Elizabeth Trocki Stark (SRA International, Inc.), Jennifer Lavan (SRA International, Inc.), Rita C. Creel, Christopher J. Alberts, Carol Woody, Robert J. Ellison, Tamara Marshall-Keim
This report presents four best practices for the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service, including implementing WEA in a local jurisdiction, training emergency staff in using WEA, cross-jurisdictional governance of WEA, and cybersecurity risk management.
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Wireless Emergency Alerts: Trust Model Technical Report
February 25, 2014 • Special Report
By Robert W. Stoddard, Joseph P. Elm, James McCurley, Sarah Sheard, Tamara Marshall-Keim
This report describes a trust model to enable the Federal Emergency Management Agency to maximize the effectiveness of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service and provides guidance for alert originators in using WEA to maximize public safety.
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Wireless Emergency Alerts: Trust Model Simulations
February 26, 2014 • Special Report
By Timothy Morrow, Robert W. Stoddard, Joseph P. Elm
This report presents four types of simulations run on the public trust model and the alert originator trust model developed for the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service, focusing on how to increase both alert originators' and the public's trust in WEA.
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Maximizing Trust in the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) Service
February 28, 2014 • Special Report
By Carol Woody, Robert J. Ellison
This 2014 report presents recommendations for stakeholders of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service that resulted from the development of two trust models, focusing on how to increase both alert originators' and the public's trust in WEA.
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Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) Alerting Pipeline Taxonomy
February 24, 2014 • Technical Report
By The WEA Project Team
This report presents the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) Alerting Pipeline Taxonomy, a hierarchical classification that encompasses four elements of the alerting pipeline, to help stakeholders understand and reason about required CMAS operations.
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Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) Scenarios
February 24, 2014 • Special Report
By The WEA Project Team
This report provides operational and development mission threads to help emergency alert originators analyze scenarios that will aid them in adopting and integrating the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) into their emergency management systems.
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Wireless Emergency Alerts: New York City Demonstration
February 21, 2014 • Special Report
By Elizabeth Trocki Stark (SRA International, Inc.), Jennifer Lavan (SRA International, Inc.), Tamara Marshall-Keim, Joseph P. Elm
This report describes the adoption of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service by the New York City Office of Emergency Management. As the first alert originator to adopt WEA, its experiences provide lessons learned for other emergency managers.
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