Monday, June 23, 2008
Daily Report
• CNN reports that beginning June 21, travelers who “willfully refuse” to show IDs will not be allowed through checkpoints or onto planes. The Transportation Security Administration says it is changing the policy to smooth passenger flows and improve security. (See item 19)
• According to the Associated Press, a report by the Government Accountability Office found that Medicare health providers diverted money into personal accounts instead of paying those payroll taxes to the government. The culprits owe the federal government more than $2 billion in payroll and other back taxes. (See item 34)
Banking and Finance Sector
11. June 20, WTVQ 36 Lexington – (Kentucky) Credit Union scam warning. Wednesday night, hundreds of people in Kentucky received calls telling them their bank accounts had been suspended. The calls were allegedly from the Commonwealth Credit Union, but they were not. The Better Business Bureau of Central Kentucky was also getting calls. Commonwealth Credit Union is warning their members of the scam and assuring them no accounts have been compromised. Source: http://www.wtvq.com/news/1-latest/304-credit-union-scam-warning.html
12. June 20, BankInfoSecurity – (Maine) TD BankNorth warns customers of phishing attempt. Less than a month after TD BankNorth customers in New Hampshire were alerted by the bank that their Visa debit or credit cards may have been compromised comes news of a phishing email scam against the bank’s customers. The bank, headquartered in Portland, Maine, has $119 billion in assets and 1,100 locations on the east coast. TD BankNorth is warning customers about an email scam that could infect computers. The email messages say the notes are from TD BankNorth’s president and chief executive officer. The email asks for personal information. The bank says clicking on a link in the note probably infects a customer’s computer with a program that sends their information to the hacker. The bank posted an alert on its web site home page on June 4 after reporting the emails to law enforcement agencies. The bank declined to say whether customer information or money was taken as a result of people responding to the phishing email. Source: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=890
13. June 19, WBBM 2 Chicago – (Illinois) 67 charged in federal mortgage fraud probe. Federal authorities have charged 67 people in a dozen new mortgage fraud cases uncovered in Chicago as part of a nationwide investigation. The cases involve over $170 million in fraudulent mortgages, which were given out by a variety of lenders and security by several hundred homes in the Chicago area and other places across the country. When the mortgage holders in the cases defaulted, the lending companies suffered losses of more than $40 million, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. In the Chicago case, mortgage brokers, loan officers, realtors, home builders, and attorneys were among those charged, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/operation.malicious.mortgage.2.752302.html
14. June 19, South Bend Tribune – (Indiana) Common link found in bank scam. A breach of the computer system affecting customers’ debit cards at 1st Source Bank in early May appears to be at the center of the fraudulent overseas withdrawals this past weekend affecting the accounts of hundreds in Michiana. “As we are piecing it together, it appears transactions coming out of Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Turkey, Nigeria, Spain are most likely related to our breach,” said the senior vice president, consumer and electronic banking for 1st Source Bank. People who used cards from other banks in 1st Source machines at any local site might have been victimized. Information has been sent to various card associations like Discover, Visa, and Master Card, the official said.
Source: http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/News01/80619 0400/1013/Biz
Information Technology
41. June 19, Computerworld – (National) Apple does about-face, fixes Safari’s ‘carpet bomb’ bug. Apple Inc. updated the Windows version of Safari today, patching four vulnerabilities, including one that prompted rival Microsoft Corp. three weeks ago to urge users to stop using Apple’s browser. The fix stymies the kind of attacks that a security researcher disclosed last month, dubbing them “carpet bomb” attacks because they could litter the Windows desktop with malware files by taking advantage of a design flaw in Safari. Today’s patch is an about-face of sorts for Apple. The company earlier said that it did not consider the problem a security issue because Safari had no option to require a user’s permission to download a file. Instead, Apple said it would consider the change an “enhancement request,” and perhaps make a modification in a future feature update. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxono myName=security&articleId=9101239&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
42. June 19, PC Magazine – (National) Dangerous malware e-mail making the rounds. An e-mail message with a provocative, socially-engineered fake news story titles in it subject line has been circulating in an attempt to spread a Trojan that will download additional malware onto a victim’s computer. The e-mail’s objective is to install an ActiveX control and run a file named video.exe, thereby installing the Trojan. Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2320835,00.asp
43. June 19, CNet News – (International) Storm worm version uses China earthquake to lure victims. On Thursday, US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) advised against opening e-mails that contain a link to a video with information about the earthquake in China. The group has received reports of a new variant of the Storm worm that targets people interested in the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. Some of the e-mails also have subject lines that deal with the Olympic Games that China is hosting. In the e-mail is a link that sends a recipient to a malicious Web site, US-CERT says. Opening the purported video link on the site runs executable code that infects the computer with malicious code that can be used to turn the machine into a zombie on a spam botnet. Previous versions have used April Fools’ Day and Valentine’s Day themes, as well as masqueraded as a fix for another worm to lure victims to sites. Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9972672-7.html
Communications Sector
44. June 19, Associated Press – (National) FCC expected to rule Verizon violated privacy laws. The Federal Communications Commission is expected to rule that Verizon Communications Inc. violated privacy laws when it tried to keep phone customers from switching providers, a person at the agency who is familiar with the issue said Thursday. The ruling could come as early as Friday, according to this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public. The ruling would uphold a complaint brought by Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and privately owned Bright House Networks, and it goes against an earlier staff recommendation that Verizon did not violate any consumer privacy laws. In that April recommendation, FCC’s enforcement bureau said the commission needs further public input on rules governing competition for voice, video and Internet services and whether further regulation is needed. Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHhkq9rtvf57XoFxbRDvsQrjFzngD91DE8D03
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