Friday, October 31, 2008
Complete DHS Daily Report for October 31, 2008
Daily Report
Headlines
According to Tri-State Media, two people are dead and five injured after an explosion at an oil well site a mile west of Crossville, Illinois, Wednesday morning. (See item 1)
1. October 29, Tri-State Media – (Illinois) 2 killed, 5 injured in oilfield explosion. Two people are dead and five injured after an explosion at an oil well site a mile west of Crossville, Illinois, Wednesday morning. The White County sheriff said Wednesday afternoon that five of the seven people working at the site owned by French Creek Oil Co. of Grayville, Illinois, were taken to various hospitals. Crews were capping the oil well when an apparent explosion occurred, followed by a huge flare of burning gas that engulfed the site. The sheriff said that area emergency agencies brought fire equipment and staff from surrounding communities in Indiana and Illinois and that an Illinois Office of Mines and Minerals representative from that agency’s Carmi, Illinois, office was on scene. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Illinois Emergency Management Agency will also be involved in the investigation into the incident. Source: http://www.tristate-media.com/articles/2008/10/30/pdclarion/news/news1.txt
Guardian.co.uk reports that hundreds of Syrian riot police surrounded the U.S. embassy in Damascus Thursday as tens of thousands of protesters gathered nearby to denounce a U.S. raid that killed eight people near the Iraqi border. (See item 23)
23. October 30, guardian.co.uk – (International) Syria puts U.S. embassy under guard as tens of thousands join protest. On October 30, hundreds of Syrian riot police surrounded the U.S. embassy in Damascus as tens of thousands of protesters gathered nearby to denounce a U.S. raid that killed eight people near the Iraqi border. The crowds converged on Youssef al-Azmi square, about a mile from the embassy – which was closed for the day because of security concerns. Troops wearing helmets and carrying batons and shields took up positions around the embassy and the adjacent U.S. residence building. Two fire engines were parked nearby. There were no signs of violence as protesters formed circles and danced traditional dances. The Syrian government has demanded a U.S. apology for the attack in the eastern border community, which it says left eight civilians dead. It has threatened to cut off cooperation on Iraqi border security if there are more raids on its territory. Syrian security around the embassy is usually tight, and Americans in the country are generally made to feel welcome but when the U.S. invaded Iraq protesters attacked the embassy. The American school has been shut for the day. The Syrian government has ordered the school to shut down – this is expected within a week – and the immediate closing of the American cultural centre linked to the embassy. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/30/syria-us-embassy-protest
Details
Banking and Finance Sector
10. October 29, Bloomberg – (National) Bank of America sues Bear Stearns, Cioffi, Tannin. Bear Stearns Cos. and two high profile hedge-fund managers allegedly lied to Bank of America Corp. in a “desperate” bid for capital to prop up failing funds, according to a suit seeking more than $2 billion. Bank of America Wednesday sued JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Bear Stearns Asset Management and the two indicted hedge-fund managers in Manhattan federal court over what it claimed was “egregious conduct” relating to a “CDO-squared” transaction. JPMorgan, which Bank of America did not name as a defendant, acquired Bear Stearns in April after customers and lenders deserted the firm because of concerns that it was running out of cash. JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by market value, said when it bought Bear that it expected $6 billion in costs related to litigation, consolidation, and other expenses. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_9KJGpfWCEg&refer=home
Information Technology
26. October 30, IDG News Service – (International) ICANN delays shutting down spammy Estonian registrar. The overseer of the Internet’s addressing system said on Wednesday it will delay shutting down a deceitful Estonian domain registrar pending a review. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sent a letter to EstDomains on October 28 saying it would revoke the company’s accreditation effective November 12 and move the 281,000 domains under its management to another registrar. ICANN’s regulations allow it to revoke a registrar’s accreditation if an executive of the company has been convicted of certain felonies or misdemeanors. EstDomains’ president was convicted of credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery in an Estonian court on February 6, ICANN said. A study published in August by several security experts found that dozens of domain names registered by EstDomains were hosted by Intercage, a California hosting company that has come under fire for allowing scammers to operate on its network. Those experts concluded that as many as 78 percent of the domains and mail servers on Intercage’s network were hostile. Many of the domain names registered by EstDomains were linked to spam that advertised fake luxury goods or pharmaceuticals. Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/153042/icann_delays_shutting_down_spammy_estonian_registrar.html
27. October 29, VNUnet.com – (International) Javascript to be next core malware language. The demand that the development of web 2.0 has placed on browsers to become more interactive and act as a portal rather than just a viewing platform is opening up new vulnerabilities to unsuspecting users, the team leader of the Security Operation Center at IT security firm Radware, has warned. One such security hole is in Javascript, which would allow a hacker to copy any file from a user’s PC with little chance of detection. According to a team leader of the Security Operation Center at IT security firm Radware, this new class of attack will be attractive to cyber-criminals because this approach is cross platform and cross browser, allowing the hackers to access systems previously unavailable to them, such as Linux, Mac and mobile. The problem stems from the fact that internet browsers have quickly moved from being passive text and picture viewers to essentially an operating system in their own right, through interactive services such as user-generated content, hosted applications, web mail and social networks. Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/16/20081029/ttc-javascript-to-be-next-core-malware-l-6315470.html
Communications Sector
28. October 30, Network World – (National) Researchers show off advanced network control technology. Researchers at Stanford University say they can adjust network infrastructure to boost bandwidth, optimize latency and save power using an experimental technology called OpenFlow. OpenFlow is in the proof-of-concept stage but someday could be used in business networks to engineer traffic, says an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University. OpenFlow is part of the Clean Slate initiative set up to consider how the Internet might be optimized. Researchers devised OpenFlow as a way to test out new network protocols on existing networks without disrupting production applications. The only other option is to set up separate infrastructure on which to run experiments, a costly alternative. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=knowledge_center&articleId=9118579&taxonomyId=1&intsrc=kc_top
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