Department of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Complete DHS Daily Report for October 1, 2008

Daily Report

Headlines

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that it is assuming regulatory authority over certain radioactive materials in five states, Guam, and some U.S. possessions, effective September 30, under provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. (See item 7)

7. September 29, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – (National) NRC assumes regulatory authority over certain radioactive materials in five states and U.S. territories. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is assuming regulatory authority over certain radioactive materials in five states, Guam, and some U.S. possessions, effective September 30, under provisions of the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005. The material in question consists of naturally occurring and accelerator-produced radioactive material (NARM), which had been under state authority until the EPAct included this material in the definition of “byproduct material” subject to the NRC’s jurisdiction. The states affected by the current action are Vermont, West Virginia, Idaho, Missouri, and South Dakota. This current action is the second phase of waiver terminations. Source: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2008/08-179.html

 According to the Washington Business Journal, an IT security vendor says it has spotted the widespread deployment of malware hidden inside campaign videos for the presidential candidates of both major political parties. (See item 26)

See this article in the Information Technology section below

Details

Banking and Finance Sector

10. September 30, Pittsburgh Tribune Review – (Pennsylvania) Trial ordered for two area men in $234M fraud case. A federal trial for two western Pennsylvania men accused of trying to defraud PNC Bank of more than $200 million will proceed as scheduled next month. A grand jury indicted the two men in January on conspiracy charges. The case was unsealed in March after one of the men was arrested in California. The indictment states that the men submitted a credit application and personal financial statement to the bank indicating that one of the men owned $197 million in real estate throughout New Mexico and Michigan. Other documents they provided the bank listed the property value at $179 million, court records show. Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_590800.html

11. September 29, Associated Press – (Washington) House to meet Thursday after rejecting bailout. The House of Representatives Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from the U.S. president and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. The Dow Jones industrials plunged 778 points, the most ever for a single day. Democratic and Republican leaders alike pledged to try again, though the Democrats said GOP lawmakers needed to provide more votes. The House was to reconvene on Thursday instead of adjourning for the year as planned. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26884523/

Information Technology


26. September 30, Washington Business Journal – (National) Webroot identifies presidential campaign malware. Webroot, a U.S.-based IT security vendor, says it has spotted the widespread deployment of malware hidden inside campaign videos for the presidential candidates of both major political parties. The problem stems, the firm says, from widespread usage of the Gnutella file-sharing network to disseminate hi-resolution campaign videos by the two candidates. According to Webroot, a quick search of the FrostWire network - which uses the Gnutella network format, apparently - indicated that of the 34 search results for “Obama Speech” 14 contained active malware while five of the 19 results for “McCain Speech” were found to be harboring malware. Source: http://security.itproportal.com/articles/2008/09/30/webroot-identifies-presidential-campaign-malware/


Communications Sector


27. September 30, Ars Technica – (National) FCC wants to bless pending wireless mergers by year end. The Federal Communications Commission will try to resolve applications for two big wireless mergers by the end of this year, the agency’s chair says. In a brief statement last week, he said that he hopes to address the proposed Sprint/Clearwire and Verizon/Alltel transactions over the next three months. Baltimore Sprint Nextel and ClearWire announced their wedding in May: a joint WiMAX venture in which Sprint will own 51 percent and ClearWire 27 percent. The remaining stake will be bought by Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House, and Intel Capital for $3.2 billion. The new company will be called ClearWire, with enough spectrum on hand to provide WiMAX service to 140 million people in the United States in 30 months, according to their filing. Meanwhile, Verizon announced its plan to takeover Alltel in June. Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080930-fcc-wants-to-bless-pending-wireless-mergers-by-year-end.html


28. September 29, CNET News – (International) Transpacific undersea cable completed. A crucial undersea fiber-optic cable that will provide more Internet capacity between the U.S. and China was completed Monday, according to news reports. Six of the world’s largest phone companies have finished building an 18,000-kilometer “Trans-Pacific Express” cable that will link the U.S., China, South Korea, and Taiwan, according to the Dow Jones news service. The high-speed link will provide more capacity for the region, which is currently served by a single low-capacity cable that provides connectivity between mainland China and the U.S. Most web traffic between the U.S. and China goes through Hong Kong or Japan. These routes can often cause transmission delays. The project, which cost about $500 million, was prompted when an earthquake off Taiwan’s coast in December 2006 severed several undersea data cables, which resulted in disrupted communications throughout much of Asia. The world’s largest phone companies decided that something had to be done to provide more infrastructure to the region. Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10053949-92.html