Monday, July 9, 2012
Daily Report
Top Stories
• A man pleaded guilty to running a massive
mortgage fraud scheme in the Detroit area that cost lenders more than $100
million in losses. – Detroit Free Press See item 5 below in the Banking and Finance Sector
• A United Airlines flight bound for Houston
had to return to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and make an emergency
landing because of a cracked windshield. – Associated Press
11. July 5,
Associated Press – (Arizona) Windshield crack forces flight to return to Ariz. A
United Airlines flight bound for Houston had to return to Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport in Phoenix because of a cracked windshield. Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) officials said the pilot declared an emergency
and Flight 1138 landed without incident at Sky Harbor July 5. It was not
immediately clear how long the Boeing 737 had been in flight before the
windshield cracked. Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57467269/windshield-crack-forces-flight-to-return-to-ariz/
• The percent of contiguous U.S. land area
experiencing exceptional drought in July reached the highest level in the
history of the U.S. Drought Monitor. – Pork Network
12.
July 6, Pork Network – (National) U.S.
drought expands, intensifies. The U.S. Drought Monitor report issued July 5
confirmed what most have suspected: the drought, now covering up to half the
nation, is expanding and intensifying. The percent of contiguous U.S. land area
experiencing exceptional drought in July reached the highest levels in the
history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, said an official at the National Drought
Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nearly 12 percent of
the contiguous United States fell into the “exceptional” classification, according
to the report. Eighteen percent of the country is classified as under either
extreme or exceptional drought, said a University of Nebraska assistant
geoscientist. The extreme dry, hot conditions in the nation’s mid-section are
driving up corn and soybean prices to record or near-record levels. The latest
drought report featured the expansion and intensification of dryness in large
sections of the country, with only southern Texas reporting some improvement.
The dryness was beginning to take a significant toll on some of the nation’s
crops, pastures, and rangelands. In the primary growing States for corn and
soybeans (18 each), 22 percent of the crop is in poor or very poor condition,
as are 43 percent of the pastures and rangelands, and 24 percent of the sorghum
crop. Source: http://www.agprofessional.com/news/US-drought-expands-intensifies-161473755.html
• The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet
July 6 announced a “water shortage watch” for 27 counties because drought
conditions are threatening the availability of drinking water. – Evansville
Courier & Press
16.
July 6, Evansville Courier & Press –
(Kentucky) Kentucky issues ‘water shortage watch’ for 27 counties. The
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet July 6 announced a “water shortage
watch” for 27 counties in the commonwealth, including Webster and Crittenden
counties. According to a news release issued by the agency, such a watch is
issued when “drought conditions have the potential to threaten the normal
availability of drinking water supply sources. Officials at the Kentucky
Division of Water study rainfall amounts, reservoir levels, streamflows, the
Palmer Drought Index and the Drought Monitor when determining drought status,”
the news release stated. Most of Western Kentucky is in an extreme drought,
with some areas more than a foot of rain below the annual average. The agency said
counties listed in the watch should “be prepared to reduce water use upon
request by their local water supplier.” Source: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/jul/06/kentucky-issues-water-shortage-watch-27-counties/
• A man engaged police in a shootout, stole a
cruiser, and led officers on a chase in Prince George’s County, Maryland, that
damaged many other cruisers and shut down a major area road. – WRC 4
Washington, D.C.
23.
July 6, WRC 4 Washington, D.C. –
(Maryland) Suspect steals police car after shootout. A police-involved
shooting left one man in the hospital and several Prince George’s County,
Maryland police cruisers damaged July 6. Police said it started late July 5 in
College Park, just off the campus of the University of Maryland. They responded
to reports of gunshots, and when they arrived found a man wielding a gun. The
man and police exchanged gunfire, and the suspect was hit many times. Witnesses
said police put the man in the back of a cruiser. Somehow, he was able to get
into the driver’s seat and speed off down Route 1 before crashing into a wall
in front a McDonald’s. Several other police cars then swarmed the suspect,
pinning him in, and ultimately placing him back in custody. The suspect was
then taken to a nearby hospital where he was recovering from non-life
threatening injuries. Police shut down Route 1 for several hours to investigate
and reopened it early July 6. Source: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Suspect-Steals-Police-Car-after-Shootout-161548605.html
• Search crews were looking for survivors
among the hundreds of people visiting Great Smoky National Park in Tennessee
after severe thunderstorms swept through the area killing two, injuring eight,
and closing 40 miles of roads. – CNN
39.
July 6, CNN – (Tennessee) Crews
search Smoky Mountain wilderness after deadly storm. Search crews fanned
out across the backcountry of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park July 6,
hours after severe thunderstorms swept through east Tennessee, killing two
people and injuring eight, park officials said. An unknown number of hikers and
campers may have weathered the July 5 storm on the dozens of trails and camping
sites in the most hard-hit portion of the park, a park spokesman said. Hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of people were visiting the nation’s most-visited national
park when the storms hit. Forty miles of roads in the park remained closed July
6 due to downed trees, he said. Authorities were working to evacuate campers
who survived the storm without injury but were stranded by fallen trees. Park
officials said one man died in a motorcycle accident, while a woman was killed
in a separate incident when a tree fell on her. The area near Cades Cove was
one of the hardest hit by the storm. The area, which is accessible by only one
road, remained closed to visitors July 6. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/us/tennessee-park-storm/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Details
Banking and Finance Sector
5. July 6, Detroit Free Press – (Michigan) Fenton
man pleads guilty in $100-million mortgage scheme. A man pleaded guilty
July 5 to running a massive mortgage fraud scheme in the Detroit area that cost
lenders more than $100 million in losses. The U.S. attorney’s office said the
ringleader ran a nearly 4-year scheme with 8 others that involved more than 500
fraudulent mortgage loans, more than 100 straw buyers, and roughly 180
residential properties in metro Detroit. The properties were used as, or
falsely portrayed as, collateral for the loans, most of which went into default
and foreclosure, authorities said. The loans ranged from $350,000 to $600,000,
triggering more than $100 million in losses to the lenders. Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20120706/NEWS06/207060407/Fenton-man-pleads-guilty-in-36-100-million-mortgage-scheme?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
6. July 5, Columbus Republic – (Indiana) Man
indicted in $10 million bank fraud. A Columbus, Indiana man accused of
defrauding Indiana banks of more than $10 million was indicted on 13 federal
charges of bank and wire fraud, The Columbus Republic reported July 5. A grand
jury indicted him on charges including 10 counts of bank fraud and three counts
of wire fraud. The indictment alleges the man, the president and manager of
Seymour-based Van Natta Asset Management LLC and a variety of related companies,
devised a scheme to defraud financial institutions to obtain large sums of
money for 2 years beginning in March 2007. He allegedly prepared and submitted
numerous false documents to banks throughout central and southern Indiana,
including financial institutions headquartered in Bartholomew, Decatur,
Washington, Morgan, and Monroe counties. The false documents included
fraudulently created tax returns that hid the true income and financial affairs
of his family members, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/crime/man-indicted-in-10-million-bank-fraud
7. July 5, Federal Bureau of Investigation –
(National) Three plead guilty in $41M video advertisement scheme based in
Ventura County. Two residents of Oxnard, California, and a South Carolina
man each pleaded guilty July 5 to federal fraud charges, admitting they
participated in a $41 million investment scheme that victimized hundreds of
investors across the United States. Using Ventura County, California companies
called Unlimited Cash Inc. (UCI) and Douglas Network Enterprises Inc. (DNE),
the defendants told victims that UCI would sell ATMs and “Ad Toppers” —
computer monitors capable of displaying video advertisements — and DNE would
place the devices in commercial locations that would generate income. Victims
were told they would earn income from ATM transaction fees and advertisement
revenue generated by Ad Toppers. Even though they took in about $41 million
over a 4-year period, the defendants did not place most of the ATMs and Ad
Toppers sold to investors. The loss amount to victims was about $27 million.
Source: http://www.loansafe.org/three-plead-guilty-in-41m-video-advertisement-scheme-based-in-ventura-county
Information Technology Sector
25. July 6,
H Security – (International) Pidgin IM client update fixes buffer overflow
vulnerability. A new update, version 2.10.5, to the open source Pidgin
instant messaging program was released, closing an important security hole.
Previous versions of Pidgin contained a vulnerability in the MXit component,
where parsing incoming messages with inline images led to a buffer overflow.
The developers said this could have been exploited by an attacker to execute
arbitrary code on a victim’s system by using a specially crafted message. Source:
http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Pidgin-IM-client-update-fixes-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-1633702.html
26. July 6,
H Security – (International) DoS vulnerabilities in Asterisk closed. The
Asterisk developers fixed two denial-of-service (DoS) problems in their open
source PBX system. The bugs in the invite and voice-mail areas of the
application were addressed by the release of Asterisk versions 1.8.11-cert4,
1.8.13.1, 10.5.2, and 10.5.2-digiumphones. In one case, attackers are able to
inhibit the Asterisk server by using all available RTP (Real-time Transport
Protocol) ports, which leads to a DoS situation. In the vulnerable version of
the software, if Asterisk sends a re-invite to a call over the SIP protocol and
an endpoint responds with a provisional reply but never sends the final
response, the RTP ports for the call will not be released. If this is repeated
often enough, the server will run out of RTP ports and then cannot receive any
incoming calls. The other bug is located in Asterisk’s voice-mail system. If
two parties simultaneously manipulate the same voice-mail account, this can
cause a condition where memory is freed twice and the server crashes. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/DoS-vulnerabilities-in-Asterisk-closed-1633600.html
27. July 6,
H Security – (International) Microsoft’s July Patch Tuesday will close 16
holes. Microsoft announced that July 10, the July Patch day, it will issue
9 security updates closing 16 holes in Windows (XP SP3 and later), Office,
Internet Explorer, Visual Basic for Applications, and SharePoint Server. Three
updates address critical holes in Windows, one of which also affects Internet
Explorer. Mac users should also be aware that one of the updates affects Office
2011 for Mac. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Microsoft-s-July-Patch-Tuesday-will-close-16-holes-1633952.html
28. July 5,
H Security – (International) Double security for Flash under Linux. Chrome
version 20 represents a major step forward for the security of the Google
browser, especially for Linux users. It introduces a new sandbox concept that
regulates and filters the system calls a process is able to make. In terms of
security, the Linux version has, until now, been neglected by Chrome, having
failed to benefit from many of the browser’s security features. Features such
as restricting hazardous plugins like Flash to a secure sandbox were largely reserved
for the Windows versions. In February, Google introduced Pepper Flash for
64-bit Linux, which isolates the plug-in process within a chroot environment,
and blocks communication with other processes. The recently released Chrome 20
now adds a seccomp sandbox. According to a Google developer, Chrome 20’s native
64-bit Flash plugin is, at least in the current Ubuntu 12.04, isolated within a
seccomp sandbox. It thus complements the Pepper Flash sandbox. Because the
Windows sandbox essentially relies on the integrity levels introduced in Vista
and therefore permits processes to read whatever they like, the doubled-up
Linux sandbox is probably currently the safest method for executing Flash
content in a browser. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Double-security-for-Flash-under-Linux-1632632.html
29. July 5,
Krebs on Security – (International) New Java exploit to debut in BlackHole
exploit kits. Malicious computer code that leverages a newly-patched
security flaw in Oracle’s Java software was set to be deployed late the week of
July 2 to cyber criminal operations powered by the BlackHole exploit pack. The
attack may be related to an exploit published for CVE-2012-1723 in mid-June.
However, according to the current vendor of the BlackHole exploit pack, the
exact exploit for this vulnerability has only been shared and used privately to
date. The BlackHole author said the new Java attack was to be included in a
software update made available July 8 to all paying and licensed users of BlackHole.
Source: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/07/new-java-exploit-to-debut-in-blackhole-exploit-kits/
30. July 5,
IDG News Service – (International) Google says spam not coming from Android
botnets. July 5, Google dismissed the possibility that a new wave of
pharmacy, penny stock, and e-card spam e-mails were being sent by Android spam
botnets. “Our analysis suggests that spammers are using infected computers and
a fake mobile signature to try to bypass anti-spam mechanisms in the email
platform they’re using,” a Google spokesman said in response to security
researchers from Microsoft and antivirus firm Sophos who first identified what
they believed to be the work of an Android botnet. The researchers do not have
a copy of the Android malware responsible for this spam campaign, but there is
indirect evidence that suggests the e-mails are being sent from Android
devices. Not all security researchers are convinced by the evidence found so
far. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228826/Google_says_spam_not_coming_from_Android_botnets
31. July 4,
H Security – (International) John the Ripper now able to crack office
files and use GPUs. The recently released version 1.7.9-jumbo-6 of the John
the Ripper password cracker sees significant format support enhancements. The
open source tool is now able to crack password-protected office documents
(Office 2007/2010 and OpenDocument) and Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey
master passwords, as well as WPA-PSK keys and Mac OS X keychains. It can also
request to use GPUs via CUDA and OpenCL. The suffix “jumbo” appears to be
intended literally — more than 40,000 lines of code were added in the 6 months
since the previous release. Developer Solar Designer told The H’s associates at
heise Security that, in developing GPU support, the focus was on modern
functions that can be slow to calculate, such as WPA-PSK and Unix password
hashes. For some functions, such as Ubuntu’s standard hash function
(sha512crypt) and the time-consuming bcrypt, there were, according to the
developers, no crackers with GPU support until now, “because others were
unhappy about releasing a tool with ‘non-impressive’ speed numbers, even if
this is desirable in practice.” Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/John-the-Ripper-now-able-to-crack-office-files-and-use-GPUs-1631901.html
32. July 4,
V3.co.uk – (International) Android malware pandemic set to intensify
through 2012. The number of cyber attacks targeting Android mobile devices
is far higher than initially predicted, according to security firm Trend Micro.
The company reported detecting 25,000 Android malware samples in the second
quarter of 2012, more than double the 11,000 it predicted for the period, and 4
times greater than the 6,000 found in the first quarter. Trend Micro predicted
the boom seen so far will accelerate further as the year progresses. It
estimates there will be around 38,000 malicious samples in the third quarter of
2012, and 129,000 in the fourth quarter. Trend also reported 17 malicious apps
were downloaded more than 700,000 times from the Google Play store. Two of
these included fake versions of popular sports game apps, suggesting the firm’s
Bouncer tool is proving inadequate at detecting numerous rogue applications.
Source: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2189268/android-malware-pandemic-set-intensify-2012
Communications Sector
33. July 6,
Associated Press – (North Carolina) Damaged communications tower down in
Smithfield. A 180-foot communications tower damaged by wind in Smithfield,
North Carolina, was dismantled and about a dozen residents were allowed to
return home, the Associated Press reported July 6. A tower near the
intersections of U.S. Highways 70 and 301 was damaged by high winds July 5.
Authorities said a cable on the tower snapped, leaving the tower swaying when
firefighters arrived. The fire captain said crews dismantled the tower in
30-foot segments to get it safely on the ground early July 6. A fast food
restaurant was allowed to open early July 6, and the evacuated residents were
told it was safe to go home. Source: http://www.wbtv.com/story/18963344/damaged-communications-tower-down-in-smithfield
34. July 6,
Salem Today’s Sunbeam – (New Jersey) Thieves take advantage of
storm by stealing from victims in Salem County. Thieves took advantage of a
storm the weekend of June 30 by stealing from its victims in Salem County, New
Jersey, authorities said July 5. The storm swept through the county early June
30 ripping down trees and power lines and leaving thousands without power.
According to police, two large, industrial-size generators were stolen from a
Comcast location July 1. The same day, police received reports that some people
were involved in trying to steal downed utility cable. According to police, the
individuals were supposedly cutting the downed wire and coiling it up, apparently
hoping to sell it for scrap. Police added that it was dangerous because wires
could still be live. Source: http://www.nj.com/sunbeam-news/index.ssf/2012/07/thieves_take_advantage_of_stor.html
For more stories, see
items 25, 26, 30, and 32 above in the Information Technology Sector