· New York prosecutors
August 11 charged 12 companies and their Chattanooga, Tennessee-based owner for
allegedly enabling payday loans that violated the State’s limits on interest
rates, with one company receiving around $50 million from New York residents. –
New York Times See item 2 below in the Financial Services Sector
· Police
in Irving, Texas, arrested a man believed to be the “Short Stack Bandit”, a
suspect in at least 11 bank robberies in the Portland, Oregon area. – KPTV
12 Portland See item 3 below in the Financial Services Sector
· Police
are searching for suspects that attempted to detonate a pipe bomb outside
Mrachek Middle School in Aurora, Colorado, prompting an evacuation and
cancellation of classes August 11. – KMGH 7 Denver
14.
August 11, KMGH 7 Denver – (Colorado) Mrachek
Middle School evacuated, then closed after failed pipe bomb found outside
school. Police are searching for suspects that attempted to detonate a pipe
bomb outside Mrachek Middle School in Aurora, Colorado, prompting an evacuation
and cancellation of classes August 11. Authorities determined the suspects
tried to light a fire in order to ignite the bomb, which ended up burning
itself out without further incident. Source: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/mrachek-middle-school-evacuated
· Additional
police officers were called in and tear gas was used to contain a riot that
broke out after a protest August 10 in Ferguson, Missouri, where individuals
blocked traffic, vandalized at least 20 police vehicles, and looted or burned
several stores. – Washington Post
25.
August 11, Washington Post –
(Missouri) Police killing prompts rioting, looting near St. Louis. At
least 60 additional police officers were called in and tear gas was used to
contain a riot that broke out after a protest August 10 in Ferguson, Missouri,
where individuals blocked traffic, vandalized at least 20 police vehicles, and
looted or burned stores, including a Walmart, a grocery store, and a QuikTrip
store. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/11/police-killing-prompts-rioting-looting-near-st-louis/
Financial Services Sector
2. August 11, New York Times – (International) New York prosecutors charge payday
loan firms with usury. New York prosecutors August 11 charged 12 companies
and their Chattanooga, Tennessee-based owner for allegedly enabling payday
loans that violated the State’s limits on interest rates, with one company
receiving around $50 million from New York residents. The defendant and two
associates allegedly attempted to bypass laws against the high interest rates
by incorporating companies in the West Indies or in States that the defendant
and his associates chose for their lesser oversight requirements. Source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/new-york-prosecutors-charge-payday-lenders-with-usury/
3. August 11, KPTV 12 Portland – (Texas; Oregon; Washington) FBI: Portland bank robber,
‘Short Stack Bandit,’ arrested in Texas. Police in Irving, Texas, arrested
a man believed to be the “Short Stack Bandit”, a suspect wanted in connection
to at least 11 bank robberies in the Portland, Oregon area since October 2013.
Source: http://www.kptv.com/story/26254050/fbi-portland-bank-robber-short-stack-bandit-arrested-in-texas
4. August 11, South Florida Sun
Sentinel – (Florida) Parkland investor
pleads guilty to role in $21 million fraud case. The former vice president
of Fort Lauderdale-based Commodities Online LLC pleaded guilty August 11 to his
role in a $21 million fraud scheme run through the company between January 2010
and April 2011. Two others were also charged in the scheme that defrauded
around 700 investors. Source: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-08-11/news/fl-parkland-investor-pleads-guilty-20140811_1_parkland-man-gallo-commodities
For another story, see item 16 below from the Government Facilities
Sector
16. August
11, Bloomberg News – (Kansas) SEC charges Kansas with not
disclosing pension risk to investors. Kansas put new disclosure policies in
place and agreed to settle a case brought forth by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission for failing to disclose a multi-billion-dollar pension
liability to bond investors. Investigators found that bond offering documents
did not adequately inform investors of pension liability. Source: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article1200109.html
Information Technology Sector
20. August 12, Softpedia – (International) Millions of computers have backdoor
enabled by default. Researchers from Kaspersky and Cubica Labs presenting at
the Black Hat conference demonstrated how the legitimate Computrace anti-theft
solution can be used by attackers performing a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack
to remotely execute arbitrary code on the target device due to the lack of
encryption in Computrace traffic. Most computers come with Computrace already
present, leaving millions of devices vulnerable to malicious use of the
solution. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Millions-of-Computers-Have-Backdoor-Enabled-by-Default-454666.shtml
21. August 12, Threatpost – (International) Authentication bypass bug fixed in
BlackBerry Z10. Modzero researchers identified and reported two methods for
remotely exploiting an authentication bypass vulnerability in BlackBerry Z10
phones that could allow attackers to install malware or steal personal data.
BlackBerry released an update that closes the vulnerability and pushed it out
to phone carriers. Source: http://threatpost.com/authentication-bypass-bug-fixed-in-blackberry-z10/107715
22. August 11, Softpedia – (International) Yahoo ad network used to spread
CryptoWall ransomware. A researcher at Blue Coat Systems identified a
malicious advertising campaign that uses the Yahoo advertisement network to
distribute malicious ads that direct users to malicious pages that attempt to
serve a variant of the Cryptowall ransomware. The researcher also reported that
the adsmail.us service was also used in the campaign. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Yahoo-Ad-Network-Used-to-Spread-CryptoWall-Ransomware-454520.shtml
Communications Sector
23.
August 12, KOKI 23 Tulsa – (Oklahoma) Cut
cable line impacts emergency services in Mayes County. Cable, cell phone,
landline, and Internet services were restored to more than 41,000 residents in
Mayes County nearly 4 hours after a contractor inadvertently cut a fiber optic
cable August 11. AT&T reported some customers in the Claremore and Pryor
areas may have also experienced issues with their U-Verse, wireless, and
wireline services. Source: http://www.fox23.com/news/news/local/cut-cable-line-leaves-thousands-mayes-county-witho/ngzk7/
For
another story, see item 21 above in the Information Technology
Sector