Thursday, October 9, 2014



Complete DHS Report for October 9, 2014

Daily Report

Top Stories

 · A security researcher identified, and another researcher reported, that around 230 pages of sensitive customer information from bond insurer MBIA was available online and indexed by search engines due to a misconfigured server. – Softpedia See item 6 below in the Financial Services Sector

 · Researchers identified and analyzed a new piece of ATM malware known as Tyupkin that is installed on ATMs through a bootable CD and can allow attackers to withdraw currency without a card. – Softpedia See item 7 below in the Financial Services Sector

 · Hail-producing storms that moved across Arkansas October 7-8 damaged between 60 percent and 90 percent of cotton crops in the Monette and Black Oak areas. – KAIT 8 Jonesboro

16. October 8, KAIT 8 Jonesboro – (Arkansas) Crops damaged by overnight thunderstorms. Hail-producing storms that moved across Arkansas October 7-8 damaged between 60 percent and 90 percent of cotton crops in the Monette and Black Oak areas. Source: http://www.kait8.com/story/26727290/crops-damaged-by-overnight-thunderstorms

 · Federal authorities arrested and charged a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania podiatrist October 3 with allegedly defrauding Medicare out of nearly $300,000 by charging for procedures that were never performed. – Norristown Times Herald

23. October 6, Norristown Times Herald – (Pennsylvania) King of Prussia woman charged with health care fraud, identity theft. Federal authorities arrested and charged a King of Prussia podiatrist October 3 with allegedly defrauding Medicare out of nearly $300,000 by charging for procedures that were never performed at her Center City Philadelphia office. The podiatrist allegedly submitted claims to Medicare in excess of $480,000 between January 2009 and December 2013 using Current Procedural Terminology medical codes for fraudulent services. Source: http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20141006/king-of-prussia-woman-could-face-35-million-fine-if-convicted-of-health-care-fraud-identity-theft

Financial Services Sector

6. October 8, Softpedia – (International) Largest US bond insurer suffers major data leak. A security researcher with Seely Security identified, and another researcher reported, that around 230 pages of sensitive customer information from bond insurer MBIA was available online and indexed by search engines due to a misconfigured server. MBIA responded by taking the server offline that caused the exposure of customer account numbers, balances, dividends, and other information, including for accounts linked to government institutions. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Largest-US-Bond-Insurer-Suffers-Major-Data-Leak-461400.shtml

7. October 7, Softpedia – (International) Tyupkin is new ATM malware that allows cash extraction without card. Researchers with Kaspersky Lab identified and analyzed a new piece of ATM malware known as Tyupkin that is installed on ATMs through a bootable CD and can allow attackers to withdraw currency without a card. The malware includes several security features to prevent access and analysis and was mostly found in Eastern Europe as well as some cases in the U.S., Asia, and Western Europe. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Tyupkin-Is-New-ATM-Malware-That-Allows-Cash-Extraction-Without-Card-461309.shtml

8. October 7, San Francisco Bay Area News Group – (California) San Ramon bank executive pleads guilty to conspiracy. A former executive at failed San Francisco bank United Commercial Bank pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge October 7 for his role in deceiving investors, regulators, and depositors by altering documentation to downplay the bank’s losses. The bank received $297 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Program during the period while the former executive altered records, and the bank did not repay any of the funds before it collapsed. Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/san-ramon/ci_26683521/san-ramon-bank-executive-pleads-guilty-conspiracy

9. October 7, Birmingham News – (Alabama) Target fraud scheme: Plan to steal $500,000 in gift cards lands Brooklyn man in Alabama jail. A New York City man was arrested in Hoover for allegedly using more than 39 fraudulent Regions Bank payment cards to purchase $9,000 in gift cards at Target stores in Fultondale and Homewood. Regions Bank’s Card Monitoring Group detected the alleged fraudulent charges and alerted police, who stated that the cards could have been used to make over half a million dollars of fraudulent purchases. Source: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2014/10/missed_target_scheme_to_steal.html

10. October 7, KMVT 11 Twin Falls – (Idaho) Boise police arrest dozen people accused of using stolen credit accounts. Police in Boise arrested 12 individuals from Georgia October 6 for allegedly using fraudulent payment cards to purchase over $15,000 in gift cards. Police were alerted to the suspected fraud by local retailers and the payment cards appeared to be linked to recent security breaches from major corporations. Source: http://www.kmvt.com/news/latest/278450551.html

Information Technology Sector

28. October 8, Securityweek – (International) Google fixes 159 security bugs with release of Chrome 38. Google released the latest version of its Chrome browser for Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS, closing 159 security vulnerabilities. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/google-fixes-159-security-bugs-release-chrome-38

29. October 8, The Register – (International) Adobe spies on reading habits over unencrypted web because your ‘privacy is important.’ Adobe confirmed October 8 that its Digital Editions software collects information on users’ ebooks and sends it to Adobe servers as part of digital rights management (DRM) practices after a researcher reported finding the traffic being sent from Digital Editions. The company also confirmed that the information was sent in an unencrypted format and would be corrected, and stated that it was investigating the researcher’s claims that the program collected additional information on ebooks files stored on users’ systems. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/08/adobe_says_it_slurps_ebook_data_in_plain_text_because_privacy_is_important/

30. October 8, Securityweek – (International) SSDP reflection attacks spike in Q3: Arbor Networks. Arbor Networks released its report on distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks during the third quarter (Q3) of 2014 and found that Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) reflection attacks grew significantly during Q3, with almost 30,000 such attacks during the quarter, among other findings. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/ssdp-reflection-attacks-spike-q3-arbor-networks

31. October 7, Securityweek – (International) Siemens swats security bugs affecting PCS 7. Siemens released an update for its PCS 7 supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) product that addresses five issues with the WinCC product, including a hard coded encryption key and another issue that could lead to privilege escalation. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/siemens-swats-security-bugs-affecting-pcs-7

32. October 7, IDG News Service – (International) Belkin says router outages should be resolved. Belkin stated October 7 that it fixed an issue in some older wireless routers that caused the routers to experience problems around midnight October 7 when pinging a Belkin-hosted service in order to check network connectivity. Belkin advised users still experiencing issues to restart their routers. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2721154/wifi/belkin-says-router-outages-should-be-resolved.html

Communications Sector

33. October 7, Dallas Business Journal – (Texas) AT&T working to restore wireless, wireline service in DFW. AT&T technicians worked to restore wireline and wireless services for customers across the Dallas-Fort Worth area after a series of storms October 2 knocked out service. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/10/06/at-t-working-to-restore-wireless-wireline-service.html