Complete DHS Report for
December 28, 2015
Daily Report
Top Stories
• The owners of Good Neighbor Services Corp., were indicted
December 21 for their alleged involvement in a $7 million insurance fraud and
tax evasion scheme that hid the existence of at least 800 hotel workers in
California. – San Diego Union-Tribune See item 5 below in the Financial Services Sector
• Oregon officials closed a portion of Highway 42 December
23 for at least a week due to a potential landslide that could spill over the
highway. – Roseburg News-Review
7. December
23, Roseburg News-Review – (Oregon) Landslide closes Highway 42 ‘for
a long time,’ says ODOT. The Oregon Department of Transportation closed
Highway 42 at the Coos-Douglas county line December 23 until further notice due
to debris from steep hills that may spill over the highway following heavy
rainstorms which caused land destabilization. Official reported that the
highway could be closed for at least a week.
• A December 23 fire at the Rockcastle County jail in
Kentucky sent 13 inmates and 2 guards to an area hospital and caused the
temporary displacement of about 90 other inmates. – WKYT 27 Lexington
17. December
23, WKYT 27 Lexington – (Kentucky) Fire inside Rockcastle Co., Ky.
jail leads to evacuations, hospitalizations. A December 23 fire at the Rockcastle
County jail in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky, sent 13 inmates and 2 guards to an area
hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and caused the temporary
displacement of about 90 other inmates after the fire began following an
argument about a television in a jail cell. The jail is closed for repairs
until further notice due to extensive smoke and water damage. Source: http://www.local8now.com/news/headlines/Fire-inside-Rockcastle-Co-jail-leads-to-evacuations-hospitalizations-363421651.html
• A Bahamian man was charged December 22 for allegedly
hacking into the email accounts of individuals working in the entertainment and
professional sports industries to steal industry and personal information. – SecurityWeek
See item 19 below in the Information Technology Sector
Financial Services Sector
3. December
23, Philadelphia Business Journal – (National) Local bank pays
$4.3M to settle charges of ‘unfair and deceptive practices.’ The U.S. Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation announced December 23 that The Bankcorp, Inc.,
will pay $4.3 million in fines and restitution to settle alleged violations of
the Federal Trade Commission Act after authorities found that the bank failed
to protect consumers against account errors, failed to provide promised rewards
from a debit-card program, and charged deceptive fees on a prepaid card. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2015/12/23/bancorp-ftc-settlement-million-unfair-banking.html
4. December
23, Shelby County Reporter – (Alabama) Pelham
man arrested in connection to $1 million tax fraud scheme. The Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) announced December 23 that a Birmingham employee was
arrested and charged in connection to an alleged stolen identity tax-refund
scheme that netted over $1 million in false claims. Three other co-conspirators
were arrested for their alleged roles in the scheme which involved stealing
personal identity information from the IRS to create fraudulent tax returns and
collecting the stolen refunds. Source: http://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2015/12/23/pelham-man-arrested-in-connection-to-1-million-tax-fraud-scheme/
5. December
21, San Diego Union-Tribune – (California) Company owners
indicted in $7M hotel-worker fraud case. The owners of Irvine-based Good
Neighbor Services Corp., were indicted December 21 for their alleged
involvement in a $7 million insurance fraud and tax evasion scheme that
reportedly hid the existence of at least 800 hotel workers in California in
order to avoid paying over $3.6 million in workers’ compensation insurance
rates and over $3.3 million in payroll taxes. The owners, along with 6
accomplices used 12 shell companies to misrepresent the number of employees and
the size of payroll in order to defraud insurance providers and the State. Source: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/21/janitor-services-fraud-indictment/
For additional stories, see
item 20 below in the Information Technology
Sector and 21 below from the Commercial Facilities Sector
21. December
24, SecurityWeek – (International) Hyatt Hotels finds malware on payment
systems. Hyatt Hotels Corporation reported December 23 that an investigation
is ongoing into a potential breach of its payment processing systems following
the discovery of malware on its systems. The company has taken additional steps
to strengthen security measures and advised its customers to monitor their
payment card statements for any suspicious activity.
Information Technology Sector
18. December
23, SecurityWeek – (International) Threat group uses new malware to target
Russian organizations. Palo Alto Networks reported that a new threat group,
similar to Roaming Tiger operation, has been using a new malware tool dubbed
“BBSRAT” to infect devices by using the same command and control (C&C)
domains, but deploying different malware variants and separate infrastructure
for each of the targeted entities via droppers and downloaders, which creates
registry entries for persistence. Once installed on a system, the malware
collects data from the infected device and sends it back to a remote server via
POST request, allowing attackers to send commands to uninstall or kill the
malware, execute a shellcode, start or stop a service, manipulate processes,
and execute commands, among other actions. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/threat-group-uses-new-malware-target-russian-organizations
19. December
23, SecurityWeek – (International) Man charged for hacking celebrity emails. The
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York reported December
22 that a man from the Bahamas was charged for allegedly hacking into the email
accounts of 130 individuals working in the entertainment, media, and
professional sports industries to steal private files including movie and TV
scripts, Social Security numbers, and passport copies via malware and phishing
campaigns. The suspect was arrested December 21 after attempting to sell 15
scripts and the personal information of 3 professional athletes and 1 actress
for $80,000. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/man-charged-hacking-celebrity-emails
20. December
23, SecurityWeek – (International) Ramnit botnet returns. Researchers from
IBM Security discovered a new botnet and a new variant of the Ramnit trojan
that uses a different command and control (C&C) structure, relies on
shorter configuration files, and uses web injections leveraged by other trojans
including Dridex, Shifu, and Neverquest to infect banking Web sites from a
remote server. The malware is distributed via malvertising campaigns that rely
on the Angler exploit kit (EK), but researchers reported that the malware could
also be distributed through other infection vectors. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/ramnit-botnet-returns
For another story, see item 21 above in the Financial Services Sector
Communications Sector
Nothing to report
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