Friday, April 3, 2015



Complete DHS Report for  April 3, 2015

Daily Report

Top Stories

 · North Carolina Department of Transportation officials announced April 1 that Internet services were restored at DMV offices across the State after a cut in a fiber optic cable caused an outage for roughly 5 hours. – Charlotte Observer

16. April 1, Charlotte Observer – (North Carolina) DMV services restored in NC after fiber optic cable cut. North Carolina Department of Transportation officials announced April 1 that Internet services were restored at DMV offices across the State after a cut in a fiber optic cable caused services to go down for roughly 5 hours. Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article17101172.html

 · The governor of California issued an executive order April 1 enforcing a 25 percent reduction on the State’s 400 local water supply agencies after claiming that the State’s 4-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions. – New York Times

26. April 1, New York Times – (California) California imposes first mandatory water restrictions to deal with drought. The governor of California issued an executive order April 1 enforcing a 25 percent reduction on the State’s 400 local water supply agencies after claiming that the State’s 4-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions. The order will impose varying degrees of cutbacks for homeowners, businesses, farms, and others, while water companies will be required to create restrictions to cut back on water use and monitor for compliance. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/california-imposes-first-ever-water-restrictions-to-deal-with-drought.html

 · Eleven out of 12 educators in Atlanta were found guilty April 1 in connection to conspiring to cheat in order to boost test scores on the Atlanta Public Schools Criterion-Referenced Competency Test for financial gain. – WGCL 46 Atlanta

29. April 2, WGCL 46 Atlanta – (Georgia) 11 of 12 found guilty in APS cheating trial. Eleven out of 12 educators in Atlanta were found guilty April 1 in connection to conspiring to cheat or concealing cheating in order to boost test scores on the Atlanta Public Schools Criterion-Referenced Competency Test for financial gain. A total of 35 educators were charged in March 2013 following a 2009 investigation that revealed system-wide cheating on the tests. Source: http://www.cbs46.com/story/28622132/aps-educators-wait-for-fate

 · A former Miami police lieutenant pleaded guilty in New Jersey March 31 to receiving over $160,000 in cash and material goods for aiding a gang by purchasing and transporting firearms, drugs, and drug cash on commercial flights. – Newark Star-Ledger

32. April 1, Newark Star-Ledger – (International) Miami drug cop went rogue to aid N.J. trafficking ring, feds say. A former Miami police lieutenant pleaded guilty in New Jersey March 31 to receiving over $160,000 in cash and material goods for aiding a gang by purchasing and transporting firearms, drugs, and drug cash on commercial flights to and from New Jersey, New York, Miami, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic using his position as a police lieutenant to easily transport the items. Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/miami_drug_cop_went_rogue_to_aid_nj_trafficking_ri.html

Financial Services Sector

8. April 1, South Florida Sun-Sentinel – (Florida) Broward man committed securities fraud linked to Ponzi scheme, jury finds. A Broward man was found guilty of securities fraud April 1 for his role in a scheme in which he raised more than $157 million from at least 150 investors through 2 private investment funds, and purchased non-existent, legal settlements from a Fort Lauderdale attorney that was convicted of running a $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme. Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-rothstein-ponzi-george-levin-brf-20150401-story.html

9. April 1, WLS 7 Chicago – (Illinois) ‘Black Cap Bandit’ sought in 5 bank robberies, FBI says. The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to the capture of a suspect dubbed the Black Cap Bandit who is believed to be connected to 5 robberies at TCF Bank and Standard Bank branches in the Chicago area from September – December 2014. Source: http://abc7chicago.com/news/fbi-black-cap-bandit-sought-in-5-bank-robberies/604249/

10. April 1, Reuters – (New York) N.Y. lawyer charged for alleged role in scheme over Maxim magazine. A former New York lawyer at Bryan Cave LLP was charged April 1 for his alleged role in a conspiracy with a former United Parcel Service Inc. executive’s son that defrauded investors out of more than $8 million and attempted to secure another $20 million to finance the purchase of Maxim magazine by making misrepresentations to various lenders. The former executive’s son pleaded guilty to related charges in November 2014. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/us-usa-maxim-crime-idUSKBN0MS56Y20150401

11. April 1, Five Towns Patch – (New York) Customs: $730K in fake checks, money orders smuggled into JFK. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport seized 516 counterfeit bank and money orders totaling $732,585 in a shipment from the Ivory Coast over the weekend of March 28. The officers deemed the documents fake after noticing that they lacked the necessary security features found in legitimate monetary instruments. Source: http://patch.com/new-york/fivetowns/customs-730k-fake-checks-money-orders-smuggled-jfk

Information Technology Sector

33. April 2, Help Net Security – (International) Google decides to stop trusting CNNIC certificates. Google security engineers announced that the company would no longer allow its Chrome Web browser to recognize digital certificates issued by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), following an incident during the week of March 23 in which an intermediate certificate authority (CA) operating under CNNIC issued a number of unauthorized digital certificates for Google domains. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=18164

34. April 2, Securityweek – (International) Researchers spot 64-bit version of NewPosThings trojan. Security researchers at Trend Micro identified a new 64-bit version of the NewPosThings point-of-sale (PoS) malware that infects systems by collecting passwords for virtual network computing (VNC) software and disabling operating system security warnings for certain file extensions, and collects user inputs and payment card information via memory scraping. Experts discovered command and control (C&C) servers used by the trojan associated with internet protocol (IP) addresses at two U.S. airports. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/researchers-spot-64-bit-version-newposthings-trojan

35. April 1, Threatpost – (International) Critical vulnerabilities affect JSON Web Token libraries. A Canadian security researcher discovered vulnerabilities in several JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Web Token (JWT) libraries that could allow attackers to bypass verification steps and access servers by exploiting a public key confusion between systems signed with keyed-hash message authentication codes (HMAC) and Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) keys. The issue can be addressed by configuring servers to reject tokens with different signatures via a whitelisting or blacklisting mechanism. Source: http://threatpost.com/critical-vulnerabilities-affect-json-web-token-libraries/111943

Communications Sector

Nothing to report