Friday, April 17, 2015



Complete DHS Report forApril 17, 2015

Daily Report

Top Stories




 · HSBC Finance Corporation notified at least 1,000 mortgage account customers in New Hampshire, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Alabama, that their personal data had been inadvertently compromised in a breach discovered March 27.– Softpedia See item 5 below in the Financial Services Sector

 · Authorities reopened the Greenbelt Metro station and Green Line service between College Park and Greenbelt stations resumed April 16 after a 15-hour closure that resulted when a pedestrian bridge fell onto Metro and MARC train tracks in Prince George’s County, Maryland, April 15.– WTOP 103.5 FM Washington, D.C.

6. April 16, WTOP 103.5 FM Washington, D.C. – (Maryland) Bridge collapses onto Metro, MARC train tracks in Prince George’s Co. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Greenbelt Metro station reopened and Green Line service was restored between College Park and Greenbelt stations April 16 after being closed for approximately 15 hours while crews worked to make repairs after a pedestrian bridge fell onto Metro and Maryland Area Regional Commuter train tracks in Prince George’s County April 15. No injuries were reported. Source: http://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2015/04/bridge-collapses-onto-metro-marc-train-tracks-in-prince-georges-co/slide/1/

 · Two U.S. Army National Guard members were arrested in San Diego, California, April 15 for allegedly attempting to sell guns, body armor, and military ammunition to purported Mexican drug cartel members. – CNN

19. April 15, CNN – (International) Feds say National Guardsmen tried to sell guns, ammo to cartel. Two U.S. Army National Guard members were arrested in San Diego April 15 for allegedly attempting to sell guns, body armor, and military ammunition to purported Mexican drug cartel members. The Guardsmen were supposedly caught in a sting operation run by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after making more than a dozen sales of firearms and stolen military ammunition to informants working with the ATF. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/15/politics/national-guardsmen-sell-guns-ammo-cartels/index.html

 · An investigation into a January breach at the Metropolitan State University in Minnesota concluded the week of April 13 and found that a hacker likely exposed the personal information of up to 160,000 students. – Minneapolis Star-Tribune

20. April 15, Minneapolis Star-Tribune – (Minnesota) Computer hacker likely exposed data of 160,000 at Metropolitan State University. An investigation into a January breach at the St. Paul-based Metropolitan State University concluded the week of April 13 and found that a hacker broke into the university’s database and likely exposed the personal information of as many as 160,000 current, former, and potential students. The investigation also found that about 11,000 students had portions of their Social Security numbers accessed. Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/299858391.html

Financial Services Sector

4. April 15, KDKA 2 Pittsburgh – (Pennsylvania) FBI offering reward for info leading to capture of ‘North Hills Bandits’ bank robbery suspects. The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of 2 robbery suspects, dubbed the “North Hills Bandits,” who carried out armed robberies at 3 banks in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh since January. FBI agents reported that the suspects appeared to have former firearms training and used different vehicles in each robbery. Source: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/04/15/fbi-offering-reward-for-info-leading-to-capture-of-north-hills-bandit-bank-robbery-suspects/

5. April 15, Softpedia – (National) HSBC Finance Corporation exposes mortgage account info. HSBC Finance Corporation notified at least 1,000 mortgage account customers in States including New Hampshire, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Alabama, that the company inadvertently published names, Social Security numbers, account numbers, and other personal data in a breach that was discovered March 27. The data was immediately secured following the discovery, law enforcement was notified, and HSBC offered all impacted customers a free one-year subscription to Identity Guard services. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/HSBC-Finance-Corporation-Exposes-Mortgage-Account-Info-478445.shtml

Information Technology Sector

23. April 16, Softpedia – (International) Current threat prevention systems are not enough protection for enterprises. Findings from a recent study in automated breach detection carried out by security researchers at Seculert revealed that gateway solutions at participating Fortune 2000 enterprises only blocked 87 percent of communications from compromised devices within their networks. The report also found that about 2 percent of devices in organizations were compromised by malware while nearly 400,000 interactions that were generated went undetected, among other findings. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Current-Threat-Prevention-Systems-Are-Not-Enough-Protection-for-Enterprises-478567.shtml

24. April 16, Softpedia – (International) Company employees not sufficiently trained to avoid phishing, study finds. A survey commissioned by Intel Security of 700 respondents in businesses across multiple continents revealed that 38 percent of information technology and security professionals believe vulnerability to social engineering is a significant factor in the success of attacks and that threat actors’ use of multiple attack vectors, exploits, and payloads makes defending against attacks difficult, among other findings. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Company-Employees-Not-Sufficiently-Trained-to-Avoid-Phishing-Study-Finds-478564.shtml

25. April 16, Help Net Security – (International) TeslaCrypt ransomware pushed by several exploit kits. Security researchers discovered that threat actors are distributing a new ransomware called TeslaCrypt via the Angler, Sweet Orange, and Nuclear exploit kits (EKs), which encrypts the typical assortment of file types along with those related to video games and game-related software, and iTunes-related files. Users have been targeted via redirects to compromised WordPress Web sites and hosts running vulnerable out-of-date Adobe Flash plugins. Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=3019

26. April 15, IDG News Service – (International) AirDroid app fixes severe authentication vulnerability. AirDroid fixed a severe authentication software flaw in its Web interface affecting versions 3.0.4 and earlier, that could have allowed attackers to take over a device running the software by sending targets a malicious link over short message service (SMS) which exploit the app’s use of JavaScript Object Notation (JSONP) to request data from a server in a different domain. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2910753/airdroid-app-fixes-severe-authentication-vulnerability.html

Communications Sector

Nothing to report