Wednesday, March 16, 2016



Complete DHS Report for March 16, 2016

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• Temple city officials reported that Lions Park in Temple, Texas, was closed March 14 after approximately 300,000 gallons of wastewater overflowed as a result of heavy rainfall the week of March 7. – Temple Daily Telegram

8. March 15, Temple Daily Telegram – (Texas) 230,000 gallons of wastewater shut down Lions Park. Temple city officials reported that Lions Park in Temple, Texas, was closed March 14 after approximately 300,000 gallons of waste water overflowed as a result of heavy rainfall the week of March 7. Clean-up crews were working to clean up the overflow.

• Officials announced the week of March 7 that a former employee at Reliable Medical Supply in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was charged with stealing nearly $1.1 million from the company from 2011 – 2015. – Minneapolis Star Tribune

10. March 14, Minneapolis Star Tribune – (Minnesota) Charges: Twin Cities medical supplier’s ‘trusted employee’ skimmed $1M. Officials announced the week of March 7 that a former employee at Reliable Medical Supply in Brooklyn Park was charged in Hennepin County District Court for stealing nearly $1.1 million from the company by reportedly forging checks to herself from the company’s business account from 2011 – 2015. Source: http://www.startribune.com/charges-twin-cities-medical-supplier-s-trusted-employee-skimmed-1m-plus/371975901/

• A spokesperson for the U.S. Army Material Command stated March 14 that the U.S. Army spent about $145,000 on a new crime reporting app, iWatch Army, for use at 17 U.S. bases to boost anti-terrorism and anti-crime efforts. – Reuters

12. March 14, Reuters – (National) New app aims to thwart crime, attacks at U.S. military bases. A spokesperson for the U.S. Army Material Command stated March 14 that the U.S. Army spent about $145,000 on a new crime reporting app, iWatch Army, for use at 17 U.S. bases, which was created to boost its anti-terrorism and anti-crime efforts. The app remains under evaluation by the U.S. Army. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-closewatch-idUSKCN0WG1GJ

• Yahoo! released patches fixing an email spoofing vulnerability after a security researcher discovered that Yahoo! Mail’s Basic interface allowed attackers to send malicious emails by changing Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests sent to the server and changing the “from address” associated with each new email. – Softpedia See item 17 below in the Information Technology Sector

Financial Services Sector

2. March 14, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – (National) AIG affiliates charged with mutual fund shares conflicts. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced March 14 that 3 American International Group, Inc., (AIG) affiliates, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, and FSC Securities Corporation agreed to pay more than $9.5 million to settle charges that the firms placed mutual fund clients in more expensive share classes in order to collect approximately $2 million in extra fees without disclosing to clients the option to buy shares without additional charges. The firms additionally failed to monitor advisory accounts on a quarterly basis, and failed to implement compliance policies and procedures that ensured advisory service fees and trading costs remained in the best interest of clients. Source: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-52.html

3. March 14, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey – (International) CEO of microcap company charged with securities fraud for falsely claiming millions in revenue from contracts with Nigeria and other foreign countries. Federal authorities in San Francisco announced charges against the chief executive officer (CEO) of RVPlus Inc., March 14 after he was arrested in San Francisco March 13 for allegedly filing false reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and creating misleading press releases and blog posts which falsely certified that RVPlus Inc., had entered into contracts with Nigeria, Haiti, and Liberia worth more than $1.9 billion, and held more than $26 million in short-term accounts receivables from the agreements. The CEO also falsely claimed that his not-for-profit, ECCO2 Corp., was an affiliate organization of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and could receive over $100 billion in financial aid to fund the organization’s projects. Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/ceo-microcap-company-charged-securities-fraud-falsely-claiming-millions-revenue-contracts

Information Technology Sector

16. March 15, Softpedia – (International) Recent wave of malware uses macro-enabled Word documents and Windows PowerShell. Security researchers from Palo Alto Networks discovered that attackers were using a new tactic to distribute malicious malware by combining spam campaigns, malicious Word documents, and Window’s PowerShell code. Researchers reported that the macro code, embedded within each malicious Word document, starts a hidden instance of Windows PowerShell to download malicious scripts.

17. March 15, Softpedia – (International) Yahoo fixes ridiculously simple email address spoofing bug. Yahoo! released patches fixing an email spoofing vulnerability after a security researcher from Vulnerability Lab discovered Yahoo! Mail’s Basic interface, also named Classic Mode, allowed attackers to send malicious emails by changing Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests sent to the server and changing the “from address” associated with each new email. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/yahoo-fixes-ridiculously-simple-email-address-spoofing-bug-501750.shtml 

18. March 14, SecurityWeek – (International) Code.org flaw exposes volunteer email addresses. An official from Code.org, a non-profit organization that helps teach computer science, reported that the email addresses of its volunteers were allegedly compromised after a vulnerability was found on its Web site that allowed an unauthorized recruiting firm to obtain private email addresses. The company patched the flaw, stating that its servers were not vulnerable and the details of its 10 million teachers and students were not exposed. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/codeorg-flaw-exposes-volunteer-email-addresses

19. March 14, Softpedia – (International) Vulnerability in torrent portal software exposes user private information. An anonymous security researcher reported that the SceneAccess Web site, a private torrent portal, was susceptible to a security flaw in the built-in BBcodes (Bulletin Board Code) that allowed attackers to expose details pertaining to the Web sites’ users including exposing clients’ Internet Protocol (IP) addresses by nesting the BBcode inside an image Universal Resource Language (URL), and sending users the malicious image via open forum threads or private messages.

For another story, see item 12 above in Top Stories

Communications Sector


20. March 13, SecurityWeek – (International) Hackers pillage DDoS protection firm Staminus. The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection firm, Staminus reported March 10 that its database was compromised for several hours and exposed more than 15 gigabyte of data including customers’ login credentials, customers’ credit card numbers, and server log data, among other information due to low security protocol such as using one root passwords for all its routers. Staminus patched the issue March 11 after the incident spanned across multiple routers.