Complete DHS Report for March 23, 2016
Daily Report
Top Stories
• Golden Valley Electric Association announced March 21 that its
Healy Unit 2 coal plant in Alaska will be closed for at least 4 – 6 months
following the plant’s shut down March 3. – Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
1. March 21,
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – (Alaska) Explosion will keep GVEA’s Healy
Unit 2 coal plant offline for several months. Golden Valley Electric
Association announced March 21 that its Healy Unit 2 coal plant in Alaska will
be closed for at least 4 – 6 months following the plant’s shut down March 3
when a fire in the coal feed system damaged a fan that transports pulverized
coal dust, causing an explosion. An investigation into the cause of the fire
will be completed during the plant’s closure. Source: http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/explosion-will-keep-gvea-s-healy-unit-coal-plant-offline/article_fe874caa-efd3-11e5-96e2-5f8c092158a9.html
• A dual citizen of Turkey and Iran was arrested and charged March
19 for his alleged role in a scheme to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions by
conducting hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of transactions on behalf of
the Iranian government and businesses. – U.S. Department of Justice See item 7 below in
the Financial Services Sector
• Google released an emergency security patch addressing an
elevation of privilege vulnerability that affects all Android devices running
kernel versions 3.4, 3.10, and 3.14. – SecurityWeek See item 16 below in
the Information Technology Sector
• Walt Disney World Park officials reported March 21 that a fire
at its Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida caused all remaining performances
to be cancelled and prompted 1,000 customers to evacuate the theater. – Fox
News
18. March 22,
Fox News – (Florida) Fire disrupts Disney’s Lion King show at Animal
Kingdom. Walt Disney World Park officials reported March 21 that a fire at
its Animal Kingdom theme park caused all remaining performances to be cancelled
and prompted 1,000 of its customers to evacuate the theater after the blaze
began during its “Festival of the Lion King” live-action show. The cause of the
fire is under investigation. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2016/03/22/fire-disrupts-disneys-lion-king-show-at-animal-kingdom/
Financial Services Sector
6. March 21,
U.S. Department of Justice – (Florida) Miami man pleads guilty to
multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud commercial lenders and U.S. Export-Import
Bank. Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Export-Import
Bank of the U.S. (EXIM) announced March 21 that a Miami man pleaded guilty for
his role in a scheme to defraud 2 commercial lenders and EXIM out of more than
$11 million after he and co-conspirators utilized companies they controlled to
create fictitious invoices for the sale of merchandise, factored the invoices
to 2 Miami-area lenders, transferred the funds they received through multiple
bank accounts under their control, and used the proceeds to pay off prior
factored invoices from 2007 – 2012. Officials stated that the man extended the
scheme by creating false invoices and shipping documents to obtain a loan
guaranteed by EXIM, and later defaulted on the loan, causing a $2 million loss
to the U.S.
7. March 21,
U.S. Department of Justice – (International) Turkish national arrested
for conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, money laundering and bank
fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice announced March 21 that a dual
citizen of Turkey and Iran was arrested March 19 and indicted on Federal
charges for his alleged role in an international scheme to circumvent U.S.
economic sanctions by conducting hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of
transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and Iranian businesses,
laundering the proceeds, and concealing the true nature of the illicit
transactions through a network of companies located in Iran and Turkey, and
elsewhere from U.S. banks and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control between 2010 – 2015. Two other Iranian citizens included
in the indictment remain at large for their alleged involvement in the scheme. Source:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/turkish-national-arrested-conspiring-evade-us-sanctions-against-iran-money-laundering-and
Information Technology Sector
16. March 21,
SecurityWeek – (International) Google issues emergency patch for critical
Android rooting exploit. Google released an emergency security patch
addressing an elevation of privilege vulnerability that affects all Android
devices running kernel versions 3.4, 3.10, and 3.14, which could allow local
malicious applications to execute arbitrary code in the kernel by rooting
applications that were previously installed by customers. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/google-issues-emergency-patch-critical-android-rooting-exploit
17. March 21,
Softpedia – (International) “Surprise” ransomware uses TeamViewer to
infect victims. A new ransomware dubbed Surprise was discovered to be
infecting users’ personal computers (PCs) by using poorly secured TeamViewer
installations and encrypting victim’s files via an AES-256 algorithm, using an
RSA-2048 to secure each file’s encryption keys with a master’s key, and
uploading the file to the command and control (C&C) server. Once an
attacker encrypts a target’s file, a “.surprise” extension is added to all
files and the victims are given a ransom note. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/surprise-ransomware-uses-teamviewer-to-infect-victims-502006.shtml
Communications Sector
Nothing to report