Thursday, May 19, 2016



Complete DHS Report for May 19, 2016

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• General Motors issued a recall May 17 for 317,572 of its Chevrolet Sonic, Trax, and Spark vehicles equipped with a Bring Your Own Media (BYOM) radio due to a software glitch. – TheCarConnection.com

4. May 17, TheCarConnection.com – (National) 2013 – 2016 Chevrolet Sonic, Trax, 2013 – 2015 Chevrolet Spark recalled for software glitch. General Motors issued a recall May 17 for 317,572 of its model years 2013 – 2016 Chevrolet Sonic and Trax vehicles, and its model years 2013 – 2015 Chevrolet Spark vehicles equipped with a Bring Your Own Media (BYOM) radio sold in the U.S. due to a software glitch that prevents the radio from providing an audible warning when the driver waits 10 or more minutes to exit the vehicle after turning off the ignition and leaving the key in the cylinder, which can cause the driver to forget the key in the ignition, thereby making the vehicles more susceptible to theft. Source: http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1103991_2013-2016-chevrolet-sonic-trax-2013-2015-chevrolet-spark-recalled-for-software-glitch

• A Minnesota man pleaded guilty May 17 to running a $250 million Ponzi scheme across 7 States where he used his business, Minnesota Print Services Inc., to defraud investors by promising stakeholders discounts with major printing corporations if they paid him in cash. – Southern California City News Service See item 6 below in the Financial Services Sector

• Metro-North service resumed on an abbreviated schedule May 18 following a May 17 fire that began beneath elevated tracks near Manhattan’s East Harlem station, which halted service and left thousands of commuters stranded. – Associated Press

10. May 18, Associated Press – (New York) After fire, NYC rail passengers endure overcrowded commutes. Metro-North service resumed on an abbreviated schedule May 18 following a May 17 fire that began at a garden center underneath tracks near Manhattan’s East Harlem station, which halted service and left thousands of commuters stranded. More than 150 firefighters responded to the blaze that damaged a column located beneath elevated tracks and involved construction debris.

• A senior security researcher at enSilo reported that the malware, Furtim was seen evading antivirus detection due to the malware’s ability to search an infected machine for registry entries or service executable names of 400 security products. – SecurityWeek See item 21 below from the Information Technology Sector

Financial Services Sector

5. May 17, WNCT 9 Greenville – (North Carolina) Fraud alert: Card skimmers discovered at 4 Greenville First Citizens Bank ATM locations. Authorities are searching May 17 for the persons responsible for installing card skimmers at four different First Citizen Bank ATM locations in Greenville, North Carolina, after a bank employee discovered one of the malicious card readers during an ATM inspection. Police and First Citizen Bank staff were monitoring account activity for suspicious transactions. Source: http://wnct.com/2016/05/17/fraud-alert-card-skimmers-discovered-at-4-greenville-first-citizens-bank-atm-locations/

6. May 17, Southern California City News Service – (National) Guilty plea in multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. A Minnesota resident pleaded guilty May 17 to running a $250 million Ponzi scheme where the man used his business, Minnesota Print Services Inc., to defraud investors by claiming he had printing contracts with major corporations and needed cash upfront to receive discounts on purchasing paper, causing investors in 7 States up to $54 million in losses. Officials stated the man used the investors’ funds for personal expenses. Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Guilty-Plea-in-Multi-Million-Dollar-Ponzi-Scheme-379846151.html

7. May 17, WJW 8 Cleveland – (Ohio) ‘BDL’ bandit robs Warrensville Heights bank. FBI authorities are searching for a man dubbed the “BDL Bandit” who is suspected of robbing five banks including the First Merit Bank in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, May 17. Authorities stated the suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Source: http://fox8.com/2016/05/17/bdl-bandit-robs-warrensville-heights-bank/

8. May 16, KMSP 9 Minneapolis – (International) Minnesota woman pleads guilty to faking husband’s death for insurance money. A Minnesota woman pleaded guilty May 16 to defrauding Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company out of more than $2 million in life insurance proceeds by falsely claiming her ex-husband’s death after she identified the remains of a body in Moldova as her former husband. Officials stated the woman recruited a third party to open a U.S. bank account and transfered $1.5 million of the insurance proceeds to her son’s account, which was then transferred to bank accounts in Switzerland and Moldova from March 2012 – January 2015. Source: http://www.fox9.com/news/142050073-story

Information Technology Sector

20. May 18, SC Magazine – (International) Cisco patch blocks DoS vulnerability. Cisco released patches for its Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software after security researchers found attackers could alter a memory block, allowing the system to cease transferring traffic and cause a denial-of-service (DoS) situation. The flaw was reportedly linked to an issue in the installation of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) error handling for Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) packets. Source: http://www.scmagazine.com/cisco-patch-blocks-dos-vulnerability/article/497148/

21. May 18, SecurityWeek – (International) Windows malware tries to avoid 400 security products. A senior security researcher at enSilo reported that the malware, Furtim was seen avoiding security detection as the malware has the ability to search the infected machine for registry entries or service executable names of 400 security products, including rare security products, virtualization environments, and sandboxing products. Once the malware detects a security product, the malware terminates itself and leaves the computer unharmed, avoiding any type of detection.

22. May 17, Softpedia – (International) Researcher wins $5,000 for finding XSS bug on Google in most peculiar manner. A security researcher from ERNW found a “sleeping stored” cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Google’s Cloud Console product which could allow an attacker to create a project with a payload in its name and leave it on the dashboard, tricking an administrator into deleting the unknown project and triggering the exploit. Google was made aware of the exploit. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/researcher-wins-5-000-for-finding-xss-bug-on-google-in-most-peculiar-manner-504174.shtml

Communications Sector

Nothing to report