Thursday, December 29, 2016



Complete DHS Report for December 29, 2016

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• An operator at PDC Capital Group, LLC was charged December 27 after he allegedly used the firm to defraud investors in China into investing $72 million in EB-5 projects. – U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission See item 3 below in the Financial Services Sector

• Port Huron, Michigan officials reported that approximately 5,000 gallons of combined wastewater overflowed into the Black River December 26. – Port Huron Times Herald

11. December 28, Port Huron Times Herald – (Michigan) Wastewater discharges into Black River. The Port Huron Wastewater Treatment Plant in Michigan reported that approximately 5,000 gallons of combined wastewater, including roughly 500 gallons of sanitary wastewater, overflowed into the Black River by Riverside Drive at McPherson Street December 26. Source: http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/port-huron/2016/12/28/wastewater-discharges-into-black-river/95907174/

• Officials announced December 27 that the personal information of 15,000 people may have been compromised after a former patient at the New Hampshire Hospital in Concord accessed the information and posted it on the Internet in October 2015. – Associated Press

12. December 27, Associated Press – (New Hampshire) New Hampshire psychiatric patient accused of data breach. The commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced December 27 that the personal information of 15,000 people who have received department services may have been compromised after a former patient at the New Hampshire Hospital in Concord accessed the information using a computer in the facility’s library and posted it on the Internet in October 2015. There is no evidence that the data was misused or that banking information was accessed during the breach. Source: http://www.dailyprogress.com/new-hampshire-psychiatric-patient-accused-of-data-breach/article_8b048ffe-abd5-5d6e-8854-d874962d9125.html

• The former treasurer of Ballard County, Kentucky, pleaded guilty December 27 for her role in a scheme where she obtained roughly $450,000 in bank loans without authorization from the county’s Fiscal Court. – Glasgow Daily Times

13. December 28, Glasgow Daily Times – (Kentucky) Former Ballard County treasurer guilty of bank and wire fraud. The former treasurer of Ballard County, Kentucky, pleaded guilty December 27 for her role in a scheme where she obtained roughly $450,000 in bank loans using a $500,000 Ballard County Certificate of Deposit as collateral without authorization from the county’s Fiscal Court and deceived the court about the loans by failing to report the loans and concealing the loan’s proceeds. The former treasurer also routinely wrote checks to herself for fraudulent medical reimbursement payments that totaled more than $27,000.
Source: http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/community/former-ballard-county-treasurer-guilty-of-bank-and-wire-fraud/article_c22bff08-5be4-5935-88c9-e52e022f1031.html

Financial Services Sector

3. December 27, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – (International) SEC charges lawyer with stealing investor money in EB-5 offerings. A California-based attorney and operator of marketing firm PDC Capital Group, LLC was charged December 27 after he allegedly used PDC Capital to defraud investors in China into investing $72 million in several EB-5 immigrant investor program projects, which included opening Caffe Primo restaurants, and developing assisted living facilities, among other projects, and then outright stole at least $9.6 million to fund his own businesses and personal expenses despite his supposed awareness that his actions would violate Federal regulations and jeopardize the visas of the foreign investors.Source: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-281.html

For another story, see item 13 above in Top Stories

Information Technology Sector

16. December 27, SecurityWeek – (International) IBM reports significant increase in ICS attacks. IBM Managed Security Services reported that the number of attacks targeting industrial control systems (ICS) increased by 110 percent in 2016 compared to 2015 due to brute force attacks on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. IBM stated that the U.S. was both the top destination and top source of ICS attacks observed since the beginning of 2016, with nearly 90 percent of ICS attacks targeting the U.S. and 60 percent coming from the U.S.

Communications Sector

17. December 28, SecurityWeek – (International) “Switcher” Android trojan hacks routers, hijacks traffic. Kaspersky Lab researchers discovered an Android trojan, dubbed Switcher is concealed as an Android client for the Chinese search engine, Baidu, and a Chinese app for sharing Wi-Fi network details, and once installed, guesses the username and password of the router that the infected Android device is connected to in order to hack the router and replace the device’s primary and secondary Domain Name System (DNS) servers with Internet Protocol (IP) addresses leading to rogue DNS servers in order to redirect traffic to a malicious Website. The researchers warned that Switcher targets the entire network and exposes all users to a variety of secondary attacks.