Wednesday, January 4, 2017



Complete DHS Report for January 4, 2017

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• More than 80,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi lost power January 2 after severe storms moved across the southeastern U.S. – Associated Press  

1. January 2, Associated Press – (National) Officials: Storms kill 4 in southern Alabama. More than 80,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi lost power January 2 after severe storms moved across the southeastern U.S. The storms killed four people in Alabama and damaged structures in several States. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-storm-system-damages-wal-mart-louisiana-44517089

• The former senior vice president of a Maryland-based bank was indicted December 31 after she allegedly embezzled more than $1.8 million from 6 customers’ bank accounts from April 2010 – July 2016. – Perry Hall Patch See item 2 below in the Financial Services Sector

• The owner and operator of El Cajon, California-based Cunningham’s Tax Service pleaded guilty December 30 to preparing false individual income tax returns for her clients, causing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service more than $1.2 million in losses. – U.S. Department of Justice See item 3 below in the Financial Services Sector

• More than 450,000 gallons of sewer water spilled into waterways throughout Mobile County, Alabama, January 1 due to heavy rains. – WKRG 5 Mobile

11. January 2, WKRG 5 Mobile – (Alabama) Roughly half million gallons of sewage spills into Mobile waterways; more expected. More than 450,000 gallons of sewer water spilled into waterways throughout Mobile County, Alabama, January 1 due to heavy rains.

Financial Services Sector

2. December 31, Perry Hall Patch – (Maryland) Nottingham woman indicted on embezzlement, fraud charges. The former senior vice president of a Maryland-based bank was indicted December 31 after she allegedly embezzled more than $1.8 million from 6 customers’ bank accounts from April 2010 – July 2016 by making unauthorized transfers and withdrawals from the accounts in order to pay for personal expenses. The charges allege that the executive abused her position at the bank to override notifications of the suspicious transactions. Source: http://patch.com/maryland/perryhall/nottingham-woman-indicted-embezzlement-fraud-charges

3. December 30, U.S. Department of Justice – (California) California tax return preparer pleads guilty to preparing false tax returns. The owner and operator of El Cajon, California-based Cunningham’s Tax Service pleaded guilty December 30 to preparing false individual income tax returns for her clients for tax years 2008 – 2010 which included fraudulent medical and dental expenses, education credits, and false charitable deductions, causing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service more than $1.2 million in losses. Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/california-tax-return-preparer-pleads-guilty-preparing-false-tax-returns

Information Technology Sector

17. January 3, SecurityWeek – (International) Libpng patches flaw introduced in 1995. The developers of the Slackware Linux distribution released updates for the libpng official Portable Network Graphics (PNG) reference library resolving a null pointer dereference vulnerability impacting PNG image editors that could be exploited to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.

Communications Sector

Nothing to report