Daily Report Friday, December 8, 2006

Daily Highlights


The Departments of Homeland Security and Energy have announced the first phase of the Secure Freight Initiative, an unprecedented effort to build upon existing port security measures by enhancing the federal government’s ability to scan containers for nuclear and radiological materials overseas and to better assess the risk of inbound containers. (See item 16)
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The New York Times reports green onions have been identified as the source of E. coli cases in Taco Bell restaurants, and government investigators have began an intensive search to identify the exact origin of the contamination. (See item 21)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

32. December 07, eWeek — DoCoMo to recall 1.3 million Sanyo cell phone batteries. NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's top mobile phone operator, said on Thursday, December 7, it would recall 1.3 million cell phone batteries made by Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. because they may overheat and rupture. The recall comes as the latest blow to Sanyo, which warned last month that it would fall into the red for the third straight year in 2006/07 amid weak sales of digital cameras and mobile phones. Sanyo is the world's largest maker of lithium−ion batteries.
Source:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2069683,00.asp

33. December 07, IDG News Service — StopBadware names MP3 site worst of the bad applications. Two consumer protection groups are asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate FastMP3Search.com.ar, a Website that distributes software that can be used to search for digital music on the Web. The FastMP3Search plugin disables the Windows Firewall, installs adware and Trojan horse programs, and generally hobbles the user's PC, said John Palfrey, the Harvard Law School professor who is StopBadware.org's co−director. The software is also virtually impossible to remove once installed, he added.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/07/HNworstofthebad_1. html

34. December 07, Associated Press — Three convicted in Microsoft software scam. Three people accused of scamming Microsoft Corp. by buying sharply discounted software intended for educational institutions and reselling it to nonacademic customers were convicted on conspiracy and fraud charges. Federal prosecutors Wednesday, December 6, said the trio illegally bought and resold more than $29 million worth of Microsoft software between 1997 and 2001. They allegedly formed front companies and bought existing corporations to take advantage of a program offering reduced prices on software if it's resold to academic institutions. Microsoft said it lost more than $60 million as a result of the scam. Two of the three defendants were also convicted on money laundering charges for using the proceeds to buy property under the name of their son and wiring more than $300,000 to Pakistan.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_hi_te/scamming_mic rosoft