My apologies for not creating the post for Thursday until this morning. Today you will find both today's and yesterday's below.

This will be the last post until Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 due to the Christmas holiday.


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
Daily Report Friday, December 22, 2006

Daily Highlights

The Associated Press reports a man who told Kansas City International Airport security that the $70,000 in cash causing his pants pockets to bulge were Muslim "prayer books" could soon face charges of mortgage fraud. (See item 11)
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University of Kansas researchers say many water reservoirs across Kansas are shrinking, leading to taste and odor problems in drinking water for communities dependent upon them. (See item 24)
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The Federal Communications Commission wants to set aside radio frequencies for a nationwide radio system for various public safety agencies that would be based on advanced Internet Protocol broadband technologies and built in partnership with a private company. (See item 32)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

34. December 21, IDG News Service — Seagate buys backup services company. Hard drive maker Seagate Technology LLC will buy EVault Inc. for $185 million in an acquisition designed to bolster Seagate's managed services business, the company said on Thursday, December 21. EVault, based in Emeryville, CA, provides online network backup, recovery and data protection products for small.to.medium size businesses.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/21/Hnseagatebuysevaul t_1.html

35. December 21, VNUNet — Apple fixes QuickTime spyware flaw. The latest security patch for Mac OS X fixes a QuickTime vulnerability that could let attackers capture images from a user's screen and upload them to a remote site. Apple said that the vulnerability does not affect Windows users or versions of Mac OS prior to 10.4. The vulnerability is not related to the QuickTime flaw that spread through social networking site MySpace last week. The new flaw involves QuickTime for Java, a component that lets Java applets display QuickTime movies, and Quartz Composer, a software tool used to render images in Mac OS. According to Apple, an attacker could place JavaScript code on a Website that would use the QuickTime for Java component to obtain screen images and send them to a remote location, possibly allowing the attacker to obtain sensitive information displayed on the screen.
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2171378/mac.users.delivere d.quicktime

36. December 20, U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team — US.CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06.354A: Mozilla addresses multiple vulnerabilities. Mozilla has released new versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey to address several vulnerabilities. While the impacts of the individual vulnerabilities vary, the most severe could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. An attacker may also be able to cause a denial.of.service. Systems affected: Mozilla Firefox; Mozilla Thunderbird; Mozilla SeaMonkey; Netscape Browser. Other products based on Mozilla components may also be affected.
Solution: These vulnerabilities are addressed in Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.9, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1, Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.9, and SeaMonkey 1.0.7. Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey automatically check for updates by default. Support for Firefox 1.5 is scheduled to end in April 2007. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 2.
Firefox 1.5.0.9: http://www.mozilla.com/en.US/firefox/releases/1.5.0.9.html

Firefox 2.0.0.1: http://www.mozilla.com/en.US/firefox/
Daily Report Thursday, December 21, 2006

Daily Highlights

The Associated Press reports blizzard conditions across Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas are causing major travel difficulties, with United Airlines, the busiest carrier at Denver International Airport, canceling more than 630 flights. (See item 11)
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The Dayton Daily News reports the FBI has taken over the investigation of unaddressed letters containing a suspicious white powder that a number of residents in the Washington Township/Centerville, Ohio.area reported finding in their curbside mailboxes on Tuesday, December 19. (See item 16)
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San Angelo, Texas, is scrambling to meet water needs after a break on Friday, December 15, in a main water line that has caused shortages and closures; a boil water notice remains in effect until further notice. (See item 21)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

31. December 20, VNUNet — Ericsson acquires Redback for $2.1 billion. IP edge routing firm Redback Networks on Wednesday, December 20, announced that it has reached definitive agreement to be acquired by Ericsson for $2.1 billion. Redback will retain its management team after the acquisition and operate as a wholly.owned subsidiary of Ericsson.
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2171344/ericsson.snaps.red back.2bn

32. December 20, VNUNet — Experts downgrade Skype worm threat. Security firm Websense has downgraded a security threat to Internet telephony application Skype that it warned about earlier this week. Websense Security Labs reported on its blog on December 18, that there was a potential worm propagating via Skype. On closer inspection the firm has discovered that this is not a self.propagating worm at all and is actually a Trojan horse. Websense confirmed Wednesday, December 20, that the Websites that were used to download the Skype API code and the site that is used to download new copies of the Trojan were both down.
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2171323/experts.downgrade. skype.worm

33. December 19, IDG News Service
— Two hackers plan to disclose bugs in Apple's products. Apple Computer will soon be a member of the "month of bugs" club. On January 1, two security researchers will begin publishing details of a flood of security vulnerabilities in Apple's products. Their plan is to disclose one bug per day for the entire month, they said Tuesday, December 19. The project is being launched by an independent security researcher, Kevin Finisterre, and a hacker known as LMH, who declined to reveal his identity.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/19/HNapplebugs_1.html