Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Complete DHS Daily Report for August 13, 2008
Daily Report
• The Associated Press reports that federal officials are investigating whether oxygen masks and an emergency chute deployed properly during last week’s emergency landing of an American Airlines jet at Los Angeles International Airport. (See item 18)
• According to eFluxMedia, possible contamination with E. coli prompted Nebraska Beef LTD to issue a recall of 1.2 million pounds of beef. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service confirmed the belief that beef products from the company are contaminated with E. coli. (See item 27)
Banking and Finance Sector
10. August 12, Midlands News Service – (National) Advance-fee loan scams often target businesses. The number of fraudulent loan scams targeting small-business owners has increased as more people seek alternative financing sources. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the national Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently issued warnings about advance-fee loan scams. Business owners have received unsolicited emails and phone calls from people promising to help secure financing in exchange for an up-front fee, said the president of the regional Better Business Bureau in Omaha. Some small-business owners have sought financing outside traditional banks and lending institutions because it is more difficult to get conventional loans, according to a BBB press release. Fewer small businesses are meeting the criteria to get commercial loans, but it is not because banks are changing their lending standards, said the chairman-elect of the Nebraska Bankers Association. Financial institutions are “able and willing” to make most types of commercial loans, with the exception of certain real estate loans, he said. The issue is not a lack of access to viable commercial loans. Current economic factors have negatively affected the creditworthiness of small businesses, which makes it more difficult for them to get a loan, the official said. The Internet has been a popular tool for some predators, according to the FDIC release. Scam artists have set up fake Web sites to lure potential borrowers, some using the logos of legitimate financial institutions and government agencies, according to the release. Source: http://www.nptelegraph.com/articles/2008/08/12/news/60000664.txt
11. August 12, Chicago Tribune – (National) 2 charged in multimillion fraud. The owners of the Chicago-based real estate investment firm, WexTrust Capital LLC, were arrested Monday on federal fraud charges, and U.S. regulators accused them of conducting a quarter-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme going back as far as 2005. Simultaneously, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged in a lawsuit that the two men had raised $255 million from about 1,200 people, many of them Orthodox Jews, and misappropriated the money. In affinity fraud, scammers target individuals with a common interest or belief, which may include a religious affiliation, to exploit their trust to obtain money. The SEC also won an order Monday freezing the company’s assets. WexTrust owns at least 120 entities formed to acquire real-estate interests, and it has conducted at least 60 private placements since 2005, according to the SEC. Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York, where many of the victims reside, allege the suspects raised money in private placements for real estate investments. In one deal they solicited investors to buy seven commercial buildings leased to the U.S. General Services Administration. WexTrust also was involved with diamond mines in South Africa and Namibia, according to SEC documents. Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue-wextrust-sec-charges-aug12,0,15298.story
12. August 11, Computerworld – (National) Wells Fargo code used to illegally access consumer data. Wells Fargo Bank is in the process of notifying some 7,000 individuals that a thief may have accessed their Social Security numbers and other personal information by illegally using the financial services firm’s access codes. The bank learned of the compromise on July 1 when MicroBilt Corp., a reseller of consumer data, notified it of suspicious transactions made using the Wells Fargo access codes, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based bank said Monday. The codes are used by Wells Fargo employees to gain access to consumer credit data. She said the records belonged to “random individuals,” only a small number of whom were Wells Fargo customers. Investigators have not yet determined how the Wells Fargo access credentials were illegally obtained or by whom, she said. Source:
13. August 11, Associated Press – (National) CFTC establishes task force on currency fraud. Federal regulators have formed a task force to investigate and prosecute fraud in the retail market for trading foreign currencies outside of commodity exchanges, a field they say is riddled with unscrupulous operators. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates U.S. futures markets, said it was establishing the task force within its enforcement division to focus on fraud in the off-exchange retail foreign currency market, as well as to work with other federal and state regulators and criminal authorities. Creation of the Forex Enforcement Task Force follows the June enactment of legislation that strengthened the CFTC’s jurisdiction over that market, the agency said in a news release. The CFTC and state securities regulators have warned the public to be cautious before trading foreign currencies — especially outside of major exchanges such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — saying it is at best very risky and at worst, fraudulent. Investors hope to profit from ups and downs in currency markets. But sharp swings in prices also can cause large losses, especially when an investor borrows money to make an investment and can wind up owing more than their initial investment was worth. Regulators say fraudulent schemes often come in the form of unsolicited phone calls and efforts to convince an investor to quickly transfer cash. The CFTC says it has brought nearly 100 enforcement actions since 2000 against companies and individuals accused of selling illegal foreign-exchange futures and options contracts. Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i753GVF9vw2WkxVMPBSLt93S5YBQD92G65503
14. August 11, Consumer Affairs – (Kentucky) New twist on phishing scam surfaces in Kentucky. A number of consumers in Kentucky have reported receiving telephone calls from someone claiming to be from Commonwealth Credit Union with a warning their credit cards are being suspended. Members and non-members of Commonwealth Credit Union have reported receiving calls on their cell, work and home phones. “This is a scam,” said Kentucky’s Attorney General. “Our investigators have received several complaints and confirmed with representatives from Commonwealth Credit Union that this is a hoax and may be an attempt to compromise members’ accounts.” The message asks people to call a phone number. When callers dial the toll-free number, they are then instructed to enter their credit-card numbers to reactivate the accounts. “Commonwealth Credit Union has informed our investigators that it will never make calls to members asking for personal information.” Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/08/scam_twist.html
Information Technology
40. August 11, SC Magazine – (National) Majority of malware attacks go undetected. Most malicious internet attacks go undetected by anti-virus software, according to a report released Monday by Cyveillance, a digital intelligence company. Data collected from several top anti-virus vendors during a 30-day period showed that more than half of the malware attacks went undetected. In addition, the Cyveillance 1H Online Fraud Report stated that malware attacks delivered via the web have more than doubled in frequency compared to the same period during the previous year. Essentially, new malware threats are developed quicker than the anti-virus companies can develop fixes, the director of product management at Cyveillance told SCMagazineUS.com on Monday. The most important change going on is the division of labor in the attacker underground, which is causing fast-changing malware, he said. “Today the threat environment has transformed to a more complex supply chain where players are highly specialized and consequently more productive,” he said. “Vulnerabilities are sold to ‘software developers’ who create packaged malware generation software that can then be used by multiple types of attackers and are capable of generating multiple unique targeted attacks and are continuously updated with new exploits.” Source: http://www.scmagazineus.com/Majority-of-malware-attacks-go-undetected/article/113673/
Communications Sector
41. August 11, Detroit Free Press – (Michigan: National) Cell phone towers still vulnerable to power outages. Five years after the largest blackout in North American history on August 14, 2003, many wireless telephone companies, whose cell phone towers would go silent after several hours of no commercial power, are having trouble meeting reliability standards. When six million Michigan residents lost their power in 2003, and as seen in several natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005, cell phone towers soon started running out of power from backup batteries, making it very difficult for people to communicate. For more than a year, the Federal Communications Commission has been trying to institute rules that would require the telcos to equip their cell phone tower sites with backup service that would keep them running for at least eight hours. But the wireless industry has resisted this, saying it is too expensive. Many of the nation’s 210,000 cell phone towers have some sort of battery backup power in place that allow the sites to handle relatively short power disruptions that last no longer than a few hours. But in massive blackouts, as seen in 2003, once those batteries are drained, the towers cease to function. Source: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/BLOG01/80811021&imw=Y
42. August 11, NBC 6 Northland – (Wisconsin) Thieves steal fiber optic cable & create $10,000 in damages. Superior police officers were investigating a theft at Conner’s Point on Monday morning after someone stole 200 feet of fiber optic cable that caused $10,000 in damages. Some Century Tel customers will be without phone, internet, and television services for some time. A Century Tel employee witnessed three people fleeing from the area; two of whom stopped to role a boulder onto the road so they could not be followed. Source: http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/26847549.html
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