Thursday, September 18, 2008
Complete DHS Daily Report for September 18, 2008
Daily Report
Headlines
According to Business First of Buffalo, the Federal Reserve Board late Tuesday confirmed it would authorize the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend as much as $85 billion to American International Group Inc., which has unraveled in the face of mounting losses. (See item 15)
See details in the Banking and Finance sector
CNN reports that suspected Al Qaeda militants disguised as security forces launched an explosive assault on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, Wednesday killing 10 Yemeni police and civilians. (See item 30)
30. September 17, CNN – (International) Al Qaeda blamed for U.S. Embassy attack. Suspected Al Qaeda militants disguised as security forces launched an explosive assault on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, Wednesday killing 10 Yemeni police and civilians, officials said. The attack involved two car bombs, a spokesman for Yemen’s embassy in Washington said. Six attackers, including a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest, were also killed in the attack. There were at least four explosions – including at least one car bomb – and sniper fire, a senior State Department official said. The heavily fortified compound in the capital of Yemen has previously been targeted in attacks. A U.S. official told CNN the attackers initially opened fire outside the embassy’s security gate, then there was the main explosion followed by a secondary explosion. At some point, snipers positioned across the street from the embassy opened fire on Yemeni first responders as they arrived on the scene, the official said. Those killed include six Yemeni policemen and four civilians, he said, noting that the number of wounded is unclear. No U.S. Embassy employees were killed, the official added. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/17/yemen.blast/?iref=mpstoryview
Details
Banking and Finance Sector
15. September 17, Business First of Buffalo – (National) Fed bails out AIG in $85B deal. The Federal Reserve Board late Tuesday confirmed it would authorize the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend as much as $85 billion to American International Group Inc., which has unraveled in the face of mounting losses related to insurance on complex financial instruments and credit downgrades that forced the company to raise billions in capital. The New York insurance company is the largest in the world. Bailing out a private company not under its direct purview is an extraordinary and historic move for the Federal Reserve, whose primary roles include setting United States monetary policy and banking supervision and regulation. In a statement, the Federal Reserve said, “The Board determined that, in current circumstances, a disorderly failure of AIG could add to already significant levels of financial market fragility and lead to substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth and materially weaker economic performance.” Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/09/15/daily22.html
16. September 17, Toronto Star – (National) FBI’s mortgage fraud caseload grows to 24. The FBI is investigating 24 cases of potential corporate fraud related to mortgage lending, up from 21 cases disclosed by the Bureau in July, the Bureau director told Congress Tuesday. He did not identify specific targets as lawmakers expressed new concern about the impact of fraud cases in the wake of fresh turmoil in global financial markets tied to the collapse of the U.S. mortgage lending industry. The director said the FBI was looking at all levels of the mortgage systems. Source: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/500435
17. September 16, New York Times – (International) Billionaire sues UBS, claiming fraud. A billionaire property developer filed a complaint against UBS and nearly a dozen current and former executives of the bank in federal court in Santa Ana, California. The lawsuit accuses UBS, a small Swiss firm, and two private firms based in Liechtenstein and their employees of luring the plaintiff into becoming a client and a participant in a deceptive investment scheme intended to cheat the Internal Revenue Service of millions of dollars in taxes. The civil case is thought to be the first to be filed by a wealthy American client of UBS, which is under investigation by the Justice Department over whether it allowed its customers to evade United States taxes by hiding money offshore. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/business/worldbusiness/17ubs.html?ref=worldbusiness
18. September 16, Associated Press – (District of Columbia) Central figure in DC tax scam pleads guilty. A former manager in the District of Columbia tax office admits she cut more than 200 fraudulent property tax refund checks in a scheme that drained more than 48 million dollars from the city’s treasury over almost two decades. The woman has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and tax evasion. The agreement calls for her to serve from 15 to 18 years in prison and to pay restitution. A federal judge has accepted the plea provisionally, but has not set a sentencing date. Nine other people have pleaded guilty in the tax scam. Source: http://www.kgan.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/3b56768e-www.kgan.com.shtml
Information Technology
37. September 16, Register – (National) Adobe yanks speech exposing critical ‘clickjacking’ vulnerabilities. Two prominent security researchers have pulled a scheduled talk that was to demonstrate critical holes affecting anyone who uses a browser to surf the web. They say they planned to demonstrate serious “clickjacking” vulnerabilities involving every major browser during a presentation scheduled for September 24 at OWASP’s AppSec 2008 Conference in New York. They canceled their talk at the request of Adobe, one of the developers whose software is vulnerable to the weakness, they say. The pair planned to disclose flaws in the architecture of all of today’s web browsers that allow malicious websites to control the links visitors click on. Once lured to a fraudulent address, a user may think he’s clicking on a link that leads to Google – when in fact it takes him to a money transfer page, a banner add that is part of a click-fraud scheme, or any other destination the attacker chooses. The technique can also forge the address that appears on a status bar at the bottom of a web browser, so even those who are careful to check referring address before clicking can be tricked, one researcher says. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/16/critical_vulnerability_demo_pulled/
38. September 16, Computerworld – (New York) Forever 21 says nearly 99,000 cards compromised in data thefts. Nearly 99,000 payment cards used by customers at several Forever 21 Inc. retail stores may have been compromised in a series of data thefts dating back to August 2004. In a statement released last week and posted on its Web site, the Los Angeles-based discount retailer said it discovered the thefts only after being notified of them by the U.S. Department of Justice in Boston on August 5. There was no explanation for why the company waited more than a month after it discovered the compromise to notify affected customers. The DOJ last month filed indictments against three people who allegedly hacked into computer systems belonging to 12 retailers to steal payment card data. The incidents covered in the indictments included a much-publicized breach at TJX Companies Inc. Forever 21 said it was notified by the DOJ that it was one of the victims of those attacks and was given a disk containing “potentially compromised file data.” Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9114839&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
Communications Sector
39. September 17, Globe and Mail – (National) U.S. iPhone traffic seen clogging up RIM’s Bold plans. Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Bold has yet to launch with its exclusive U.S. carrier and it appears that Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone may be the reason why. Even though the Bold is available in more than a dozen countries, AT&T Inc. has yet to offer the device in the U.S. because iPhone data traffic is clogging the telecom giant’s networks, according to analysts. Both devices use the same next generation (3G) network technology, but it now appears AT&T was not prepared for the bandwidth requirements of the Apple device and does not have the resources to launch the Bold until it cures its iPhone issues. Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080917.RTICKERBOLD17/TPStory/Business
40. September 15, Aviation Week – (International) U.K. report finds emerging threats in space. Disruptive technologies such as directed energy weapons and the use of electro-magnetic pulse are being identified as “emerging issues” for space security in a key U.K. industry report. British space industry lobby group U.K. Space will formally launch its “Space Secures Prosperity” report September 16. The study is intended to highlight the extent to which the U.K. is dependent on space systems to support its military and security capabilities. Many of these systems, the report stresses, are foreign. U.K. industry wants to see the government step up its investment in military space. In examining potential emerging threats to space infrastructure the report notes: “It is feasible that illegal organizations will seek to disrupt states ability to exploit the use of space by threatening not only the ground stations themselves, but also the communications links between them and their satellites.” Source: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/DIS09158.xml&headline=U.K.%20Report%20Finds%20Emerging%20Threats%20In%20Space
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