Department of Homeland Security Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Complete DHS Daily Report for November 5, 2008

Daily Report

Headlines

 The Muskegon Chronicle reports that a large amount of liquid nitrogen leaked from a storage tank outside a Burdick & Jackson plant Monday in Muskegon, Michigan, forcing police and fire officials to evacuate two buildings and rope off several blocks. (See item 3)

3. November 4, Muskegon Chronicle – (Michigan) Lab, bingo hall evacuated for nitrogen leak. A large amount of liquid nitrogen leaked from a storage tank outside an eastside plant Monday, forcing police and fire officials to evacuate two buildings and rope off several blocks. The spill happened about 6:35 p.m. Monday at the Honeywell Burdick & Jackson Laboratories Inc., leaving a white cloudlike formation hovering in the area for hours. No injuries were reported, and officials were not sure what caused the storage tank to leak. Laboratory employees and an estimated 175 bingo players at the adjacent Select Auditorium were evacuated. Police cruisers were used to secure a four-block perimeter to keep people from coming into contact with the substance. The company’s hazardous containment team headed to the scene shortly after the spill was reported, officials said. The Muskegon County HAZMAT was not needed. Burdick & Jackson is a solvent manufacturer owned by Honeywell International. Source: http://www.mlive.com/chronicle/news/index.ssf/2008/11/lab_bingo_hall_evacuated_for_n.html

 According to the Associated Press, federal regulators issued $718,000 in fines and other penalties in the past year to Pacific Northwest companies that use anhydrous ammonia for refrigeration but do not have adequate safety plans in case of a leak. The penalties largely stem from an audit the Federal Government conducts every five years of the safety plans of food processors, packers, and other industries that rely on refrigeration. (See item 18)

18. November 3, Associated Press – (Washington) Feds increase fines in PNW over ammonia plans. Federal regulators issued $718,000 in fines and other penalties in the past year to Pacific Northwest companies that use the noxious chemical anhydrous ammonia for refrigeration but do not have adequate safety plans in case of a leak. The penalties largely stem from an audit the Federal Government conducts every five years of the safety plans of food processors, packers, and other industries that rely on refrigeration. The penalties in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington made up one-fifth of all such penalties imposed nationally during the 2008 fiscal year, which ended September 30. Many of the companies cited are small to moderate in size, which might explain in part why they are less aware of the regulations, said the manager of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) risk management program for Region 10, which regulates use of the substance in the four-state region. Risk management plans are required for facilities that use more than 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. An EPA representative said the agency is trying to reach out to companies, particularly in Eastern Washington, to make them fully aware of the regulations. Companies also may self-disclose if they find they are not in compliance, and EPA will reduce or eliminate the penalty. Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_ammonia_fines.html

Details

Banking and Finance Sector


6. November 4, Reuters – (National) Treasury weighs purchasing stakes in more firms. The U.S. Treasury Department is considering using more of its $700 billion rescue fund to buy stakes in a broad range of financial companies, not just banks and insurers, after tentative signs of the program’s success, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. In focus are companies that provide financing to the broad economy, including bond insurers and specialty finance firms such as General Electric Co’s GE Capital unit, CIT Group Inc and others. The Treasury may also scrap part of its early plan of purchasing assets through an auction process and instead purchase some distressed assets directly, the paper said. Treasury’s planning could be complicated by Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, the paper said. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4A310K20081104


7. November 3, Bank Systems and Technology – (International) Big moves by Visa, Citi MMV in mobile banking space. In the last week of October, both Visa (San Francisco) and New York-based Citi’s Mobile Money Ventures (MMV) announced the rollout of initiatives designed to enhance the banking functionalities of people’s mobile phones. Visa has rolled out a pilot in Canada in cooperation with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Rogers Wireless in which users will be able to wave and pay for goods at the point of sale using their mobile phones. According to the head of product with Visa Canada, this is the first pilot of its kind in that country. “While no two pilots are alike, this Canadian pilot shares similarities with two successful pilots Visa conducted with Wells Fargo in the United States and with Maybank in Malaysia.” Each phone will contain a secure chip and antenna to wirelessly transmit Visa card information from the mobile phone to the merchant terminal. From there, the transaction is processed in the same way as a regular credit card payment. In Asia, customers of Citibank Hong Kong will be able to perform mobile banking and stock trading using the new platform from Mobile Money Ventures, the JV between Citi and SK Telecom (Seoul). Source: http://www.banktech.com/payments-and-cards/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212000219


8. November 3, Reuters – (National) FDIC extends bank’s opt-out for guarantee plan. U.S. banking regulators on Monday extended the deadline for banks to opt out of its broadly expanded guarantee program for transaction deposits and new debt to December 5 from November 12. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said it changed the deadline to give banks more time to decide whether they want to continue participating and start paying fees in exchange for the additional insurance. The new FDIC guarantee for deposits, which was effective immediately, applies to non-interest-bearing transaction deposit accounts and expires at the end of 2009. The FDIC’s guarantee for debt applies to senior unsecured debt issued between October 14, 2008 and June 30, 2009. The guarantee on that debt will last for three years. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0336364220081104


9. October 31, Reuters – (National) JPMorgan halts foreclosures, modifies mortgages. JPMorgan Chase & Co, the nation’s largest bank and one of its biggest mortgage lenders, temporarily halted foreclosures Friday and offered to renegotiate a swathe of mortgages. JPMorgan has avoided the large write-downs and credit losses posted by rival banks because it has limited exposure to the riskier classes of mortgages, such as subprime loans. The expansion of the mortgage modification plan will target many of these mortgages, as well as prime mortgages held by JPMorgan that are also starting to show signs of deterioration. Earlier this month, Bank of America agreed with 11 state attorneys general to offer relief to nearly 400,000 Countrywide customers with troubled mortgages, resulting in an expected $8.4 billion of interest rate and principal reductions. JPMorgan expects to renegotiate $70 billion of mortgages over two years, in addition to $40 billion held by 250,000 borrowers since early last year. Source: http://www.banktech.com/risk-management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212000051


Information Technology


32. November 3, Computerworld – (International) New worm exploits critical Windows bug. A worm that exploits the bug Microsoft Corp. patched in an emergency update 11 days ago is actively attacking systems, several security companies and researchers said November 3. The worm, which Symantec Corp. called Wecorl but was dubbed MS08-067.g by Kaspersky Lab and Microsoft itself, likely originated in China, said the director of Symantec’s security response team. It appears to target Chinese-language versions of Windows 2000, he noted. The director confirmed that the worm, which is different from the information-stealing Trojan horse that prompted Microsoft to issue the out-of-cycle patch on Oct. 23, is circulating in the wild. According to the director, if the worm manages to infect a Windows PC, it also tries to attack all the machines on the same subnet. “If it can get behind the [firewall], then it can infect other systems,” the director said. The director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. urged users who had not installed the MS08-067 update to do so immediately. “The worm may not have many legs, but you should get ahead of the game and deploy now,” he said. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9118885


Communications Sector


Nothing to report