Thursday, September 24, 2009

Complete DHS Daily Report for September 24, 2009

Daily Report

Top Stories

 According to the Associated Press, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday it issued a violation notice to Cabot Oil and Gas for two chemical spills last week at the company’s Heitsman natural gas well pad in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County. The spills, which totaled about 8,000 gallons and involved a liquid gel used as a drilling lubricant, polluted a wetland and killed fish. (See item 6)


6. September 22, Associated Press – (Pennsylvania) Pa. DEP issues violation notice to Cabot Oil & Gas. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday it issued a violation notice to Cabot Oil and Gas for two chemical spills last week that polluted a wetland and killed fish. The spills involved a liquid gel used as a drilling lubricant and occurred at the Houston-based company’s Heitsman natural gas well pad in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County. Officials said earlier the substance poured out of a loose pipe connection and entered a wetland and creek. “DEP is very concerned about spills at Cabot sites and will require Cabot to take all necessary actions to prevent them from recurring,” the agency’s Northcentral regional director said in a statement. The notice of violation cites Cabot for an unpermitted discharge of polluting substances and residual waste, two unpermitted encroachments on Stevens Creek, failing to contain polluting substances at a well site and an unpermitted discharge of industrial waste. The offenses violate the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law, the Pennsylvania Solid Waste Management Act, the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act, and the Oil and Gas Act, according to the agency. DEP said it may assess a civil penalty for the violations once the cleanup is finished. The spills totaled about 8,000 gallons and included the gel, known as LGC-35, which is mixed with water and serves as a lubricant in the hydraulic fracturing of wells, also known as “fracking.” About 4.9 gallons of LGC-35 are added to every 1,000 gallons of water used in the process. Cabot informed DEP that failed pipe connections caused both spills. A Cabot spokesman said last Friday that the spilled substance was “relatively innocuous,” but might cause eye, skin and breathing irritations. Cabot reported a third spill to DEP at the same site Tuesday, when a closed valve caused an increase in pressure and a hose ruptured. Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/09/22/business-energy-us-cabot-oil-amp-gas-environment_6918483.html


 According to the Associated Press, the government expanded a terrorism warning from transit systems to U.S. stadiums, hotels, and entertainment complexes as investigators searched for more suspects Tuesday in a possible al-Qaeda plot to set off hydrogen-peroxide bombs hidden in backpacks. Two law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that more than a half-dozen people were being scrutinized in the alleged plot. (See item 41)


41. September 22, Associated Press – (National) Stadiums, hotels warned of terrorists. The government expanded a terrorism warning from transit systems to U.S. stadiums, hotels, and entertainment complexes as investigators searched for more suspects Tuesday in a possible al-Qaeda plot to set off hydrogen-peroxide bombs hidden in backpacks. Police bolstered their presence at high-profile locations. The warnings come amid an investigation centering on a 24-year-old Denver airport shuttle driver who authorities say received al-Qaeda explosives training in Pakistan and was found entering New York City two weeks ago with bomb-making instructions on his computer. Though he is charged only with lying to the government, law enforcement officials said he may have been plotting with others to detonate backpack bombs on New York trains in a scheme similar to the attacks on the London subway and Madrid’s rail system. Two law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that more than a half-dozen people were being scrutinized in the alleged plot. The FBI said “several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere” are being investigated. “There’s a lot more work to be done,” said the New York City Police commissioner, cautioning that the probe was still in its early stages. In two bulletins sent to police departments Monday and obtained by the AP, federal counterterrorism officials urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant at stadiums, entertainment complexes, and hotels. The bulletin on stadiums noted that an al-Qaeda training manual specifically lists “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality and sinĂ¢_¦and attacking vital economic centers.” Counterterrorism officials are also advising police officers to be on the lookout for any possible bomb-making at self-storage facilities, noting that terrorists have used such places to build bombs. In a statement, the FBI and Homeland Security said that while the agencies “have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity.” Source: http://news.aol.com/article/terror-arrest-of-najibullah-zazi-sparks/677941


Details

Banking and Finance Sector

17. September 23, Newsday – (National) Madoff investors’ security may have been breached. More than 2,200 investors who were swindled by a now infamous organizer of a massive Ponzi scheme are learning that some of their personal and financial information has potentially been breached after the July theft of a laptop in Dallas. The names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and some account information on 2,246 investors was contained in computer stolen from the car of an employee of AlixPartners Llp, the consulting firm that has been processing victims’ claims in the Ponzi scheme, a company spokesman said Tuesday. The spokesman said the laptop was password-protected and not targeted, but was taken in what Dallas police said was a “smash and grab” series of thefts on one particular night at a parking lot. “We have no reason to believe it [investor data] has been compromised,” the spokesman said. Source: http://www.newsday.com/business/madoff-investors-security-may-have-been-breached-1.1466325?localLinksEnabled=false


18. September 22, Post Chronicle – (National) Bank of America skips Congress deadline, faces new SEC threat. Bank of America failed to meet a Monday deadline to hand lawmakers further details about its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and faces the possibility of new charges from U.S. securities regulators. The standoff with the House oversight committee heightened the chances lawmakers may subpoena the bank and raised the stakes for a Tuesday meeting between a senior bank executive and the committee chairman. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it could pursue additional charges against Bank of America after a federal judge last week rejected a $33-million settlement between the bank and the regulator. An SEC statement made no mention of dropping the case that alleges Bank of America misled investors over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees. Bank of America is defending itself on multiple fronts over the Merrill deal, including shareholder lawsuits and a threat by the New York Attorney to file civil charges against top executives. Source: http://www.postchronicle.com/news/business/article_212257463.shtml


Information Technology


38. September 22, SCMagazine – (International) Rogue AV scam targets Google users. An ongoing attack on Google users is sending victims to rogue anti-virus software sites, researchers said this week. The attack takes advantage of Google’s page-ranking feature, according to researchers at eSoft’s Threat Prevention Team. The scam works like this: An attacker hacks a site, but instead of embedding exploits on the hacked site, they put links to other websites to boost rankings for malicious sites, and Google users in particular seem to be the targets. “The sites whose search engine ranking is being boosted are now serving up malware through a complex series of redirects,” a senior technical services engineer with eSoft wrote on the company’s Threat Prevention Team blog. “However, the redirects and the malware are only served up if the user gets to the site after clicking the link on Google. Going directly to the malicious site (by pasting into your browser directly) results in a harmless page.” But clicking on the results in Google may bring the user to a website using a common rogue anti-virus template that alerts the user that their PC is infected and prompts unsuspecting users to download what is really a trojan. Source: http://www.scmagazineus.com/Rogue-AV-scam-targets-Google-users/article/149460/

Communications Sector

Nothing to report.