Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Complete DHS Daily Report for August 16, 2011

Daily Report

Top Stories

• Flood watches and advisories remained in effect August 15 for parts of New York City as rain led to power outages, airport delays, train disruptions, and stranded motorists along major thoroughfares. – WPIX 11 New York (See item 19)

19. August 15, WPIX 11 New York – (New York) NYC metro area swamped by record rainfall, flooding continues. Flood watches and advisories remained in effect August 15 for portions of New York and New Jersey as rain led to power outages, train delays and service disruptions, airport delays, and stranded motorists along the area's major thoroughfares. Forecasters said Central Park got 3 inches of rain, while portions of Brooklyn got swamped with 4 inches; approximately 7 inches fell at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens. The rain came down in sheets August 14, stranding motorists in their cars; people had to be fished out of a car submerged in 4 feet of water at the corner of 9th and Smith Streets in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; and at Garfield Street, between 4th and 5th avenues, five cars stalled out in the water. Flooding also occurred in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and parts of Westchester County. Stranded cars closed the Roosevelt Avenue ramp on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE), while the Staten Island Expressway between Clove and Richmond roads also had to be closed. In the subways, following dayl-ong efforts at pumping out water and resolving weather-related problems with signals and switches, work crews were able to restore service to the Sea Beach N line in Brooklyn. Problems on the N began at 4:40 a.m. with weather-related signal problems at 36th Street and continued with serious flooding on the tracks at 86th Street. Normal service resumed shortly before 5 p.m. In addition, E service resumed between West 4th Steet and WTC. A number of bus detours remain in place. There were a number of service disruptions on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). There was a traffic management program in effect for traffic arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport. This was causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 2 hours and 58 minutes. Source: http://www.wsbt.com/news/wpix-record-rainfall-metro-area-story,0,4962870.story

• The Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis reopened August 15, two days after storm winds collapsed a stage, killing five people and injuring more than 40. – CNN (See item 49)

49. August 15, CNN – (Indiana) Indiana fair reopens with service for 5 killed in stage collapse. The Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis reopened August 15 with a public memorial service for five people killed when a concert stage collapsed during a storm August 13. The fairgrounds were closed at the night of August 13 following the accident, which occurred shortly before a country music duo was to take the stage before an audience of about 12,000. Officials August 15 were focusing on grieving with victims and beginning repairs to get the fair back underway, Indiana's governor told CNN. "Our first instinct in Indiana is not to go rushing around, looking for scapegoats. It's to take care of business, take care of those who've been hurt and then, of course ... study to see if something could have done better and learn any necessary lessons," he said. He described the stage's collapse as a "freakish accident" August 14. Investigators sifted through debris of the stage August 14, trying to determine what caused the accident that also injured at least 40 people, authorities said. Metal scaffolding fell onto a section usually occupied by the country duo's most ardent fans about 4 minutes after authorities took the stage to warn the crowd to seek shelter, according to a timeline of events released by investigators. Forecasters had warned heavy rain and strong winds would hit the fair nearly 2 hours before the storm moved through August 13. The National Weather Service estimated winds at 60 to 70 miles-per-hour. Video shows the blue canvas top fraying and flapping just seconds before the steel scaffolding gave way, sending a heavy bank of stage lights and metal onto fans closest to the outdoor stage. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/15/indiana.stage.collapse/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Details

Banking and Finance Sector

14. August 15, BankInfoSecurity.com – (Kansas) One bank closed Aug. 12. First National Bank of Olathe, Olathe, Kansas, was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Enterprise Bank & Trust, Clayton, Missouri, to assume all of the deposits of First National Bank of Olathe. As of June 30, First National Bank of Olathe had approximately $538.1 million in total assets and $524.3 million in total deposits. The FDIC estimates the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $116.6 million. Source: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=3959

15. August 15, Associated Press – (Pennsylvania) Philly-area man set for plea in $17M ponzi scheme. A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania man serial con man pleaded guilty August 15 to running a $17 million real-estate Ponzi scheme. The 55-year-old of Berwyn promised 16 percent returns at his company, Life's Good Inc., but instead wiped out the retirement savings of many small investors, prosecutors said. They said the man used other people's money to rent a mansion, take lavish vacations and buy a pair of $66,000 Mercedes just before his November arrest. Officials said he also showered family and friends with gifts. The indictment said the convict lured about 260 investors through a cold-calling operation and brochures that failed to note his two bankruptcies; five prior convictions in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ban. The state and federal convictions for various fraud schemes date back to 1986. The convict, who remains in custody, faces about 30 years in prison on money laundering, fraud and other charges. Source: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Philly-area-man-set-for-plea-in-17M-Ponzi-scheme-2011554.php

16. August 12, Sacramento Business Journal – (California) Sacramento man pleads guilty in $2.2M ponzi scheme. A Sacramento, California man who took $2.2 million from investors in an investment club ponzi scheme pleaded guilty to wire fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office said August 12. The man was the president of Millenium Capital Group, one of several related investment clubs that were operating from 2003 to 2008 in the region. He admitted his investment club took in $2.2 million from people who expected to be investing in land and construction. The convict used investor money to pay bogus returns to earlier investors. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison for each count, and a $250,000 fine, although the sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/08/12/sacramento-guilty-ponzi-scheme-bradford.html

17. August 12, Bloomberg – (New York) Operator of fake hedge fund Koifman sentenced to 63 months in prison. The man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in a scheme to cheat investors with a phony New York-based hedge fund was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison. He and a partner ran A.R. Capital Global Fund LP, an unregistered investment adviser, and ARC Global Fund, a hedge fund that said it invested in equity of international real estate, according to prosecutors in the office of a Manhattan, New York U.S. attorney. Prosecutors claimed that from 2004 to 2006, the two men engaged in a scheme with co-conspirators to get at least 70 investors to invest about $20 million in the ARC Global Fund by making false statements. The man was also sentenced to 3 years’ supervised probation, and ordered to pay restitution of $7 million. The same probation and restitution would be ordered for his business partner, the judge said. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/fake-hedge-fund-operator-receives-63-month-sentence-for-20-million-scheme.html

Information Technology Sector

44. August 15, Softpedia – (International) New Android spyware threat disguises itself as Google+ app. Security researchers from Trend Micro warn of a new information stealing Android trojan that disguises itself as an app for Google's new social product Google+. This latest threat is a variant of a recently discovered trojan called ANDROIDOS_NICKISPY which is able to record phone calls. This new version stands apart from the rest because it is capable of answering incoming calls if the phone's screen is turned off and if the calls originate from a number predefined by the attackers. "From the looks of it, the developer of this app went for the more real-time kind of eavesdropping as well, apart from the one ANDROIDOS_NICKISPY.A used, which involved recording calls," the Trend Micro researchers wrote. "The 'auto-answering' function of this malicious Android app works only on Android 2.2 and below since the MODIFY_PHONE_STATE permission was disabled in Android 2.3," they added. In addition to phone call answering and recording, the trojan has a full set of spyware features, such as stealing text messages and call logs or monitoring the GPS location. The increasing sophistication and prevalence of Android malware reinforces the need of antivirus products for such devices. There are several free solutions from vendors such as AVG, Lookout, BitDefender, or Symantec. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Android-Spyware-Threat-Disguises-Itself-as-Google-App-216757.shtml

45. August 13, Computerworld – (International) Suspected Chinese spear-phishing attacks continue to hit Gmail users. Months after Google said Chinese hackers were targeting the Gmail accounts of senior U.S. government officials, attempts to hijack Gmail inboxes continue, a researcher said August 12. "Once compromises happen and are covered in the news, they do not disappear and attackers do not give up or stop. They continue their business as usual," said an independent security researcher based in Washington, D.C., on her Contagio Malware Dump Web site. In early June, Google announced it had disrupted a targeted phishing campaign designed to compromise Gmail accounts belonging to senior U.S. and South Korean government officials, military personnel, Chinese activists, and journalists. Google said it had traced the attacks to Jinan, China, a city in eastern China that has been linked to other hacking campaigns, including one in late 2009 against Google's own network. China denied accusations its government played a role in the attacks that accessed hundreds of accounts. And the attacks have not stopped. "Attackers ... continue their efforts with very slight modifications to the original themes," said the researcher. The latest campaign baits the scam with the promise of a report titled "Blinded: The Decline of U.S. Earth Monitoring Capabilities and its Consequences for National Security" from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington D.C. think tank. In fact, CNAS offers that report as a free PDF download. The e-mails are customized for each recipient, and appear aimed at people associated with political and international affairs. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219155/Suspected_Chinese_spear_phishing_attacks_continue_to_hit_Gmail_users

46. August 13, The Register – (International) Attack targeting open-source Web app keeps growing. An attack targeting sites running unpatched versions of the osCommerce web application keeps growing virally, more than 3 weeks after a security firm warned it was being used to install malware on the computers of unsuspecting users. When researchers from Armorize first spotted the exploit July 24, they estimated it had injected malicious links into about 91,000 Web pages. By early last week, The Register reported it had taken hold of almost 5 million pages. As of August 13, Google searches suggested that the number exceeded 8.3 million. Armorize said attackers were exploiting three separate vulnerabilities in the open source store-management application, including one discovered last month. The lead developer of osCommerce said there is only one vulnerability that is being exploited, but he said no one on his team had spoken to anyone at Armorize to reconcile the difference of opinion. He said a fix has been available since November's release of osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/13/oscommerce_infection_threatens_web/

47. August 12, Infosecurity – (International) Out-of-date browser plug-ins are attractive targets for cybercriminals. Out-of-date browser plug-ins were prime targets for cyberattacks against enterprise browsers, according to Zscaler’s State of the Web report for the second quarter of 2011. For example, Adobe Reader is installed in 83 percent of enterprise browsers, and 56 percent of those installations are out of date, according to the report, which is based on a review of enterprise Web traffic flowing through Zscaler’s cloud-based Web and e-mail security product. “That is a huge attack surface ... This is really what the attackers are going after," commented the vice president of research at Zscaler ThreatLabZ. The Blackhole exploit kit has picked up on this and includes a variety of payloads designed to target recent Adobe Reader vulnerabilities, the report noted. The State of the Web report also found Apple iOS has taken the lead in the workplace, with 42.4 percent of the mobile device usage on corporate networks, followed by Blackberry with 40.2 percent, and Android with 17.4 percent. The report found that social networking made up a whopping 53.3 percent of the browsed Web applications in the enterprise. Webmail was a distant second, with 15.7 percent of the browsed Web applications, followed by instant messaging with 9.3 percent, streaming media with 7.55 percent, and Web search with 2.26 percent. Source: http://www.infosecurity-us.com/view/20078

Communications Sector

48. August 15, Oklahoma City Oklahoman – (Oklahoma) Standoff with man on Tulsa communications tower enters fifth day. A standoff between police and a 25-year-old man who climbed a communications tower in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma August 11 entered its fifth day. The man, who police said has a history of mental illness, was reportedly chased off the roof of the Clear Channel Communications building near 27th Street and Memorial Drive, August 10. He returned August 11 and has been on Clear Channel’s communications tower since 11 a.m. August 11. As of 10 a.m. August 15, he had been on the tower for 95 hours. Police offer him food, water, and cigarettes three to four times an hour, but he continues to decline them, a police captain said. Source: http://newsok.com/man-remains-on-tulsa-communications-tower-for-4th-day/article/3594779?custom_click=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+newsok/home+(NewsOK.com+RSS+-+Home)

For more stories, see items 44, 45, and 47 above in the Information Technology Sector

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