Monday, July 2, 2012 


Daily Report

Top Stories

 • The impact of the damage created by a thunderstorm in Brownville, Maine, will likely top more than $4 million when repairs are finished the week of July 2, officials said. – Bangor Daily News 

10. June 27, Bangor Daily News – (Maine) Brownville storm damage likely to top $4 million. The impact of the damage created by a recent thunderstorm that stalled over a 3-mile section of Brownville, Maine, likely will top more than $4 million when repairs are finished the week of July 2, officials said. As the governor toured flood-damaged areas, a railroad official estimated June 26 that the section of rail line wiped out by flooding will cost his railroad $500,000 to fix and its customers $500,000 a day. The CEO of Montreal, Maine, & Atlantic Railway (MM&A) said the storm hit the State rail network at “the neck of the bottle” — a single track 3 miles south of Brownville Junction, a key connection for all rail traffic between Aroostook County and southern Maine. Seventeen spots totaling only 1,000 feet were washed away but effectively forced rail service users ranging from Old Town Fuel and Fiber to Searsport’s GAC Chemical to do without rail service or seek other transportation, he said. More than 50 workers from the Maine Department of Transportation, Brownville, MM&A, and area municipalities have been working since June 24 to reopen 4 roads and the rail line. Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/06/26/news/piscataquis/lepage-en-route-to-brownville-as-town-continues-flood-repairs/

 • With 72 percent of the continental United States classified as “abnormally dry” or worse, the 2012 drought could be the most expensive to both agriculture and consumers since 1988. The 1988 drought cost American agriculture $78 billion. – Drovers CattleNetwork 

13. June 29, Drovers CattleNetwork – (National) Drought area larger than last year, losses may rival 1988. The historic drought in 2011 in the southwest gained a lot of attention for its impact on people, livestock, and wildlife, Drovers CattleNetwork reported June 29. The 2012 drought, however, is worse in many ways and likely to be more expensive to both agriculture and to consumers. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, 72 percent of the continental United States is classified as “abnormally dry” or worse. By comparison, at the end of the third week in June 2011 just 32 percent of the continental United States was classified as “abnormally dry” or worse. Some meteorologists are comparing 2012 to the drought of 1988, which was estimated to cost American agriculture $78 billion. The 2011 drought had a big impact on the U.S. cattle industry and strained the financial resources of many ranchers. The 2012 drought, however, will hit consumers much harder due to the impact it has already had on corn and soybean production. Crop forecasters are adjusting their estimates for the harvest, and smaller corn and soybean yields mean higher prices for many food items for American consumers. Source: http://www.agprofessional.com/news/Drought-area-larger-than-last-year-losses-may-rival-1988-160733755.html

 • One soldier was dead and two others were wounded following a shooting June 28 at Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina. – Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office 

26. June 28, Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office – (North Carolina) Soldier dead following on-post shooting, June 28. One soldier from the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade was dead and two others were wounded following a shooting incident June 28 at Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina. During a unit safety brief, a soldier shot another member of the unit and then turned the weapon on himself. The shooter was injured and is in custody. A third soldier who was in the area was also slightly wounded in the shooting. Fort Bragg law enforcement and emergency responders secured the scene within minutes. Special agents from the Army Criminal Investigation Command were on the scene and began an investigation. Source: http://www.bragg.army.mil/presscenter/pages/TwoSoldiersdeadfollowingon-postshooting,June28.aspx

 • One person was dead, 2 were missing, and at least 346 homes were destroyed as a result of a wildfire burning in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 29. The fire is the most destructive in the State’s history. – MSNBC; Associated Press; Reuters 

38. June 29, MSNBC; Associated Press; Reuters – (National) One dead, two missing as Colo. wildfires rage. The tens of thousands of evacuees in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area received word June 28 that hundreds of homes have been lost to an out-of-control wildfire. A preliminary report indicated 346 residences on about 35 streets were destroyed by the Waldo Canyon fire, the mayor said, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. The count is not final, and the numbers may change. The fire, the most destructive in State history, was 10 percent contained. June 28 authorities said a body was found in the debris of a burned-out home in the area, marking the first fatality from the fire. The police chief said two people were reported missing, the Associated Press said. The area near the U.S. Air Force Academy was burning, and crews were battling flare-ups there. June 27, mandatory evacuations were ordered for the 3,000 people in the town of Crystola and part of Woodland Park after more than 32,000 people had to flee June 26. Colorado was battling eight large fires, its worst fire season in history. The U.S. President was scheduled to tour the Colorado Springs area June 29, the White House said. The State’s second largest fire was the 136-square-mile High Park Fire, which destroyed 257 homes and killed 1 woman. That fire was triggered by lightning June 9 and was nearly contained. In Boulder, the Flagstaff Fire burned to within 1.5 miles of the southern edge of the University of Colorado campus. The 230-acre fire was 30 percent contained and “remains a threat to Boulder,” Reuters quoted the incident commander as saying, Nationwide, 35 large, active wildfires were being fought. The bulk of them were in nine western States: Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47994188/ns/weather/#.T-2v-5H3Th4

Details

Banking and Finance Sector 

5. June 29, Palm Beach Post – (Florida) Boynton McDonald’s employee accused of stealing credit card released from jail. An employee of a Boynton Beach, Florida McDonald’s restaurant faces charges of using a scanning device or re-encoder to defraud customers, the Palm Beach Post reported June 29. Boynton Beach Police began investigating the case the week of June 18 when they received reports of fraud at the McDonald’s. The restaurant’s manager said he received a complaint from a customer who was notified by her bank that someone tried to charge $238 to her account at a nearby Target store. After looking at video surveillance of the restaurant, the restaurant’s manager told Boynton Beach Police that he saw the employee swipe three credit cards on a device attached to his phone, according to the arrest report. When he was taken into custody, the employee admitted to using a credit card scanning device about 129 times during a 1-month period, the report said. He added he got the scanner from a man he knows as “card man.” He went on to say ‘card man’ paid him $500 for every 30 credit card numbers he obtained. He added that, so far, he has been paid about $2,100, according to the report. Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/boynton-beach-mcdonalds-employee-accused-of-steali/nPhRY/

6. June 28, San Jose Business Journal – (California) $42M ‘Ponzi-like scheme’ shut down in Los Altos. Securities regulators shut down an alleged $42 million “Ponzi-like scheme” that was run by a Silicon Valley mortgage-investment firm, the San Jose Business Journal reported June 28. Los Altos, California-based Small Business Capital Corp., known as SB Capital, and its principal allegedly brought in more than 400 investors with promises of at least 7.5 percent in annual returns. However, SB Capital’s principal was allegedly operating the scheme by paying returns that came partly from fund profits and partly from other investors, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC said it obtained an emergency court order to halt the alleged fraud. The agency filed a complaint the week of June 18 in U.S. District Court in San Jose against the principal, SB Capital, and two mortgage-investment funds they oversaw, Investors Prime Fund LLC and SBC Portfolio Fund LLC. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/06/28/42m-ponzi-like-scheme-shut-down-in.html

Information Technology Sector

30. June 29, H Security – (International) WordPress 3.4 update closes important security hole. The WordPress developers released version 3.4.1 of their popular open source publishing platform, fixing a number of bugs and closing security holes, one of which is rated as important. WordPress 3.4, which was already downloaded 3 million times since being released 2 weeks ago, contains an important privilege escalation flaw that accidentally allowed all administrators and editors on multi-site installations to use unfiltered_html. This could have been exploited by users for cross-site scripting attacks by, for example, publishing posts containing malicious code. The update also fixes an information disclosure vulnerability which could have allowed some users to bypass certain security restrictions in order to view the contents of posts that they should not be able to see, such as draft and private posts. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/WordPress-3-4-update-closes-important-security-hole-1628769.html

31. June 29, Federal News Radio – (National) FedBizOpps.gov contractor under FBI investigation. The federal contractor running three governmentwide Web sites, including FedBizOpps.gov, is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly trying to access without permission Web sites of their competitors in the education sector. The Eastern District Court of Virginia in Alexandria issued a search warrant March 5 to the FBI. The FBI conducted the search before March 19 of Symplicity Corporation’s offices in Arlington. The FBI stated in its request to the judge for the search warrant that a witness alleges Symplicity tried on several occasions since 2009 to access the networks of its competitors, Maxient LLC of Charlottesville, and Pave Systems of Richardson, Texas. Both Maxient and Pave Systems offer software to colleges and universities and neither have done any federal business in fiscal 2012, according to USASpending.gov. Source: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/490/2923841/FedBizOppsgov-contractor-under-FBI-investigation-

32. June 28, Softpedia – (International) Experts find improvements in classic phishing emails. Experts found cyber criminals are improving fake e-mails that are part of spam campaigns, making them more realistic. The SERT research team at Solutionary analyzed a FedEx spam message and detailed not only the elements that make it more realistic but also the clues that clearly show that it is part of a scheme. Many users are aware that fake FedEx e-mails that attempt to phish for a user’s credentials contain bogus information. However, in one variant, the tracking number actually worked and matched a shipment. Furthermore, one of the links from the e-mail led to the official courier site and not a malware-infested domain. “These attempts are getting better, especially when they first direct the user to an official site. It won’t be long before you won’t be able to tell the difference between a phishing attempt and an official email. Systems and/or security departments should keep informing coworkers of these types of emails,” a researcher from Solutionary explained. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Experts-Find-Improvements-in-Classic-Phishing-Emails-278146.shtml

Communications Sector 

Nothing to report