Monday, January 7, 2013
   
Complete DHS Daily Report for January 7, 2013

Daily Report

Top Stories

 • Transocean Ltd., the owner of the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, agreed to pay $400 million in criminal fines, $1 billion in civil penalties, and plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act. – Associated Press

1. January 4, Associated Press – (Louisiana; International) Transocean’s $1.4B oil spill deal will help Gulf. Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, agreed to pay $400 million in criminal fines and $1 billion in civil penalties. In addition to the settlement, Transocean Ltd. plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act. Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/transoceans-14b-oil-spill-deal-will-help-gulf-85758.html

 • Manufacturing equipment for producing counterfeit bills was found by authorities in Fargo, allegedly used to create several thousand dollars in fake money. Two individuals were arrested and charged with counterfeiting. – Associated Press See item 5 below in the Banking and Finance Sector

 • Parts of Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 62/180 in Texas were closed in both directions due to several crashes that occurred during a snow storm, and officials were unsure when the Interstate would reopen. – CNN

6. January 4, CNN – (Texas) Heavy snow hampers efforts to reopen portions of west Texas Interstate. Parts of Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 62/180 in Texas were closed in both directions due to several crashes that occurred during a snow storm. Officials are unsure of when they will reopen the Interstate and highway due to more inclement weather. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/04/us/texas-weather/

 • Two fake digital certificates mistakenly issued by a Turkish domain registrar caused Google and Microsoft to warn users about attacks using the certificates to imitate legitimate Google properties. – Krebs on Security See item 22 below in the Information Technology Sector

Details

Banking and Finance Sector

4. January 3, Federal Bureau of Investigation – (New Jersey) Operator of massive real estate investment fraud ring pleads guilty to causing $200M in losses. An Ocean County man pleaded guilty to real estate investment fraud and money laundering charges for a scheme that caused $200 million of investor money to be lost. Source: http://www.loansafe.org/operator-of-massive-real-estate-investment-fraud-ring-pleads-guilty-to-causing-200m-in-losses

5. January 3, Associated Press – (North Dakota) Police recover counterfeit materials in Fargo. Manufacturing equipment for producing counterfeit bills was found by authorities in Fargo, allegedly used to create several thousand dollars in fake money. Two individuals were arrested and charged with counterfeiting. Source: http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/176784/group/News/

Information Technology Sector

22. January 3, Krebs on Security – (International) Turkish registrar enabled phishers to spoof Google. Two fake digital certificates mistakenly issued by a Turkish domain registrar caused Google and Microsoft to warn users about phishing attacks, spoofed content, and man-in-the-middle attacks using one of the certificates to imitate legitimate Google properties. Source: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/01/turkish-registrar-enabled-phishers-to-spoof-google/

23. January 3, Dark Reading – (International) ‘Dementia’ wipes out attacker footprints in memory. A researcher-developed tool named Dementia can obscure the signs of an attack in a computer’s memory by creating a false image with omitted information, allowing the traces to go undetected during forensic analysis. Source: http://www.darkreading.com/advanced-threats/167901091/security/attacks-breaches/240145524/dementia-wipes-out-attacker-footprints-in-memory.html

Communications Sector

24. January 4, NBC News – (National) Popular office phones vulnerable to eavesdropping hack, researchers say. Researchers demonstrated vulnerabilities in software utilized by Cisco phone systems and emphasized the phones are open to remote hacking, where the hacker can manipulate the phone into doing whatever they want and covering the trail. Cisco announced they were working on fixing the problem. Source: http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/04/16328998-popular-office-phones-vulnerable-to-eavesdropping-hack-researchers-say?lite

25. January 3, Martha’s Vineyard Times – (Massachusetts) Verizon Internet outage affects Martha’s Vineyard users. Verizon customers in Martha’s Vineyard were still without Internet service January 3. Verizon attributed the December 30 outage on an issue with equipment at their Falmouth facility. Source: http://www.mvtimes.com/2013/01/03/verizon-internet-outage-affects-marthas-vineyard-users-13952/


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