Friday, April 25, 2014




Complete DHS Report for April 25, 2014

Daily Report

Details

 • The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced new rules April 23 requiring miners to wear real-time dust monitors, expand dust sampling, and institute quicker enforcement against violations. – Louisville Courier-Journal

2. April 23, Louisville Courier-Journal – (National) MSHA issues new coal dust limits for miners. The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced new rules April 23 requiring miners to wear real-time dust monitors, expand dust sampling, close sampling loopholes, and institute quicker enforcement against violations while increasing medical surveillance of miners. The rules will help reduce the amount of coal dust underground miners can be exposed to by enforcing that concentration limits for breathable coal mine dust be cut by 25 percent to 1.5 milligrams per cubic liter of air. Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/23/msha-issues-new-coal-dust-limits-miners/8051623/

 • An April 23 explosion at the Williams Gas Plant in Opal, Wyoming, prompted the evacuation of the plant and nearby town as a precaution while crews shut off gas at the facility and worked to contain the fire. – KSTU 13 Salt Lake City

5. April 23, KSTU 13 Salt Lake City – (Wyoming) Wyoming town evacuated after explosion at gas plant. An April 23 explosion at the Williams Gas Plant in Opal, Wyoming, prompted the evacuation of the plant and nearby town as a precaution while crews shut off gas at the facility and worked to contain the fire. Traffic was also diverted as U.S. 30 was closed in the area. Source: http://fox13now.com/2014/04/23/wyoming-town-evacuated-after-explosion-at-gas-plant/

 • A man believed to be the “Rabid Fan Bandit” was arrested April 21 in Des Moines, Washington, and charged for allegedly robbing eight banks in the State and instructing and aiding a bank robbery gang known as the “Buddy Bandits” in eight additional bank robberies. – Tacoma News Tribune See item 12 below in the Financial Services Sector

 • A former Kentucky U.S. postal worker was sentenced and ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution after storing at least 44,900 pieces of mail at his deceased mother’s home, as well as at storage facilities from March 2011 to March 2013. – CNN

14. April 24, CNN – (Kentucky) Kentucky postal worker jailed for stashing 44,900 pieces of mail. A former Kentucky U.S. postal worker was sentenced and ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution after storing at least 44,900 pieces of mail at his deceased mother’s home, as well as at storage facilities from March 2011 to March 2013. Inspectors stated that the former worker’s motive was to pick up his children after school. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/23/justice/postal-worker-jailed-missing-mail/

Financial Services Sector

9. April 24, South Florida Business Journal – (Florida) SEC accuses jailed broker of real estate scam. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a currently-imprisoned stock promoter for allegedly using false and misleading statements to raise $8.7 million from investors through Realty Acquisitions and Trust between 2004 and 2010. The SEC alleges that the man failed to register as a stock broker and did not inform investors that he was barred from acting as a broker after a 2006 settlement. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/morning-edition/2014/04/sec-accuses-jailed-broker-of-real-estate-scam.html?page=all

10. April 24, Hawaii News Now – (Hawaii) Former credit union CEO and 2 employees charged in $500K embezzlement case. The former CEO and two others who worked at the OTS Employees Federal Credit Union were charged by federal authorities April 23 with allegedly embezzling nearly $500,000 from the credit union that serves Honolulu city bus system employees. The alleged embezzlement occurred when the former employees manipulated credit union records in order to pay their own personal credit card balances and falsified records to hide unrepaid loans. Source: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/25326587/former-credit-union-ceo-and-2-employees-charged-in-500k-embezzlement-case

11. April 23, WTAE 4 Pittsburgh – (National) Prosecutor: ID theft scheme cost US Treasury $10M. A U.S. Attorney announced the indictments April 23 of five men accused of running an identity theft and fake tax return scheme that defrauded the U.S. government of around $10 million. The men are accused of obtaining stolen driver’s licenses and Social Security cards and using the information to open bank accounts in several States and filing around 2,400 fraudulent tax returns. Source: http://www.wtae.com/news/details-of-massive-fraud-scheme-released-in-pittsburgh/25616320

12. April 23, Tacoma News Tribune – (Washington) FBI says Rabid Fan Bandit behind 16 bank robberies in Puget Sound area. A man believed to be the “Rabid Fan Bandit” was arrested April 21 in Des Moines, Washington, and charged for allegedly robbing 8 banks in the State and instructing and aiding a bank robbery gang known as the “Buddy Bandits” in 8 additional bank robberies. Source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/04/23/3162315/fbi-says-rabid-fan-bandit-behind.html

13. April 23, Los Angeles Times – (California) 2 poker buddies, ex-Nvidia worker cited in insider trading scheme. A former accounting manager at Santa Clara-based Nvidia Corporation agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over providing insider information to another man who relayed the information to the manager of a hedge fund that used the information to make $16.5 million in illicit profits. The two others involved in the insider trading were previously charged by the SEC. Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-insider-trading-tip-funneled-through-poker-players-feds-say-20140423,0,4920214.story#axzz2zoQorqr3

For another story, see item 29 below in the Information Technology Sector

Information Technology Sector

29. April 24, Help Net Security – (International) Mobile bad bots running across most top mobile operators. Distil Networks released a report on harmful bot traffic and found that harmful bots increased their share of Web traffic in 2013 from 12.25 percent of traffic to 23.6 percent. The report also found that the financial services industry had more organizations contributing a high percentage of harmful bot traffic than other industries, and that mobile harmful bots are running across nine of the world’s top ten mobile operators, among other findings. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=16732

30. April 24, The Register – (International) Cisco: Hey, IT depts. You’re all malware hosts. Cisco released its latest security survey and found that 100 percent of companies in the survey sample show malicious traffic calling to malware hosts and that the length of time that the activity persists suggests that network penetrations are ongoing and undetected, among other findings. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/24/cisco_youre_ialli_malware_hosts/

31. April 24, SC Magazine – (International) Major Twitter spam attack ‘traced’ to fellow social media site. We Heart It disabled its sign-in and sharing via Twitter April 23 after it appeared to be the source of thousands of spam messages being sent out over Twitter. We Heart It stated that they are investigating the cause of the spam. Source: http://www.scmagazineuk.com/major-twitter-spam-attack-traced-to-fellow-social-media-site/article/344020/

Communications Sector

See item 29 above in the Information Technology Sector