Thursday, May 15, 2014




Complete DHS Report for May 15, 2014

Daily Report

Top Stories

 • Sallie Mae reached two settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice May 13, agreeing to pay $60 million to resolve excessive interest rates charged to military members and $30 million to settle allegations that it maximized consumer late fee charges. – Associated Press See item 4 below in the Financial Services Sector

 • Authorities are investigating a fire that started May 12 that caused about $1.4 million in damage at Robert Mann Packaging in Watsonville, California destroying thousands of cardboard boxes and containers. – Santa Cruz Sentinel

8. May 13, Santa Cruz Sentinel – (California) Watsonville fire destroys home, more than $1 million in packing material. Authorities are investigating a fire that broke out May 12 at Robert Mann Packaging in Watsonville, destroying thousands of cardboard boxes and plastic clam shell produce containers and causing about $1.4 million in damage. Source: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/watsonville/ci_25753831/large-watsonville-fire-destroys-home-1-million-packaging

 • Two healthcare workers in Orlando fell ill and 20 others are being monitored after exposure to a Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patient, the second case in the U.S. – Reuters

13. May 13, Reuters – (Florida) Two U.S. health workers ill after MERS exposure; World Health body meets in Geneva. Two healthcare workers in Orlando fell ill and 20 others are being monitored after exposure to a Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patient, the second case in the U.S. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/14/us-usa-health-mers-idUSBREA4C0JG20140514

 • Officials lifted an evacuation for more than 20,000 residents in and around San Diego, and 1,200 homes and businesses in Santa Barbara County due to two wildfires that broke out in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego May 13. – Associated Press

21. May 14, Associated Press – (California) California firefighters gain ground on wildfires. Officials lifted an evacuation for more than 20,000 residents in and around San Diego, and 1,200 homes and businesses in Santa Barbara County after weather conditions allowed firefighters to battle two wildfires that broke out in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego May 13. At least 2 high schools and three elementary schools were evacuated May 12 as a result of the fires. Source: http://news.msn.com/us/california-firefighters-gain-ground-on-wildfires

Financial Services Sector

4. May 14, Associated Press – (National) Sallie Mae reaches nearly $100M settlement with feds over costly loans to military members. Student loan lender Sallie Mae reached two settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice May 13, agreeing to pay $60 million to resolve charges that it charged military members excessive interest rates and agreeing to pay $30 million to settle allegations that it maximized consumer late fee charges. Sallie Mae also agreed to pay $6.6 million in civil penalties as part of the settlement. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/13/sallie-mae-reaches-60m-settlement-with-justice-department-over-costly-loans-to/

For additional stories, see item 14 immediately below from the Government Facilities Sector and 17 below in the Information Technology Sector

14. May 13, Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle – (Tennessee) Former Fort Campbell assistant IG pleads guilty to ID theft, bank fraud. A former assistant inspector general with the U.S. Army Office of Inspector General at Fort Campbell pleaded guilty May 13 to committing bank fraud and obstructing justice by stealing the identities of other soldiers, obtaining bank loans in their names for his own personal use, and attempting to hide his fraud and cast the blame on a deceased officer. Source: http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140513/NEWS06/305130064/Former-Fort-Campbell-assistant-IG-pleads-guilty-ID-theft-bank-fraud

Information Technology Sector

16. May 14, Softpedia – (International) Adobe fixes Flash Player and Reader vulnerabilities reported at Pwn2Own 2014. Adobe released a total of 17 security updates for its Adobe Reader, Acrobat, and Flash Player, including 6 vulnerabilities in Flash deemed critical. Users are advised to update their installations as soon as possible. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Adobe-Fixes-Flash-Player-and-Reader-Vulnerabilities-Reported-at-Pwn2Own-2014-442054.shtml

 17. May 14, The Register – (International) Dogevault praying backups work after confirming attack. Virtual currency wallet service Dogevault reported that it was compromised by attackers May 11 and had the data on its hosted virtual machines destroyed. The service reported that it was attempting to restore its data from an off-site backup. Source:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/14/dogevault_praying_backups_work_after_confirming_attack/

 18. May 13, Help Net Security – (International) Microsoft releases eight security updates. Microsoft released its monthly Patch Tuesday round of updates, containing eight advisories, two of which were rated as critical. The critical updates close a vulnerability in the Internet Explorer browser and one in SharePoint. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=16847

19. May 12, Help Net Security – (International) Google account passwords stolen in phishing attack. Researchers at Bitdefender identified a new phishing campaign targeting Chrome and Firefox users that attempts to steal users’ Google login credentials. The phishing campaign attempts to use the way Chrome displays data Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to trick users in to logging into a fake Google login page. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=16835

Communications Sector

20. May 13, WNEW 99.1 Bowie; Associated Press – (Maryland) Man charged with attempted murder after bizarre TV station standoff. Police arrested and charged a man May 13 after he rammed a truck into the lobby of the WMAR-TV 2 Baltimore station causing the staff to evacuate the building as a standoff between the man and local police ensued for about 4 hours. An area school was locked down as a precaution. Source: http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/05/13/possibly-armed-man-rams-abc2-tv-station-with-dump-truck/