Complete DHS Report for
April 8, 2015
Daily Report
Top Stories
· Officials
announced a $225 million settlement April 6 between Exxon Mobil and New Jersey
for contamination at more than 16 refineries and other polluted sites across
the State. – Newark Star-Ledger
1. April
7, Newark Star-Ledger – (New Jersey) New details in $225M Exxon
pollution settlement made public today. New Jersey officials announced a
$225 million settlement April 6 between Exxon Mobil and the State for
contamination at more than 16 refineries and other polluted sites across New
Jersey. The oil company agreed to pay out in the settlement which also clears
the company for liability for pollution at the sites. Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/historic_settlement_with_exxon_includes_polluted_r.html
· A
Montana man pleaded guilty April 3 for his role in a cramming scheme that involved
adding $70 million in unauthorized charges onto customers’ phone bills
nationwide. – Associated Press See item 25
below in the Communications Sector
· The U.S.
Federal Communications Commission issued CenturyLink Inc., $16 million in
penalties and fined Intrado $1.4 million for a 9-1-1 emergency call service
outage that lasted 6 hours and affected 11 million people across 11 States in
2014. – Denver Business Channel See item 27
below in the Communications Sector
· A
4-alarm fire destroyed or severely damaged 60 businesses in the Pecan Park Flea
& Farmers’ Market in Jacksonville, Florida, April 6. – WJXX 25 Orange
Park/WLTV 12 Jacksonville
29. April 7,
WJXX 25 Orange Park/WLTV 12 Jacksonville – (Florida) 4-alarm fire
engulfs Pecan Park Flea Market. A 4-alarm fire destroyed or severely
damaged 60 businesses in the Pecan Park Flea & Farmers’ Market in
Jacksonville, Florida, April 6. Crews remained at the scene April 7 to put out
hot spots and investigate the cause of the fire and the extent of damages. Source:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/2015/04/06/fire-three-alarm-pecan-park-flea-market/25393905/
Financial Services Sector
6. April
7, Softpedia – (International) Word documents with scrambled text
deliver banking trojan in the background. Security researchers from Cisco’s
Talos research group discovered a new variant of the Dridex banking trojan
being delivered via incomprehensible malware-laden Microsoft Word documents
that trick users into enabling macros before using PowerShell to download and
execute the trojan from a hard-coded IP address. The malware campaign lasted
for less than 5 hours before antivirus solutions responded. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Word-Documents-with-Scrambled-Text-Deliver-Banking-Trojan-in-the-Background-477781.shtml
For additional stories, see item 24 below
in the Information Technology Sector and item 25 below
in the Communications Sector
Information Technology Sector
22. April 7, Help Net Security – (International) New
crypto-ransomware “quarantines” files, downloads info-stealer. Security
researchers at Trend Micro discovered a new piece of crypto-ransomware dubbed
CryptVault that uses open-source GnuPG to create RSA-1024 public and private
key pairs that encrypt files to make them resemble files quarantined by an
anti-virus solution, before asking for ransom and downloading and executing
Browser Password Dump to extract passwords stored by Web browsers. Attackers
spread the malware by tricking users into running malicious Javascript file
attachments. Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=3008
23. April 7, Softpedia – (International) Dell
System Detect flagged as a risk by antivirus product. Malwarebytes added
Dell’s System Detect tool to its list of potentially unwanted applications
(PUP) due to a serious remote code execution vulnerability in older versions
that attackers could exploit by initiating requests from Web sites containing a
“dell” string to download and launch files following an easily bypassed
authentication process. Dell mitigated the vulnerability in an update released
during the week of March 30. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Dell-System-Detect-Flagged-as-a-Risk-by-Antivirus-Product-477811.shtml
24. April 6, Softpedia – (International) Angler
Exploit Kit now relies on more successful infection tactics. Security
researchers from Zscaler’s Threat Lab identified an evolution in the Angler
Exploit Kit (EK) in which attackers are utilizing 302 Cushioning and domain
shadowing as infection vectors, in addition to typical malvertising that
targets users with outdated browser plug-ins. Researchers believe that the
malware dropped by Angler EK in recent attacks was a Carberp family banking
trojan. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Angler-Exploit-Kit-Now-Relies-on-More-Successful-Infection-Tactics-477736.shtml
For another story, see
item 6 above in the Financial Services Sector
Communications Sector
25. April 6, Associated Press
– (National) Man pleads guilty in phone ‘cramming’ case. A
Montana man pleaded guilty April 3 for his role in a cramming scheme that
involved adding $70 million in unauthorized charges onto customers’ phone bills
nationwide through answering questions on Web sites offering free products or
job-search assistance. A U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation was
initiated after consumers began complaining about erroneous charges on their
monthly bills, prompting the commission to bring civil action against the man,
his son, wife, accountant, and nine companies in 2013. Source: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/crime/2015/04/06/man-pleads-guilty-phone-cramming-case/25367601/
26. April 6, U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission – (National) SEC charges firms and
individuals for defrauding investors in cellular licensing scheme. The U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission charged 12 companies and 6 individuals April
6 for defrauding investors of more than $12.4 million from May 2012 – October
2014 in a scheme involving applications to the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission for cellular spectrum licenses. The accused allegedly engaged in the
unregistered offer and sale of securities and misrepresented the value and use
of certain cellular spectrum licenses in the 800 megahertz band. Source: http://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-57.html
27. April 6, Denver Business
Journal – (National) CenturyLink, Colorado's Intrado fined by FCC
over 911 outage. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued
CenturyLink Inc., $16 million in penalties and fined Intrado $1.4 million for a
9-1-1 emergency call service outage that lasted 6 hours and affected 11 million
people across 11 States in 2014. An FCC investigation determined that the
outage was due to a preventable technical outage and resulted in 6,600 missed
9-1-1 calls. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/boosters_bits/2015/04/centurylink-coloradosintrado-fined-by-fcc-over-911.html?page=all
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