Complete DHS Report for April
3, 2015
Daily Report
Top Stories
· North
Carolina Department of Transportation officials announced April 1 that Internet
services were restored at DMV offices across the State after a cut in a fiber
optic cable caused an outage for roughly 5 hours. – Charlotte Observer
16. April
1, Charlotte Observer – (North Carolina) DMV services restored in
NC after fiber optic cable cut. North Carolina Department of Transportation
officials announced April 1 that Internet services were restored at DMV offices
across the State after a cut in a fiber optic cable caused services to go down
for roughly 5 hours. Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article17101172.html
· The
governor of California issued an executive order April 1 enforcing a 25 percent
reduction on the State’s 400 local water supply agencies after claiming that
the State’s 4-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions. – New York
Times
26. April
1, New York Times – (California) California imposes first
mandatory water restrictions to deal with drought. The governor of
California issued an executive order April 1 enforcing a 25 percent reduction
on the State’s 400 local water supply agencies after claiming that the State’s
4-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions. The order will impose
varying degrees of cutbacks for homeowners, businesses, farms, and others,
while water companies will be required to create restrictions to cut back on
water use and monitor for compliance. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/california-imposes-first-ever-water-restrictions-to-deal-with-drought.html
· Eleven
out of 12 educators in Atlanta were found guilty April 1 in connection to
conspiring to cheat in order to boost test scores on the Atlanta Public Schools
Criterion-Referenced Competency Test for financial gain. – WGCL 46 Atlanta
29. April
2, WGCL 46 Atlanta – (Georgia) 11 of 12 found guilty in APS
cheating trial. Eleven out of 12 educators in Atlanta were found guilty
April 1 in connection to conspiring to cheat or concealing cheating in order to
boost test scores on the Atlanta Public Schools Criterion-Referenced Competency
Test for financial gain. A total of 35 educators were charged in March 2013 following
a 2009 investigation that revealed system-wide cheating on the tests. Source: http://www.cbs46.com/story/28622132/aps-educators-wait-for-fate
· A former
Miami police lieutenant pleaded guilty in New Jersey March 31 to receiving over
$160,000 in cash and material goods for aiding a gang by purchasing and
transporting firearms, drugs, and drug cash on commercial flights. – Newark
Star-Ledger
32. April 1, Newark Star-Ledger – (International) Miami drug
cop went rogue to aid N.J. trafficking ring, feds say. A former Miami police
lieutenant pleaded guilty in New Jersey March 31 to receiving over $160,000 in
cash and material goods for aiding a gang by purchasing and transporting
firearms, drugs, and drug cash on commercial flights to and from New Jersey,
New York, Miami, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic using his position as a
police lieutenant to easily transport the items. Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/miami_drug_cop_went_rogue_to_aid_nj_trafficking_ri.html
Financial Services Sector
8. April 1,
South Florida Sun-Sentinel – (Florida) Broward man committed securities
fraud linked to Ponzi scheme, jury finds. A Broward man was found guilty of
securities fraud April 1 for his role in a scheme in which he raised more than
$157 million from at least 150 investors through 2 private investment funds,
and purchased non-existent, legal settlements from a Fort Lauderdale attorney
that was convicted of running a $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme. Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-rothstein-ponzi-george-levin-brf-20150401-story.html
9. April 1,
WLS 7 Chicago – (Illinois) ‘Black Cap Bandit’ sought in 5 bank robberies, FBI
says. The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to the capture
of a suspect dubbed the Black Cap Bandit who is believed to be connected to 5
robberies at TCF Bank and Standard Bank branches in the Chicago area from
September – December 2014. Source: http://abc7chicago.com/news/fbi-black-cap-bandit-sought-in-5-bank-robberies/604249/
10. April 1,
Reuters – (New York) N.Y. lawyer charged for alleged role in scheme
over Maxim magazine. A former New York lawyer at Bryan Cave LLP was charged
April 1 for his alleged role in a conspiracy with a former United Parcel
Service Inc. executive’s son that defrauded investors out of more than $8
million and attempted to secure another $20 million to finance the purchase of
Maxim magazine by making misrepresentations to various lenders. The former
executive’s son pleaded guilty to related charges in November 2014. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/us-usa-maxim-crime-idUSKBN0MS56Y20150401
11. April 1,
Five Towns Patch – (New York) Customs: $730K in fake checks, money orders
smuggled into JFK. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at New
York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport seized 516 counterfeit bank and
money orders totaling $732,585 in a shipment from the Ivory Coast over the
weekend of March 28. The officers deemed the documents fake after noticing that
they lacked the necessary security features found in legitimate monetary
instruments. Source: http://patch.com/new-york/fivetowns/customs-730k-fake-checks-money-orders-smuggled-jfk
Information Technology Sector
33. April 2, Help Net Security – (International) Google
decides to stop trusting CNNIC certificates. Google security engineers
announced that the company would no longer allow its Chrome Web browser to
recognize digital certificates issued by the China Internet Network Information
Center (CNNIC), following an incident during the week of March 23 in which an
intermediate certificate authority (CA) operating under CNNIC issued a number
of unauthorized digital certificates for Google domains. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=18164
34. April 2, Securityweek – (International) Researchers
spot 64-bit version of NewPosThings trojan. Security researchers at Trend
Micro identified a new 64-bit version of the NewPosThings point-of-sale (PoS)
malware that infects systems by collecting passwords for virtual network
computing (VNC) software and disabling operating system security warnings for
certain file extensions, and collects user inputs and payment card information
via memory scraping. Experts discovered command and control (C&C) servers
used by the trojan associated with internet protocol (IP) addresses at two U.S.
airports. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/researchers-spot-64-bit-version-newposthings-trojan
35. April 1, Threatpost – (International) Critical
vulnerabilities affect JSON Web Token libraries. A Canadian security
researcher discovered vulnerabilities in several JavaScript Object Notation
(JSON) Web Token (JWT) libraries that could allow attackers to bypass
verification steps and access servers by exploiting a public key confusion
between systems signed with keyed-hash message authentication codes (HMAC) and
Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) keys. The issue can be addressed by configuring
servers to reject tokens with different signatures via a whitelisting or blacklisting
mechanism. Source: http://threatpost.com/critical-vulnerabilities-affect-json-web-token-libraries/111943
Communications Sector
Nothing to report