Complete DHS Report for
April 13, 2015
Daily Report
Top Stories
· A $1.6
billion penalty was issued to Pacific Gas & Electric Company April 9 for a
2010 fatal gas-pipeline explosion in California that killed 8 people and
destroyed a neighborhood. – San Jose Mercury News
1. April 10, San Jose Mercury
News – (California) PG&E
slapped with record $1.6 billion penalty for fatal San Bruno explosion. The
California Public Utilities Commission announced April 9 that it issued a $1.6
billion penalty to Pacific Gas & Electric Company for a 2010 fatal
gas-pipeline explosion in San Bruno that killed 8 people and destroyed a
neighborhood. Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_27880159/san-bruno-pg-e-faces-record-penalty-punishment
· The
former controller of Illinois-based Molex Japan Co. Ltd., was charged April 9
after he allegedly caused the company $201.9 million in net losses through
unauthorized equity trading. – U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission See item 5
below in the Financial Services Sector
· Law
enforcement organizations and private security companies worked to disrupt the
Changeup worm botnet and sinkhole its command-and-control (C&C) servers
after the worm leveraged a LNK vulnerability in Windows, infecting 30,000
systems in early 2015. – Softpedia See
item 25 below in the Information Technology Sector
· Severe
storms April 8-9 damaged about 15 buildings in the St. Louis area, and caused
damage to about 50 structures in Fairdale, Illinois. – St. Louis
Post-Dispatch
30. April 10, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – (Missouri;
Illinois) Storms damage about 15 buildings in Chesterfield near airport,
flood Madison County roads. Severe storms passing through the St. Louis
area April 8-9 damaged about 15 buildings in a light industrial business area
in Chesterfield, and knocked out power to about 26,000 customers. The storm
also killed 1 person and injured 7 others while causing damage to approximately
50 structures in Fairdale, Illinois. Source: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/storms-damage-buildings-in-chesterfield-near-airport-flood-madison-county/article_6de323a5-face-551a-a1f7-d044e185e6bd.html
Financial Services Sector
5.
April 9, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – (International) SEC
announces fraud charges against former accounting executive at Japanese
subsidiary. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former
controller of Lisle-based Molex Japan Co. Ltd., a Japanese subsidiary of Molex
Incorporated, with fraud April 9 after he allegedly caused the company $201.9
million in net losses through unauthorized equity trading in the company’s
brokerage accounts, which he tried to conceal by falsifying records and taking
out unauthorized loans with Japanese banks and brokerage firms to replenish the
funds and engage in further trading. Source: http://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-65.html
6.
April 9, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – (Florida; New York) SEC
halts microcap scheme in South Florida. The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission announced fraud charges and an asset freeze April 9 against the CEO
and 3 sales agents of Boca Raton-based eCareer Holdings, Inc., in a microcap
scheme in which they allegedly defrauded over 400 investors out of more than
$11 million since 2010 by selling unregistered stock shares in the company,
falsely advertising the shares as a profitable investment, and concealing the
exorbitant fees being paid to the sales agents. Source: http://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-63.html
7.
April 8, CBS News – (National) Federal agency sues collectors of “phantom
debt”. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unsealed a March 26 lawsuit
April 9 against two Georgia men, co-conspirators, and 7 debt collection
companies following allegations that the firms used cold calls to convince
millions of consumers to pay debts they did not owe through tactics that
involved purchasing personal information such as bank account numbers from data
brokers. A telemarketing company and several payment processing companies were
also charged in the scheme. Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-agency-sues-collectors-of-phantom-debt/
Information Technology Sector
24. April 10,
Softpedia – (International) OS X 10.9.x and older vulnerable to hidden
backdoor API. A Swedish security researcher discovered a hidden backdoor
application programming interface (API) present in the Admin framework of Apple
OS X versions prior to 10.10.2 that could grant attackers root access to users
with both admin and regular user accounts. Apple patched the issue in its
release of OS X 10.10.3 Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/OS-X-10-9-x-and-Older-Vulnerable-to-Hidden-Backdoor-API-478136.shtml
25. April 10,
Softpedia – (International) United States, South Africa most affected by
Changeup worm. A task force of European and American law enforcement
organizations and private security companies including Intel, Kaspersky, and
Shadowserver took action to disrupt the Changeup worm botnet and sinkhole its
command-and-control (C&C) servers. The worm morphed every few hours and
leveraged a LNK vulnerability in Windows to infect approximately 30,000 systems
in early 2015, and downloaded other pieces of malware including banking
trojans, click-fraud programs, crypto-malware and other botnet threats. Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/United-States-South-Africa-Most-Affected-By-Changeup-Worm-478175.shtml
26. April 9,
Softpedia – (International) Multiple flaws found in Motorola’s Surfboard
SBG6580 cable modem. Security researchers at Rapid7 discovered
vulnerabilities in Motorola Home/ARRIS Surfboard SBG6580 series cable modems
including a backdoor account with hardcoded credentials and persistent
cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) flaws that
could allow attackers that know the internal gateway internet protocol (IP)
address to access the device remotely, change network settings, and inject
malicious JavaScript (JS) code. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Multiple-Flaws-Found-in-Motorola-s-Surfboard-SBG6580-Cable-Modem-478071.shtml
27. April 9,
Softpedia – (International) Cisco threat defense tool vulnerable to DoS
attack. Cisco released a security advisory that a flaw in the company’s ASA
FirePOWER and Context Aware (CX) Services can be exploited to allow attackers
to cause denial-of-service (DoS) conditions by sending a high rate of crafted
packets to the services’ management interface. Cisco released updates for the
products addressing the issues as well as three additional related glitches.
Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cisco-Threat-Defense-Tool-Vulnerable-to-DoS-Attack-478082.shtml
28. April 9,
Softpedia – (International) Group uses over 300,000 unique passwords in
SSH log-in brute-force attacks. Security researchers from Cisco Talos Group
and Level 3 Communications collaborated to monitor and take down netblocks
being used by a group of cybercriminals dubbed SSHPsychos to run large amounts
of scamming traffic, utilizing a dictionary to find root user log-in
credentials and install distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) rootkits that add
compromised systems to a persistent DDoS botnet. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Group-Uses-Over-300-000-Unique-Passwords-in-SSH-Log-In-Brute-Force-Attacks-478094.shtml
Communications Sector
29. April 9, KIRO 7 Seattle –
(Washington) Comcast service restored to 33,000 customers. Internet,
phone, and cable service was restored to about 33,000 Comcast customers in the
Seattle area after a damaged fiber optic line knocked out service for several
hours April 9. Customers who could not access 9-1-1 emergency services from a
landline were advised to call from a mobile phone in case of an emergency.
Source: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/comcast-customers-report-outages-seattle/nkqfx/