Complete DHS Report for May 9, 2016
Daily Report
Top Stories
• Two men were arrested and charged May 5 after detectives caught
them using counterfeit credit cards to make fraudulent purchases at the
Dadeland Mall and stores throughout Miami-Dade County. – WTVJ 6 Miami See item 4 below in
the Financial Services Sector
• Service on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s
Orange and Blue lines was restored May 6 after service was suspended at four
stations in Washington, D.C. May 5 following two track fires. – WRC 4
Washington, D.C.
7. May 6, WRC
4 Washington, D.C. – (Washington, D.C.) Metro service restored after fire closes 2
stations. Service on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s
Orange and Blue lines between Eastern Market and L’Enfant Plaza and between
Capitol South and Federal Center SW was restored May 6 after service was
suspended May 5 when two separate fires shut down a section of the track,
prompting the closures. Officials stated that one fire was sparked by a
porcelain insulator which will be replaced with fiberglass parts, while the
other was due to debris on the track. Source: http://www.nbcwashington.com/traffic/transit/Metro-Trains-on-3-Lines-Delayed-by-Track-Problem-378320681.html
• A painter at Hartwood Farm in Willistown Township, Pennsylvania,
was charged May 5 for allegedly embezzling $927,100 from the farm by depositing
stolen checks into various personal accounts. – WPVI 6 Philadelphia
11. May 5,
WPVI 6 Philadelphia – (Pennsylvania) Bryn Mawr painter accused of stealing $900K
from Chester County farm. A painter at Hartwood Farm in Willistown
Township, Pennsylvania, was charged May 5 for allegedly embezzling $927,100
from the farm after he stole 148 blank checks, forged the property owner’s
signature, and deposited the fraudulent checks into various personal accounts
from May 2014-February 2016. Officials stated the man used the money for
personal expenses. Source: http://6abc.com/news/painter-accused-of-stealing-$900k-from-pa-farm/1325168/
• A 4-alarm warehouse fire
May 5 at Custom Packaging and Filling Company in west Houston prompted a
shelter-in-place for residents and the evacuation of 730 people from Spring
Branch Elementary School. – Houston Chronicle
26. May 6,
Houston Chronicle – (Texas) Four-alarm sends plumes of smoke across Houston,
runoff into creeks. A 4-alarm warehouse fire May 5 at Custom Packaging and
Filling Company in west Houston prompted a shelter-in-place for residents,
evacuated 730 people from the Spring Branch Elementary School and surrounding
businesses, and prompted more than 170 firefighters to remain on site
containing the incident after the fire began in a garage area of a nearby home.
Officials warned residents to avoid the Spring Branch Creek and nearby ditches
and culverts after chemical additives from firefighters’ efforts flowed into
the creek. Source: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Three-alarm-fire-burns-at-business-in-NW-Houston-7395178.php
Financial Services Sector
3. May 6,
SecurityWeek – (International) New trojan targets banks in US, Mexico. Researchers
from Zscaler discovered that a new information stealer trojan which leverages
legitimate tools to target online banking users in the U.S. and Mexico is
delivered via the “curp.pdf.exe” installer served on several compromised Web
sites which downloads a main payload file, a Fiddler dynamic link library (DLL)
file, and a Json.Net DLL file on a victim’s device to collect system
information and send it back to the command and control (C&C) server, to
parse the server’s response and save the information in an extensible markup
language (XML) file, and to intercept Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Secure
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) connections and redirect users to a
malicious Web site masked as a bank’s legitimate domain.
4. May 5,
WTVJ 6 Miami – (Florida) Pair arrested in counterfeit credit card scheme:
MDPD. Two men were arrested and charged May 5 after detectives witnessed
the duo using counterfeit credit cards to make fraudulent purchases at the
Dadeland Mall and stores throughout Miami-Dade County. Authorities stated a
subsequent search of one of the suspects’ vehicles revealed 192 counterfeit
credit cards. Source: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Pair-Arrested-in-Counterfeit-Credit-Card-Scheme-MDPD-378339951.html
5. May 5,
Chicago Sun Times – (Illinois) Chicago financial adviser pleads guilty to $4.2M
fraud. The operator of a Chicago-based investment firm, D.J. Mosier and
Associates pleaded guilty May 5 to defrauding 9 clients out of more than $4.2
million by persuading them to invest in phony “Chicago Anticipatory Notes” debt
securities. The financial adviser cashed the investors’ checks into her
personal bank account and used the money for personal expenses, and to make
bogus interest payments to previous clients.
Information Technology Sector
20. May 6,
Help Net Security – (International) Android trojan pesters victims, won’t take no
for an answer. Avast researchers determined that an information-stealing
Android trojan that is inadvertently downloaded by users, begins its infection
after an icon is installed in the launcher in the name of a fake app which
launches a dialog box that asks the user to grant it admin rights and blocks
further access. Users can remove the trojan by powering down the phone and
restoring it to factory settings or uninstalling the app. Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/05/06/android-trojan-pesters-victims/
21. May 6,
Threatpost – (International) New security flaw found in Lenovo Solution
Center software. Trustwave SpiderLabs reported a new vulnerability in
Lenovo’s Solution Center software which is tied to the software’s backend and
can allow an attacker with local network access to a PC to execute arbitrary
code and elevate privileges. The company updated a previous security advisory
disclosing the additional vulnerability and released a fix addressing the
vulnerability. Source: https://threatpost.com/new-security-flaw-found-in-lenovo-solution-center-software/117896/
22. May 5,
Softpedia – (International) Ransomware infections grew 14 percent in
early 2016, April the worst month. Kaspersky, Enigma Software Group, and
the FBI issued a warning to companies about the increase in ransomware
infections following reports of at least 2,900 new ransomware variants,
representing a 14 percent increase in Quarter 1 of 2016. Researchers also found
a significant increase in the number of attacks during April. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/ransomware-infections-grew-14-percent-in-early-2016-april-the-worst-month-503743.shtml
23. May 5,
Softpedia – (International) New Attack on WordPress sites redirects
traffic to malicious URLs. Security researchers from Sucuri reported that
hackers were continuously leveraging vulnerabilities in older WordPress
versions or WordPress plugins by altering the Web sites’ main theme’s
header.php file via 12 lines of obfuscated code to redirect users to malicious
Web sites. In addition, Joomla Web sites were seen with a similar malicious
code in the administrator/includes/help.php file. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/new-attack-on-wordpress-sites-redirects-traffic-to-malicious-urls-503740.shtml
24. May 5,
SecurityWeek – (International) Qualcomm software flaw exposes Android user
data. Security researchers from FireEye discovered Qualcomm Technologies,
Inc., open source software package and devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and
earlier versions were plagued with an information disclosure vulnerability that
could allow a malicious application to access user information as long as the
application has the “ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE” permission. Qualcomm issued security
updates patching the vulnerability.
25. May 5,
SecurityWeek – (International) Adobe issues pre-patch advisory for Reader,
Acrobat. Adobe issued a pre-patch advisory stating that it will release
patches for its PDF Reader and Acrobat software products May 10, which will
address critical vulnerabilities on the Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac
operating system (OS) X platforms.
For another story, see item 3 above
in the Financial Services Sector
Communications Sector
Nothing to report
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