Friday, January 29, 2016



Complete DHS Report for January 29, 2016

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• A Chinese businessman pleaded guilty January 27 after he and six others allegedly stole patented corn seeds from two Iowa farms and sent the genetically modified seeds to Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co., a foreign agricultural conglomerate. – Des Moines Register

13. January 27, Des Moines Register – (International) Chinese businessman gets deal in seed theft case. A Chinese businessman pleaded guilty January 27 to one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets after he and six others reportedly stole valuable patented corn seeds from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto Iowa farms and sent the genetically modified seeds to Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co., Chinese agricultural conglomerate, which allowed the foreign company to counterfeit the seeds and avoid paying for their own research and development. The scheme cost U.S. companies billions of dollars. Source: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/01/27/chinese-businessman-pleads-seed-theft-case/79428650/

• A 12-inch feeder line ruptured January 27 spilling 2 million gallons of water within 30 minutes in Rapid City, South Dakota, impacting hundreds of home and businesses in the area. – KOTA 3 Rapid City

14. January 27, KOTA 3 Rapid City – (South Dakota) Water main breaks at intersection causing problems. A 12-inch feeder line ruptured January 27 spilling 2 million gallons of water within 30 minutes in Rapid City, South Dakota, impacting hundreds of home and businesses in the area. Crews restored about 90 percent of water service after several hours. Source: http://www.kotatv.com/news/south-dakota-news/water-main-breaks-at-intersection-causing-problems/37667840

• The Orange County Sheriff’s Department reported that 5 alleged gang members were arrested January 27 for reportedly helping 3 inmates escape from the Orange County Men’s Central Jail January 22. – Los Angeles Times

19. January 27, Los Angeles Times – (California) Alleged gang members arrested in O.C. jailbreak probe, but 3 escapees still at large. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department reported that 5 alleged gang members were arrested January 27 for reportedly helping 3 inmates escape from the Orange County Men’s Central Jail January 22. Officials reported that additional arrests are pending and that the three escaped inmates remain at large. Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-orange-county-sheriff-jail-break-20160127-story.html

• The FBI reported January 26 that they arrested and charged a Milwaukee man for illegally possessing machine guns and planning a massacre at a Masonic temple after he disclosed his plans to attack a Milwaukee temple to two undercover FBI agents. – CNN

28. January 27, CNN – (Illinois) FBI: Milwaukee man planned mass shooting at Masonic temple. An FBI official announced January 26 that they arrested and charged a Milwaukee man for illegally possessing machine guns and planning a massacre at a Masonic temple after the man disclosed his plans to attack a Milwaukee temple to two undercover FBI agents following an in-depth Federal investigation. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/26/us/milwaukee-masonic-temple-mass-shooting-planned-charges/

Financial Services Sector

Nothing to report

Information Technology Sector

20. January 28, SecurityWeek – (International) Samsung patches critical vulnerabilities in Android devices. Samsung released a maintenance update for its major Android flagship Galaxy models that patched 16 vulnerabilities including a flaw in Skia which allowed attackers to conduct denial-of-service attacks via a crafted media file, and a remote code execution (RCE) flaw in Android Mediaserver, which allowed attackers to cause memory corruption, among other vulnerabilities. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/samsung-patches-critical-vulnerabilities-android-devices

21. January 28, Softpedia – (International) WhatsApp will get security indicators to highlight encrypted chats. WhatsApp mobile messaging application will release two new features in its WhatsApp 3.0 interface including the “Show security indicators” feature that will add a lock icon to a user’s WhatsApp encrypted conversations and the “Share my account info” feature that will send a user’s WhatsApp data to Facebook servers in an effort to improve users’ Facebook experience. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/whatsapp-will-get-security-indicators-to-highlight-encrypted-chats-499552.shtml

22. January 28, Help Net Security – (International) Cisco plugs hole in firewall devices that could lead to device hijacking. Cisco released firmware updates for its RV220W Wireless Network Security Firewall devices, specifically versions prior to 1.0.7.2, after an anonymous researcher working with Beyond Security discovered a critical vulnerability that allowed attackers to send crafted Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request embedded with malicious Structured Query Language (SQL) statements to the management interface of a targeted device, which may allow attackers to bypass authentication protocols on the management interface and gain administrative privileges on the infected device. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=19383

23. January 28, SecurityWeek – (International) LG patches severe smartphone hijack vulnerability. LG Electronics released patches fixing a critical vulnerability in the Smart Notice application (SNAP), which comes pre-loaded on all LG smartphones, after researchers from BugSec and Cynet discovered the flaw can allow attackers to extract private user information from the device’s secure digital (SD) card, WhatsApp application data, and private user images, as well as render users vulnerable to phishing attacks, ultimately resulting in the installation of mobile malware on the affected devices. Attackers can exploit the vulnerability through different methods due to functionality issues and validation issues. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/lg-patches-severe-smartphone-hijack-vulnerability

24. January 28, SecurityWeek – (International) Oracle to kill Java browser plugin. Oracle reported January 27 that it plans to discontinue the Java browser plugin in its Java Development Kit (JDK) 9 and remove the plugin completely from JDK and Runtime Environment (JRE) in a future Java release due to the large number of vulnerabilities found in the plugin. Security experts advised users to disable the application unless specifically needed and to ensure users are running the latest Java version. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/oracle-kill-java-browser-plugin

25. January 28, Threatpost – (International) BlackEnergy APT group spreading malware via tainted word docs. Researchers from Kaspersky Lab discovered attackers were delivering the BlackEnergy malware via spear phishing emails with malicious Microsoft Word document attachments, which are embedded with malicious macros to target Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) companies around the world. Source: https://threatpost.com/blackenergy-apt-group-spreading-malware-via-tainted-word-docs/116043/

26. January 27, SecurityWeek – (International) This is what Microsoft’s vulnerability patching efforts looked like in 2015. Researchers from ESET released a report that analyzed the most affected components in Microsoft Windows during 2015 and addressed the importance of patching vulnerabilities, which revealed that more than 570 vulnerabilities were patched in Microsoft products and that many of the patches affected the Internet Explorer (IE) browser. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/what-microsofts-vulnerability-patching-efforts-looked-2015

Communications Sector

Nothing to report