Monday, September 12, 2016



Complete DHS Report for September 12, 2016

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

• Ford Motor Company expanded a previous recall September 8 to include an additional 1.5 million of its model years 2012 – 2016 vehicles in select makes due to a problem in the pawl spring tab in the side door latches where the tabs can break and prevent the doors from closing, thereby increasing the risk of injury. – TheCarConnection.com

1. September 8, TheCarConnection.com – (National) Ford adds 1.5 million vehicles to door latch recall: Escape, Focus, Mustang, Lincoln MKC, more. Ford Motor Company expanded a previous recall September 8 to include an additional 1.5 million of its model years 2012 – 2016 vehicles in select makes due to a problem affecting the pawl spring tab in the side door latches where the tabs can break and prevent the doors from closing, or cause the door to open while the vehicle is in motion, thereby increasing the risk of injury. Ford has received three injury reports potentially linked to the recall. Source:

• Officials fined Wells Fargo & Company a total of $185 million September 8 after the bank’s employees allegedly opened more than 2 million unauthorized bank and credit card accounts to meet projected sales goals. – Associated Press See item 4 below in the Financial Services Sector

• A former Demarest, New Jersey resident pleaded guilty September 8 for his role in a $65 million identity theft scheme where he and co-conspirators filed fraudulent tax returns and obtained $4.7 million in tax refund checks. – Mahwah Patch See item 5 below in the Financial Services Sector

• A former medical director of several Orlando, Florida-based clinics was charged September 8 for his alleged participation in a $13.8 million Medicare health care fraud scheme from July 2008 – December 2011. – U.S. Department of Justice

16. September 8, U.S. Department of Justice – (Florida) Florida doctor indicted for role in $13.8 million Medicare fraud scheme. The former medical director of several Orlando, Florida-based clinics, including Legend Medical & Rehabilitation Inc., Incare Medical & Rehab Center Inc., and CKD Health Care Inc., among others, was charged in an indictment filed September 8 for his alleged participation in a $13.8 million Medicare health care fraud scheme where he and a co-conspirator caused the submission and concealment of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for expensive prescription drugs and physical therapy that were not provided or medically necessary from July 2008 – December 2011. Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/florida-doctor-indicted-role-138-million-medicare-fraud-scheme

Financial Services Sector

4. September 8, Associated Press – (National) Wells Fargo fined $185M on phony accounts, fires 5,300 staff. California and Federal regulators fined Wells Fargo & Company a total of $185 million September 8 after the bank’s employees allegedly opened more than 2 million bank and credit card accounts and transferred money into those accounts without the authorization of its customers in order to meet projected sales goals. Officials reported that 5,300 Wells Fargo employees were fired in connection with the fraudulent activities. Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/wells-fargo-fined-185-million-improper-account-openings-n645031

5. September 8, Mahwah Patch – (National) Former Bergen man admits role in $65 million identity theft scheme. A former Demarest, New Jersey resident pleaded guilty September 8 to Federal charges for his role in a $65 million identity theft scheme where he and co-conspirators stole the birth dates and Social Security numbers from Puerto Rican citizens in order to file fraudulent tax returns and obtain $4.7 million in tax refund checks, which he deposited into bank accounts controlled by the group. The man also stated he and co-conspirators bribed a mail carrier to intercept the refund checks before they were delivered to the identity theft victims. Source: http://patch.com/new-jersey/mahwah/former-bergen-man-admits-role-65-million-identity-theft-scheme

Information Technology Sector

20. September 9, Softpedia – (International) New Linux trojan discovered coded in Mozilla’s Rust language. Dr. Web security researchers discovered a new trojan coded in Mozilla’s Rust programming language was targeting Linux-based platforms and found that an attacker in control of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel can send a message to the channel’s public chat that forces all connected bots to parse the message and execute the malicious action. The researchers believe this is a testing version of the malware as the trojan infects victims and gathers information about the device’s local system and sends it to its command and control (C&C) center. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/new-linux-trojan-discovered-coded-in-mozilla-s-rust-language-508135.shtml

21. September 8, SecurityWeek – (International) DropboxCache cross-platform backdoor targets OS X. Kaspersky Lab security researchers discovered that the DropboxCache, known as Mokes.A or Backdoor.OSX.Mokes now targets Apple Mac operating system (OS) X devices and establishes a connection to the command and control (C&C) server using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 80 in order to set up its backdoor features on an infected device, which include capturing audio, monitoring removable storage, scanning the file system for Microsoft Office documents, as well as creating a series of temp files with the collected data when the C&C server is not available, among other features. Researchers warned the malware’s operator can execute arbitrary commands on the infected system and define own file filters to improve its monitoring of the file system. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/dropboxcache-cross-platform-backdoor-targets-os-x

Communications Sector

Nothing to report