Daily Report
Top Stories
· Federal
authorities announced July 16 that Minnesota Power, an ALLETE company, reached
a settlement and will spend over $500 million to resolve claims that the
company violated provisions of the Clean Air Act. – U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
3.
July 16, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency –
(Minnesota) US settlement with Minnesota coal-fired utility to reduce
emissions, fund projects to benefit environment and communities. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice announced
July 16 that Minnesota Power, an ALLETE company based in Duluth reached a
settlement to install pollution control technology and meet emission rates to
resolve claims that the company violated the New Source Review provisions of
the Clean Air Act. The company will spend over $500 million to implement the
required measures, pay a civil penalty of $1.4 million, and spend at least $4.2
million on environmental projects. Source: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/8EDE3E667860955D85257D17006FCAF2
· Three armed suspects robbed a Bank of the West branch in
Stockton, California, July 16 and then took three hostages, started a chase,
and exchanged gunfire that resulted in two robbers and one hostage being shot
and killed. – Associated Press See item 6 below in the Financial Services Sector
· Officials
announced July 16 that an additional 12 boxes and 327 vials holding several
pathogens were found in a storage room on the National Institutes for Health
campus in Bethesda, Maryland. – Washington Post
17. July 16, Washington Post – (Maryland) FDA found more than smallpox vials in
storage room. Authorities continue to investigate after the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration announced July 16 that officials found an additional 12
boxes and 327 vials holding several pathogens in a storage room on the National
Institutes for Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland, after vials of smallpox
were found in July. The vials contained microbes of influenza, dengue, and
rickettsia, among others, and showed no signs of leakage. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-found-more-than-smallpox-vials-in-storage-room/2014/07/16/850d4b12-0d22-11e4-8341-b8072b1e7348_story.html
· Fire crews worked July 17 to contain wildfires burning in
Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Utah that combined, has burned tens
of thousands of acres and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes. – Associated
Press
18.
July 17, Associated Press – (National)
Washington wildfire burns through alp-like terrain. Fire crews worked to
contain wildfires burning in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Utah
that combined, has burned tens of thousands of acres and prompted the
evacuation of hundreds of homes, the closure of a 35-mile stretch of U.S.
Highway 2 in Leavenworth, Washington, and caused the governor’s offices in both
Washington and Oregon to declare states of emergency. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/washington-firefighters-battle-heat-high-winds-24587836
Financial Services Sector
6. July 17, Associated Press – (California) California bank robbery ends in 3 deaths.
Three robbers armed with assault rifles robbed a Bank of the West branch in
Stockton July 16 and then took three hostages and fled in a stolen vehicle,
starting a chase and exchange of fire that resulted in two robbers and one
hostage being shot and killed. The other two hostages were also injured and
several police cars and nearby homes were also hit by bullets. Source: http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/3-dead-after-california-bank-robbery-gunbattle
7. July 17, Help Net Security – (International) 63% of businesses don’t encrypt credit
cards. SecurityMetrics found in a study that 63.86 percent of businesses
surveyed store unencrypted 16-digit payment cards on their systems, and 7
percent store magnetic stripe data, providing easy targets for fraud, among
other findings. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=1713
8. July 16, U.S. Attorney’s Office,
Southern District of Florida –
(Florida) Mortgage lender pleads guilty in multi-million-dollar mortgage
fraud scheme. The former president of KMC Mortgage Corporation of Florida
pleaded guilty July 16 to working with others to recruit individuals as straw
borrowers in an $11 million fraudulent loan scheme. The scheme used radio
programs in the south Florida area and targeted members of the Haitian
community there in an affinity scheme. Source: http://www.fbi.gov/miami/press-releases/2014/mortgage-lender-pleads-guilty-in-multi-million-dollar-mortgage-fraud-scheme
9. July 16, Columbia The State – (South Carolina) Upstate man pleads guilty in wire
fraud scheme that cost victims more than $1 million. A Spartanburg man
pleaded guilty July 16 to running a check kiting scheme in South Carolina that
used several bank accounts and automotive dealerships that defrauded victims of
over $1 million. Source: http://www.thestate.com/2014/07/16/3567676/upstate-man-pleads-guilty-in-wire.html
For another story, see item 21 below in the Information Technology
Sector
Information Technology Sector
21. July 17, The Register – (International) Pushdo trojan outbreak: 11 THOUSAND
systems infected in just 24 hours. Bitdefender researchers reported that a
new campaign to spread the Pushdo botnet malware compromised over 11,000
systems within a 24-hour period, with the majority of infected users in Asia
and some in the U.S., U.K., and France. The Pushdo botnet has previously been
used in spam campaigns and to distribute malware such as Zeus and SpyEye.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/17/pushdo_trojan_outbreak/
22. July 17, Softpedia – (International) Cisco patches critical issue in
wireless residential gateway products. Cisco released patches for several
Cisco Wireless Residential Gateway products, closing a vulnerability that could
allow attackers to use malicious HTTP requests to crash the Web server and
inject commands or execute code with elevated privileges. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cisco-Patches-Critical-Issue-in-Wireless-Residential-Gateway-Products-451109.shtml
23. July 17, Softpedia – (International) SQL injection risk in vBulletin
receives prompt patch. vBulletin released a patch for its forum software
which closes a SQL injection vulnerability that was identified and disclosed by
Romanian Security Team. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/SQL-Injection-Risk-in-vBulletin-Receives-Prompt-Patch-451090.shtml
24. July 17, Softpedia – (International) Critical vulnerabilities fixed in
Drupal 7.29 and 6.32. The Drupal Security Team advised all users to update
to versions to 7.29 or 6.32 in order to close vulnerabilities that could allow
attackers to perform denial of service (DoS) attacks cross-site scripting (XSS)
attacks. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Critical-Vulnerabilities-Fixed-in-Drupal-7-29-and-6-32-451074.shtml
25. July 17, Threatpost – (International) Five vulnerabilities fixed in Apache
Web Server. The Apache Software Foundation released version 2.4.10-dev of
its Apache Web Server, closing five vulnerabilities, including a buffer
overflow vulnerability and several denial of service (DoS) vulnerabilities.
Source: http://threatpost.com/five-vulnerabilities-fixed-in-apache-web-server/107278
Communications Sector
Nothing
to report