Monday, July 20, 2015




Complete DHS Report for July 20, 2015

Daily Report                                            

Top Stories

 · Massachusetts police arrested a suspect July 15 who is believed to be connected to a ring of Romanian ATM skimmers that have stolen over $1 million from Bank of America. – WFXT 25 Boston See item 3 below in the Financial Services Sector

 · Officials revealed July 15 that airline workers smuggled drugs through a Texas airport for distribution nationwide as part of an undercover operation orchestrated by Federal and local agents that led to the indictment of 46 people. – Washington Post

12. July 16, Washington Post – (National) 46 indicted in alleged drug ring at Tex. airport. Officials revealed July 15 that airline workers smuggled drugs through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for distribution nationwide as part of an undercover operation orchestrated by Federal and local agents that led to the indictment of 46 people who allegedly helped carry drugs to evade the Transportation Security Administration, and board planes to Chicago, Las Vegas, Newark, Phoenix, Wichita and San Francisco.

 · Aspen Foods, a subsidy of Koch Poultry Company of Chicago, is recalling approximately 1,978,680 pounds of frozen, raw, stuffed, and breaded chicken products due to possible salmonella enteritis contamination.– Food Safety News  

15. July 16, Food Safety News – (National) Nearly 2 million pounds of frozen, raw stuffed chicken products recalled. Aspen Foods, a subsidy of Koch Poultry Company of Chicago, is recalling approximately 1,978,680 pounds of frozen, raw, stuffed, and breaded chicken products due to possible salmonella enteritis contamination. The products were shipped nationwide. Source: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/07/nearly-2-million-pounds-of-frozen-raw-stuffed-chicken-products-recalled/#.VajsINxBSUk

 · A Colorado man was convicted July 17 of 24 counts of first-degree murder from a July 2012 theater shooting in which 12 people died and 70 others wounded. – CNN

20. July 17, CNN – (Colorado) Found guilty of murder in Colorado theater shooting. A Colorado man was convicted July 17 of 24 counts of first-degree murder from a July 2012 theater shooting in which 12 people died and 70 others wounded. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/16/us/james-holmes-trial-colorado-movie-theater-shooting-verdict/index.html

Financial Services Sector

2. July 17, Long Beach Press-Telegram – (California) ‘Cal Bear Bandit’ pleads guilty to bank robberies in Westminster. The suspect dubbed the “Cal Bear Bandit” pleaded guilty July 16 to charges surrounding 8 bank robberies across Orange County dating back to August 2014.

3. July 16, WFXT 25 Boston – (Massachusetts) Medford police arrest man possibly connected to ATM skimming ring. Police in Medford, Massachusetts arrested a suspect July 15 believed to be connected to a ring of Romanian ATM skimmers that have stolen over $1 million from Bank of America. The suspect allegedly stole over $100,000 from the bank and is linked to 4 other cases in Massachusetts. Source: http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/29566726/medford-police-arrest-man-possibly-connected-to-atm-skimming-ring

4. July 16, Dow Jones Business News – (National) BMO Harris settles Ponzi scheme lawsuit for $16 million. BMO Harris Bank agreed to pay $16 million July 16 in a settlement with Palm Beach Finance Partners LP and Palm Beach Finance II LP, resolving allegations that its subsidiary, M&I Bank, was complicit in a Ponzi scheme run by a Minnesota businessman that cost investors billions of dollars. Source: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/bmo-harris-settles-ponzi-scheme-lawsuit-for-16-million-20150716-00873

5. July 16, U.S. Department of Justice – (National) California payment processing company owner pleads guilty to fraud. The owner of California-based Check Site Inc., pleaded guilty July 16 to charges that he used his company to assist at least two fraudulent payday loan merchants who used consumer information to withdraw millions of dollars from consumer accounts without their knowledge by knowingly processing the transactions, and by providing the merchants access to the banking system via remotely created checks (RCC). Source: https://www.fbi.gov/philadelphia/press-releases/2015/california-payment-processing-company-owner-pleads-guilty-to-fraud

For additional stories, see item 9 below from the Transportation Systems Sector and 22 below in the Information Technology Sector

9. July 17, WBNS 10 Columbus – (Maryland) Armored truck spills cash inside highway tunnel. Baltimore’s Harbor Tunnel reopened July 16 after being shut down in both directions for approximately 7 hours while crews recovered money that fell out of the rear door of a Brinks armored truck July 15 after the truck’s door security malfunctioned. Source: http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2015/07/17/ap-baltimore-maryland-cash-spills-onto-highway.html

Information Technology Sector

21. July 17, Help Net Security – (International) Nearly all Web sites have serious security vulnerabilities. Acunetix released a report on 15,000 Web site and network scans of 5,500 companies revealing that almost half of Web applications scanned contained high security vulnerabilities, and 4 of 5 were affected by medium security vulnerabilities, plying that most organizations fail to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), among other findings. Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=18637

22. July 16, Help Net Security – (International) New GamaPoS malware targets U.S. companies. Security researchers from Trend Micro reported that the operators are using the Andromeda botnet to deliver a new point-of-sale (PoS) malware called GamaPoS that scrapes data via Microsoft’s .NET platform, to U.S. financial, information technology, supply, hospitality, and retail organizations nationally, among others. Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=3077

23. July 16, Threatpost – (International) TotoLink routers plagued by XSS, CSRF, RCE bugs. Security researchers reported that 15 TotoLink routers contain backdoor credentials, multiple remote code execution flaws that could allow an attacker to bypass administrator authentication and execute commands, and cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to change router network configuration settings. Source: https://threatpost.com/totolink-routers-plagued-by-xss-csrf-rce-bugs/113816

For another story, see item 19 below from the Government Facilities Sector

19. July 16, Washington Post – (National) Federal personnel files still very vulnerable and ‘prime targets’ for hackers, audit finds. An audit by the U.S. Department of the Interior inspector general’s office found 3,000 “critical” and “high-risk” vulnerabilities in 3 unnamed key bureaus of the department, potentially allowing hackers to gain access to internal networks through hundreds of publicly accessible computers whose systems are compromised. A lack of central authority over the agency’s information technology systems is delaying fixes, according to the agency’s chief information officer. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/07/16/federal-personnel-files-still-very-vulnerable-and-prime-targets-for-hackers-audit-finds/

Communications Sector
 
24. July 17, Reuters – (National) T-Mobile to pay $17.5 million to settle U.S. 911 outage investigation. The Federal Communications Commission reported July 17 that T-Mobile US Inc. has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a U.S. investigation of two 911 service outages in 2014 that prevented callers from reaching first responders for 3 hours. Source: http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/T-Mobile+to+pay+$17.5+million+to+settle+U.S.+911+outage+investigation/10731828.html

25. July 16, KSHB 41 Kansas City – (Missouri) Time Warner outage affects Liberty area, left thousands without service. Time Warner customers in the Liberty area experienced Internet, phone, and cable outages July 16 after a backhoe hit a fiber line near Interstate 35. Crews planned to have service restored by July 17. Source: http://www.kshb.com/news/region-missouri/liberty/time-warner-outage-affects-liberty-area