Complete DHS Report for October 12, 2016
Daily Report
Top Stories
• Nearly 100,000 people lost power throughout the South Bay area
of California and the former Exxon Mobil Refinery in Torrance, California,
experienced a flare-up October 11, forcing the facility to be evacuated and
prompting a shelter-in-place order for all area residents for around 2 hours. –
KABC 7 Los Angeles
1. October 11, KABC 7 Los
Angeles – (California) Nearly 100K lose power in South Bay; flare-ups
seen at Torrance Refinery. Nearly 100,000 people lost power throughout the
South Bay area of California and the former Exxon Mobil Refinery in Torrance,
California, experienced a flare-up October 11, forcing the facility to be
evacuated and shut down, prompting a shelter-in-place order for all area
residents for around 2 hours, and prompting officials to close the Torrance
Unified School District until October 12. Southern California Edison officials
are investigating the cause of the outage. Source:
http://abc7.com/news/flare-ups-at-torrance-refinery-amid-power-outage-reports/1549648/
• Volkswagen Group issued 3 separate recalls October 7 for around
334,000 of its model years 2007 – 2016 Volkswagen and Audi brand vehicles in
select makes due to potential fuel leaks. – Reuters
2. October 7, Reuters –
(International) Volkswagen, Audi recall 334,000 vehicles in North America
due to fuel leaks. Volkswagen Group issued 3 separate recalls October 7 for
around 334,000 of its model years 2007 – 2016 Volkswagen and Audi brand
vehicles in select makes due to potential fuel leaks, which could increase the
risk of a vehicle fire. Volkswagen stated no fires have been reported. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-usa-idUSKCN1271RL
• More than 5 million gallons of sewage flowed into the Ortega
River in Florida October 8 after a wastewater lift station in southwest
Jacksonville went offline during Hurricane Matthew. – WTLV 12 Jacksonville
21. October 8, WTLV 12
Jacksonville – (Florida) 5 million gallons of sewage dump into Ortega
River during Hurricane Matthew. More than 5 million gallons of sewage
flowed into the Ortega River in Florida October 8 after a wastewater lift
station in southwest Jacksonville went offline during Hurricane Matthew. The
Jacksonville Environmental Agency is working with the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection to monitor the river.
• Mylan N.V. agreed October 7 to pay $465 million to resolve
allegations that it overcharged Medicaid programs by improperly classifying its
EpiPen allergy treatment as a generic drug instead of a branded drug. – Wall
Street Journal
23. October 7, Wall
Street Journal – (National) Mylan to pay $465 million to settle Medicaid
claims. Mylan N.V. agreed October 7 to pay $465 million to resolve
allegations that it overcharged Medicaid programs by improperly classifying its
EpiPen allergy treatment as a generic drug instead of a branded drug, which
allowed the company to pay a smaller rebate on EpiPen sales to Medicaid. As
part of the settlement, Mylan announced plans to launch a $300 generic version
of the emergency allergy treatment. Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/mylan-to-pay-465-million-in-epipen-settlement-1475874312
Financial Services Sector
Nothing to report
Information Technology Sector
27. October 11,
SecurityWeek – (International) Malware abuses Windows Troubleshooting
Platform for distribution. Proofpoint security researchers discovered a
malicious backdoor, dubbed “LatentBot” was abusing the Microsoft Windows
Troubleshooting Platform (WTP) feature to trick users into executing the
malicious payload, which was being distributed via email attachments with a
lure document that once opened, launches a digitally signed DIAGCAB file
containing PowerShell commands that download and install the backdoor trojan.
Proofpoint reported the malware allows an attacker to preform surveillance,
steal information, and gain remote access operations.
28. October
9, Softpedia – (International) Alleged Lizard Squad and PoodleCorp
members arrested. Authorities in the U.S. and the Netherlands arrested two
individuals who allegedly operated the shenron.lizardsquad.org,
lizardsquad.org, stresser.poodlecorp.org, and poodlecorp.org Websites, which
offered distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) services for hire as part of the
Lizard Squad and PoodleCorp hacking crews. Officials stated the investigation
into the hacking groups began when authorities were investigating the
phonebomber.net service, a Website with ties to other sites operated by the
hacking groups that allowed anyone to purchase on-demand harassment phone
calls. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/alleged-lizard-squad-and-poodlecorp-members-arrested-509103.shtml
29. October 9, Softpedia –
(International) New JavaScript malware shuts down your PC if you terminate
its process. Kahu Security researchers discovered a new malware variant was
hijacking victims’ browsers’ homepages and shutting down the user’s computer if
the user detects the malware and attempts to terminate its process in order to
hide a series of operations that alter the underlying operating system (OS)
settings on a victim’s device. Researchers found the malware is delivered via
spam email as a malicious file attachment coded in JavaScript and is executed
via the Microsoft Windows Script Host. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/new-javascript-malware-shuts-down-your-pc-if-you-terminate-its-process-509097.shtml
30. October 7,
SecurityWeek – (International) GE machine monitoring system plagued by
serious flaw. The Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team
(ICS-CERT) warned a serious vulnerability plaguing the serial and universal
serial bus (USB) versions of General Electric’s Bently Nevada 3500/22M machine
monitoring system could be exploited by remote attackers to gain unauthorized
access to the system with elevated privileges due to the existence of several
open ports on the affected device. The devices are used in the energy and
chemical sectors, and the company advised users to segment networks, leverage
system hardening techniques, and implement bump-in-the-wire solutions to secure
the devices. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/ge-machine-monitoring-system-plagued-serious-flaw
For another story, see item 3
below from the Critical Manufacturing Sector
3. October 7,
SecurityWeek – (International) Over 500,000 IoT devices vulnerable to
Mirai botnet. Flashpoint security researchers discovered over 500,000
Internet of Things (IoT) devices were plagued with vulnerabilities that make
the devices an easy target for Mirai or similar botnets that were responsible
for massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against
KrebsonSecurity.com and Website hosting provider, OVH due to flawed software
and firmware provided by China-based XiongMai Technologies, which includes a
telnet service that is active by default and allows easy remote access to the
devices. Security researchers revealed that video surveillance products from
Dahua Technology accounted for 65 percent of compromised devices in the U.S. Source:
http://www.securityweek.com/over-500000-iot-devices-vulnerable-mirai-botnet
Communications Sector
Nothing to report