Department of Homeland
Security
Daily Open Source
Infrastructure Report
for 24 April 2008
Current Nationwide
Threat Level is
For info click here
http://www.dhs.gov/
•
The Patriot Ledger reports unionized workers at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant are raising
financial concerns about Entergy Corp.’s plan to spin off its plant and five other reactors
into a new company. They say the new company could be saddled with as much as $6.5
billion in debt, which could increase the potential for layoffs, deferred maintenance, and
safety risks at the plants. (See item 5)
•
According to CNSNews.com, a former U.S. Army mechanical engineer is accused of
passing secret defense documents to Israel in the early 1980s. The documents allegedly
contained information on nuclear weapons, a modified F-15 fighter plane, and the U.S.
Patriot missile air defense system. (See item 7)
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Fast Jump
Production Industries: Energy; Chemical; Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste;
Defense Industrial Base; Dams
Service Industries: Banking and Finance; Transportation; Postal and Shipping;
Information Technology; Communications; Commercial Facilities
Sustenance and Health: Agriculture and Food; Water; Public Health and Healthcare
Federal and State: Government Facilities; Emergency Services; National Monuments and
Icons
Energy Sector
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: LOW, GUARDED, ELEVATED, HIGH, SEVERE [Source: ISAC for the Electricity Sector (ES−ISAC) −
[http://www.esisac.com]
1. April 23, Hess Corporation – (International) Lack of capacity ‘main threat to
supplies.’ The Saudi oil minister said Tuesday that limited capacity rather than a lack of
reserves was the main threat to global supplies of hydrocarbons. “Limited capacity along
the entire supply chain is the real source of current global supply tightness and
represents the greatest threat to ensuring adequate energy to fuel future economic
growth,” he said. He added that the main issue affecting oil prices was not resources, but
-1-
investment, as shortages of labor, equipment, and materials were causing increased
costs. Additionally, the head of Libya’s national oil corporation said that there was not
much the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries could about continued
rising prices, as the producing countries do not have enough spare capacity to help ease
the situation, Britain’s Financial Times newspaper claims.
Source: http://www.hessenergy.com/common/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleId=18564017
2. April 22, Houston Business Journal – (Nevada) Reliant sells Bighorn facility. Reliant
Energy Inc. has agreed to sell its Bighorn Generating Station to a subsidiary of Nevada
Power Co. for about $500 million. Sierra Pacific Resources will own the Primm,
Nevada, station, which is a 598-megawatt natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power
plant. The station was commissioned in 2004 and is a zero discharge facility using
treated wastewater from local casinos for cooling and make-up water. Houston energy
provider Reliant expects the deal to close later this year.
Source:
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2008/04/21/daily26.html?surround=lfn
3. April 22, Business Journal of Milwaukee – (Minnesota) WPL to purchase Minnesota
wind farm site. Wisconsin Power and Light Co. (WPL) said Tuesday that it has
executed a letter of intent to purchase the Bent Tree Wind Farm site in Freeborn County
in southern Minnesota from Wind Capital Group LLC. The site has the potential to
produce up to 400 megawatts of emissions-free energy if completely developed, enough
to power up to 100,000 homes, the company said. WPL expects the purchase to be
completed by October.
Source:
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2008/04/21/daily26.html?surround=lfn
[Return to top]
Chemical Industry Sector
Nothing to Report
[Return to top]
Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector
4. April 23, Reuters – (Virginia) Dominion Va. Surry 1 reactor back at full power.
Dominion Resources Inc.’s Surry 1 nuclear power unit in Virginia was back at full
power early Wednesday, up from 67 percent of capacity early Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status report. The unit had returned to
full power after shutting last week to repair a water leak in the heat exchanger in the
turbine building, a spokesman said previously.
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2341608420080423
5. April 22, Patriot Ledger – (Michigan; Northeast) Unions protest nuke spinoff plan.
Representatives for unionized workers at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant are raising
-2-
financial concerns about Entergy Corp.’s plan to spin off its Plymouth plant and five
other nuclear reactors into a new, publicly traded company. A vice president with Local
369 of the Utility Workers Union of America said the new company could be saddled
with as much as $6.5 billion in debt. “Maintenance falls off. If something goes bad at
one of the plants, all the plants would suffer,” he said. The locals argue that the extra
debt increases the potential for layoffs, deferred maintenance, and safety risks at the
plants. Officials at Entergy dismissed the union’s concerns. Entergy would still play a
role in running the plants: The reactors would be operated by a joint venture owned by
Entergy and the new company. An Entergy spokesman said the spinoff could be
complete by the end of September. The other generators in the transfer are FitzPatrick in
New York, Vermont Yankee in Vermont, Palisades in Michigan, and the two reactors at
Indian Point in New York.
Source: http://www.patriotledger.com/business/x2124112251
6. April 22, Chicago Tribune – (Illinois) Questions are raised about nuclear fuel storage
and dismantling Zion plant. The Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society sponsored a
meeting Saturday on the storage of spent fuel at the Nuclear Power Station in Zion. “The
concerns are not the removal of low radioactive waste but the remaining toxic fuel being
so close to the lake,” said the president of the society. “We’re not licensed to remove
fuel, and none of our sites are licensed to receive it,” said an Exelon spokeswoman.
Under the proposal, Exelon would lower the used fuel rods into 17-foot-tall cylinders,
encapsulated within about three feet of concrete. About 80 of the cylinders would be
lined up on a fuel storage pad the size of a football field. The pad would be above
ground, more than 400 feet from Lake Michigan, surrounded by berms, fencing, and
security guards. The director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service said Exelon
could do better by storing the canisters at multiple sites and using a different
underground storage method. “[It is] probably not a good idea to line these up like
bowling pins under the flight path for O’Hare Airport,” he said. An activist fears the
spent fuel could contaminate the Chicago area’s water supply.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-power-plant-23apr23,1,4040375.story
[Return to top]
Defense Industrial Base Sector
7. April 23, CNSNews.com – (National) Former Army engineer spied for Israel in
1980s, U.S. charges. A former U.S. Army mechanical engineer is accused of passing
secret defense documents to Israel in the early 1980s. The man is charged with four
counts of conspiracy. He allegedly passed classified documents to an employee of the
Israeli Consulate from 1979 through 1985. According to reports, he worked at the
Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at the Picantinny Arsenal in
New Jersey. While there, he allegedly checked out classified documents, which he took
home and allowed an Israel agent to photograph. He reportedly confessed to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation that he had given 50 to 100 classified documents to the Israeli
agent. The documents allegedly contained information on nuclear weapons, a modified
F-15 fighter plane, and the U.S. Patriot missile air defense system.
-3-
Source:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200
804/FOR20080423c.html
8. April 22, Aviation Week – (National) Defense secretary addresses ISR, UAV
difficulties. The U.S. defense secretary is establishing a Pentagon task force to find new
and innovative ways to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to
combat forces. During an April 21 speech, he said getting the military branches to field
more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) quickly to support requirements for U.S. Central
Command has been “like pulling teeth.” Commanders say they have a shortfall of ISR
collection in theater, and they specify that they want more full-motion video – a
capability provided by Predator, Warrior, and Shadow systems. The limiting factor for
fielding more Predator units quickly is training Predator crews. The Air Force trains
certified pilots to operate the Predator while the Army does not require pilots to operate
its similar Warrior UAV. The defense secretary says that the Air Force may “require
rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions
require certified pilots and which do not.”
Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id
=news/GATES042208.xml&headline=Gates%20Addresses%20ISR,%20UAV%20Diffi
culties
9. April 21, Aviation Week – (National) USAF budget lacks money for JSTARS engines.
The U.S. Air Force does not plan to include funding in its fiscal 2010 budget request to
procure new engines for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS)
intelligence aircraft, according to a service official. The JSTARS re-engining program
has begun with some development work to integrate Pratt & Whitney’s JT8D-219
propulsion system onto the E-8C fleet. All 19 of the Air Force’s JSTARS were slated to
receive the new engines. They now use the JT3D-3B propulsion system. Though some
development has been funded, the money that was dropped from the FY ‘10 budget plan
was for the initial buy. Based on a recent fleet viability study, the Air Force expects that
the Boeing 707-based airframes for JSTARS will be suitable until 2070. The new
engines are needed to achieve better efficiency and to propel the aircraft higher for
better radar look angles.
Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id
=news/JSTARS042108.xml&headline=USAF%20Budget%20Lacks%20Money%20For
%20JSTARS%20Engines
[Return to top]
Banking and Finance Sector
10. April 23, WAVY 10 Norfolk – (National) Tax rebate scams surface on the web. An
email, claiming to be from the IRS, surfaced on the internet promising to directly
deposit tax payers’ money. However, “You don’t need to provide any information to
anybody, IRS already has your information,” says an official with Jackson Hewitt tax
-4-
service. “If you didn’t file by the April 15 deadline, you’ll still get a check. It will be
later than the ones that they’ve got to go out now between May 2nd and July 11th.” The
official says that filling in required fields for a social security number, debit card number
and other personal data for a direct deposit, leads to a direct dip in bank accounts. “If
you got a direct deposit on your refund from IRS, your stimulus check will be direct
deposited too, they go out May 2nd, May 9th and May 16th.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24265592/
11. April 23, Cayman Net News – (National) Police probe cell phone scam. In the wake of
three failed fraud attempts last week, police are warning of the first homegrown
telephone scam by people claiming to be from local companies. “These scammers,
though, are not stupid. This is the first time they have used the telephone, and the first
time they have claimed to be from a local company,” said a police spokeswoman.
Financial Crime Unit detectives reported on Friday, 18 April, that a man claiming to
represent either Cable & Wireless or Digicel had contacted residents on their cellphones,
informing them they had won cash or other prizes, but would first need to transfer a sum
of money to Jamaica in order to receive their winnings. In one case, the fraudster asked
for bank details and the physical address of the call recipient. Both Cable & Wireless
and Digicel said they would never seek those details from their customers.
Source: http://www.caymannetnews.com/news-6850--1-1--.html
12. April 23, Idaho Statesman – (National) Scam alert: Wipe personal data from PC
before donating it. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 250
million computers will become obsolete in the next five years. Many will end up in
landfills. Tossing a computer out with the trash is a bad idea for two reasons. Not only
does a computer store personal and financial information that people do not want getting
into the hands of ID thieves, but it also is composed of heavy metals and toxins that are
extremely hazardous to the environment. Before the computer leaves the donors’ home,
they should be sure they have erased the hard drive the right way. There are several free
software programs available for download online that will erase (or wipe) information
effectively enough to prevent ID theft. Also, many operating systems and some antivirus software already come with a wiping feature. (Keep in mind that data on personal
computers is never completely erased and the only way to completely wipe out
information is to physically destroy the hard drive.) There also are recycling services
that will take old computers and either refurbish them or take them apart and dispose of
the non-valuable pieces properly. As with any purchase or donation, the Better Business
Bureau encourages people to be informed consumers. They should ask questions. When
donating the computer, people should ask how the charity will erase the hard drive and
protect their identity. Are they bonded? Are they accredited by the BBB?
Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/359357.html
[Return to top]
Transportation Sector
13. April 22, Associated Press – (National) Investigators find, fix more faulty wing
fasteners on B-757s. US Airways has found and fixed faulty wing fasteners on
-5-
additional B-757 jetliners since part of the wing on one of its 757s broke off and struck a
passenger window somewhere over Maryland last month, federal investigators said
Tuesday. In a written interim report on its investigation, the National Transportation
Safety Board said that a 4-foot-by-5-foot panel of the wing flew off Flight 1250 on
March 22 because the three clips that secured the leading edge of the panel to the wing
had failed — two before the flight because of metal fatigue and the third during the
flight. The NTSB said it was still investigating to determine whether the wing clip
failure was caused by poor design, improper installation, or lax inspection and
maintenance. The safety board also is still studying how its factual findings might affect
the entire 757 fleet. The safety board did say that the clips that failed were redesigned
fasteners installed in 1991 after problems with the 757 wings were identified in the late
1980s. US Airways inspected all 18 of the 757s it owns that use these fasteners and
found cracked wing fasteners on six of them, in addition to the plane that lost the wing
panel, said a NTSB spokesman.
Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqv0N5ol5IgDWlIyziDMkhEE_QQD9076HU00
14. April 22, KITV 4 Honolulu – (Hawaii) Cargo plane makes belly landing at HNL. A
cargo airplane made an emergency landing at Honolulu International Airport on
Tuesday, closing parts of the airport for hours. No one was hurt in the incident. The
aircraft was a Beech-18 used by Kamaka Air Cargo for flights to the neighbor islands.
Airport officials said there was a small fire that teams extinguished quickly. The Federal
Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating,
state officials said. The Beech-18 is an older type of aircraft designed before World War
II with the last copies built in 1969.
Source: http://www.kitv.com/news/15962784/detail.html
15. April 22, Associated Press – (Illinois) Passenger jet safely makes emergency landing
near St. Louis. A Republic Airways official says a passenger jet affiliated with the
airline flying out of St. Louis has made an emergency landing at an airport about 20
miles east of the city due to engine failure. A spokesman says none of the 32 passengers
or three crew members aboard the Chautauqua Airlines plane was injured. He says the
plane was headed to Milwaukee when it safely landed just before 9 a.m. at MidAmerica
St. Louis Airport near Mascoutah, Illinois. The official says reports that the plane had
been struck by lightning were untrue.
Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jASTn2qJzpDizAX8_2jQhI6tIzQD9074LCO0
[Return to top]
Postal and Shipping Sector
Nothing to Report
[Return to top]
-6-
Agriculture and Food Sector
16. April 23, USAgNet – (National) USDA discusses poultry improvement plan. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has
announced that it will hold a meeting regarding the national poultry improvement plan
(NPIP) on June 5. The general conference committee serves as the liaison between the
poultry industry and USDA in matters pertaining to poultry health. In addition, the
committee assists USDA in planning, organizing, and conducting the NPIP biennial
conference. Topics for discussion at the upcoming meeting will include the H5/H7 low
pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) program for commercial layers, broilers, and turkeys.
Also on the agenda is compartmentalization of notifiable avian influenza free zones,
H5/H7 LPAI program for raised-for-release upland gamebird flocks, and evaluation of
rapid detection assays for Salmonella. Finally, they will consider the evaluation of
antigen detection assays for avian influenza.
Source: http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=973&yr=2008
17. April 23, Age – (International) Thai supply fears put rice price on the boil. Rice
futures in Chicago rose to a record as World Bank officials said they are concerned
pressure is growing in Thailand, the world’s top rice exporter, to limit its sales. Rice
gained as much as 2.3 percent to US$24.745 per 100 pounds on the Chicago Board of
Trade today. “The more countries impose export constraints, the stronger the pressures
become for Thailand to do the same,” the vice president of the bank’s East Asia and
Pacific department, said April 21. The price of rice, the staple for half the world, has
more than doubled in the past year as China, Vietnam, and Egypt have curbed sales to
safeguard domestic supplies and cool inflation. Wheat, corn, and soybeans reached
records this year. Higher prices triggered social unrest in countries including Haiti and
Egypt. “Any move by Thailand to limit rice exports would create panic in the global
market,” an analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management Co. said.
Source: http://business.theage.com.au/thai-supply-fears-put-rice-price-on-theboil/20080423-283i.html
18. April 22, Associated Press – (International) N. Korea to ban S. Korean poultry, eggs
as bird flu precaution. South Korean officials say North Korea will ban South Korean
poultry and eggs from a joint-Korean industrial zone in a precaution against bird flu
outbreaks that have struck the South. South Korea has slaughtered about 5.32 million
birds to contain recent outbreaks of bird flu, the highest-ever number of poultry killed in
the country to stop the disease’s spread.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/04/22/ap4919534.html
19. April 21, U.S. News and World Report – (Ohio) Ohio disease outbreak linked to
Chipotle restaurant. About 180 people who ate at a Chipotle restaurant near Kent State
University in Kent, Ohio, became sick with a gastrointestinal illness, the Akron Beacon
Journal reports. Health officials began investigating the outbreak after people started
arriving at local emergency rooms complaining of diarrhea, nausea, and severe
vomiting. Many of those affected were Kent State students who had eaten burritos at the
restaurant on Thursday and Friday. Some had donated blood and gotten a coupon for
-7-
free food at the restaurant, according to WLWT, the Cincinnati NBC affiliate. The cause
of the outbreak could be food-borne bacteria – like salmonella – or a norovirus spread
by a sick restaurant employee, health officials said. The restaurant chain reopened on
Saturday with employees from other store locations, because of concern that a sick
employee might be the source of the outbreak. The restaurant also replaced its food
supply and sanitized all equipment, according to the Akron newspaper.
Source: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/living-well-usn/2008/04/21/ohiodisease-outbreak-linked-to-chipotle-restaurant.html
[Return to top]
Water Sector
20. April 23, Associated Press – (National) Experts fear nation’s waterways need
rescuing – from us. Nationally, there are more than 37,000 river restoration projects
underway, costing more than $1 billion annually, according to a study released this
month by Colorado College. The vice president for conservation for American Rivers
said every region of the country will eventually be affected either by water pollution or
overconsumption. The Bureau of Land Management has spent close to $15 million in
the last couple of years on its Restore New Mexico program, which includes oilfield
restoration as well as work on the rivers and streams that flow through BLM land. The
U.S. Forest Service spent about $500,000 on watershed work in New Mexico and
Arizona last year and plans to spend just as much this year, said the watershed
improvement program manager for the agency’s southwest region. Land managers agree
that cooperation has been essential in trying to treat entire river systems rather than just
a stretch at a time. Federal researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque
predict that the fresh water supplies of more than half of the nations in the world will be
stressed in less than 20 years, and that by 2050 three quarters of the world could face
fresh water scarcity. The U.S. is no exception, said a researcher of the lab’s Energy
Systems Analysis Department. Groundwater pumping will likely have to be reduced in
the next five to ten years to prevent the depletion of many of the nation’s aquifers, he
said. The executive director of WildEarth Guardians, the environmental group
sponsoring the recent Santa Fe River planting day, said that rivers throughout the
Southwest need to be made resilient so they can withstand reduced flows.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/ap_on_re_us/rescuing_rivers;_ylt=AmP4P.r8qJ2
dsIqGuqB_Gw6s0NUE
21. April 23, KNBC 4 Los Angeles – (California) Water at LA schools contains dangerous
levels of lead. The L.A. Unified School District announced Tuesday a major effort to
clean up contaminated drinking water at its 800 schools, and it is all in direct response to
a KNBC investigation that has not aired yet. Over the last three months, a KNBC
reporter has discovered that the water at schools across the city contains dangerous
levels of lead. The investigation found a dangerous level of lead in the water from a
drinking fountain that parents had complained about for years. The reporters also found
water laced with unsafe levels of lead and other contaminants at schools all over the
city. And, they found what appears to be intentional falsification of records by district
-8-
employees.
Source: http://www.knbc.com/news/15962276/detail.html
22. April 22, Fort Worth Business Press – (Texas) Fort Worth City Council extends salt
water disposal well prohibition. Fort Worth, Texas, City Council members
unanimously voted to extend a moratorium on salt water disposal wells to October 2008,
bringing the city’s prohibition of the controversial process to two years. The moratorium
prevents natural gas operators from injecting post-drilling, polluted water deep into
underground formations, which critics argue could taint water supplies. In the natural
gas drilling process, more than 3.75 million gallons of water are used to drill into and
frac – break up – the Barnett Shale; the water that returns to the surface is chloride
contaminated, and must be managed in one of two ways: disposal or recycling. Injecting
the water underground remains the least expensive method, though several operators are
testing water reclamation processes. The council originally approved the moratorium in
October 2006, and since has voted several times to extend the measure; the council had
been expected to extend it again, a council representative said.
Source: http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=7400
[Return to top]
Public Health and Healthcare Sector
23. April 23, McKnight’s Long Term Care News – (National) Nurses, staff should receive
MRSA screenings, researchers say. Leaders of healthcare facilities should seriously
consider having staff members screened for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA), the drug-resistant infection that can wreak havoc on senior populations, Swiss
and South African researchers say. Worker screenings for MRSA should be conducted
“irrespective of the presence of risk factors or pus-producing infections as part of preemployment examination, or [especially during large MRSA outbreaks] even
periodically and unannounced before a work shift,” study authors wrote. They found 4.6
percent of workers carried MRSA. Of those, 5.1 percent had clinical MRSA infections.
Researchers reviewed information from 169 studies in 37 countries, encompassing more
than 33,300 individuals, to reach their conclusions. “Poor infection control practices
were implicated in both acquisition and transmission of MRSA by personnel, but even
good adherence to infection control – including masks and hand hygiene – did not
entirely prevent transmission of MRSA from heavily colonized staff to patients,” they
wrote.
Source: http://www.mcknights.com/Nurses-staff-should-receive-MRSA-screeningsresearchers-say/article/109321/
24. April 23, Reno Gazette-Journal – (Nevada) Unknown device found near animal lab. It
was still unclear Tuesday if a device found Monday night near a Reno, Nevada, animal
testing facility was a bomb, something meant to look like a bomb, or just an electronics
device lying alongside the road. Reno police used a water cannon late Monday evening
to destroy the device, described as looking like two white hockey pucks connected with
wires, which was discovered Monday night near the Charles River Laboratories. Animal
rights groups had scheduled protests at the lab for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, but a
-9-
spokeswoman said there was nothing to link the incident to any group. There have been
no threats to the facility, she said. Charles River Laboratories was cited for 20 violations
in 2006, including two monkeys whose fingers were squashed and amputated at the
firm’s Sparks laboratory, and 11 in the first half of 2007, according to documents
obtained by the organization Stop Animal Exploitation Now, which is based in
Cincinnati.
Source:
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080423/NEWS01/804230456/1004/N
E WS19
25. April 23, WKYT 27 Lexington – (Kentucky) Bomb scare at Lexington hospital.
Hazmat crews rushed to Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, late Tuesday
night after a local woman brought her son in for treatment after he had inhaled
dangerous chemicals while making a bomb. The woman brought the device with her,
leaving it in a pick-up truck in the hospital’s parking lot, police say. Police say the
mother thought doctors may have needed to see the device in order to help diagnose her
son. Police moved the pick-up truck from the ER parking lot to a nearby area, where the
bomb was detonated.
Source: http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/18039074.html
26. April 22, Associated Press – (Illinois) Norovirus outbreak reported in western
Illinois. The Warren County Health Department in western Illinois is investigating an
outbreak of norovirus. A department administrator says the gastrointestinal illness has
been confirmed in roughly 100 people who are either county residents or who have
passed through the area. She says she has heard about people from Knox, Warren, and
Henderson Counties who may be ill, along with Wisconsin residents who came to
Illinois to watch a tennis tournament. The virus causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
and usually lasts 24 to 48 hours.
Source: http://www.wthitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8209045&nav=menu593_2
[Return to top]
Government Facilities Sector
27. April 23, Associated Press – (Rhode Island) Report: Firebomb lands in fire station,
no one hurt. A firebomb was tossed through a window at an East Providence, Rhode
Island, fire station, but no one was hurt. WJAR-TV reported that the device was found
late Tuesday night in the North Broadway Fire Station. It landed in an area of the
building that firefighters typically do not use, and the sprinkler system put out the fire.
No one was injured. A similar device was found just a few blocks away, near the
Newman Congregational Church. Authorities are investigating.
Source:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2008/04/23/report_firebomb_la
nds_in_fire_station_no_one_hurt/
[Return to top]
- 10 -
Emergency Services Sector
28. April 23, Greenwich Time – (Connecticut) Reverse 911 trial set for Friday.
Greenwich, Connecticut, will test the town’s reverse 911-system at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
on Friday, sending more than 20,000 pre-recorded phone messages to numbers
throughout the town, the Town Emergency Management Operations Coordinator said.
Residents are being urged to sign up for the system that sends alerts during storms and
other crises. Residents and business owners can add e-mail addresses, cell phones, and
unlisted home numbers to the network through a link added to the town’s Web-site at
greenwichct.org.
Source: http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_9021275
29. April 22, KTIV 4 Sioux City – (Iowa) NW Iowa first responders prepare for disaster.
First responders in Palo Alto County, Iowa, are preparing for one of the worst
emergency case scenarios to keep their skills sharp. Many are wounded, young and old,
needing emergency care in the tiny Iowa town of Rodman. All are victims of a Mock
train derailment. Within minutes of the 911 call, the ambulance arrives, the Rodman Fire
department is on scene, and law enforcement secures the area. In this scenario, a train
carrying hazardous material chlorine gas jumped the tracks. Crews say they try and take
part in as many drills as they can. A Palo Alto County Emergency Management official
says they hold full size mock drills once a year.
Source: http://www.ktiv.com/News/index.php?ID=24686
30. April 22, Vineland Daily Journal – (New Jersey) County executive unveils new
reverse 9-1-1 system. In the event of an emergency, Atlantic County, New Jersey,
residents may now be notified through the use of a new countywide notification system
that is able to automatically call all landline telephone numbers and leave a voice
message, according to a release from the Atlantic County Executive’s office. This type
of notification is commonly referred to as “reverse 9-1-1.” Atlantic County contracted
with Global Connect of Mays Landing last September. Since then, the emergency
notification system has been successfully used by the City of Ventnor and the City of
Northfield during municipal emergencies. The system can be used to reach residents in
all 23 municipalities as easily as it can in just one. The county has obtained the Verizon
911 database which contains every direct dial landline telephone number in Atlantic
County, including non-published numbers. The database does not include cellular
telephones or some Voice Over Internet Protocol phone numbers.
Source:
http://www.thedailyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/NEWS01/80422
021/1002
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Information Technology
31. April 23, IDG News Service – (International) CNN site hit by China attack. After
being called off Friday, the on-again, off-again cyberattack against CNN’s Web site
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again picked up steam early this week, according to network security analysts. At its
peak, the attack has sucked up 100MBps in bandwidth, enough to slow the news Web
site for some visitors. “That’s a decent-sized attack,” said a senior security engineer with
Arbor Networks. “Globally speaking, it’s probably garden-variety.” Organizers had
originally called for the attack to be launched on April 19. But they soon called off their
efforts with one organizer, CN-Magistrate, saying that “too many people are aware of it,
and the situation is chaotic.” CN-Magistrate soon disbanded his Web site devoted to
these attacks and dropped out of public view. Hackers had launched some low-intensity
attacks against CNN ahead of the April 19 deadline, but on Sunday, another group
calling itself HackCNN picked up the attack. CNN visitors experienced a noticeable
slowdown during the early hours of Sunday and Monday, researchers said. This group
also managed to deface a Sports Network Web site (sports.si.cnn.com), replacing sports
scores with slogans such as “Tibet was, is, and always will be a part of China!”
Although a CNN spokeswoman said that the Web site was not taken down by the
attacks, Web monitoring company Netcraft said that some of its sensors were unable to
get a response from CNN servers in Phoenix, San Jose, California, London, and
Pennsylvania for about three hours on Sunday. On Monday, response times to CNN
were as slow as two-tenths of a second, Netcraft said. CNN did slow down the rate at
which network traffic from the Asia-Pacific region was able to reach its Web site, the
spokeswoman said.
Source:
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/04/23/C
NN-site-hit-by-China-attack_1.html
32. April 23, Computer Weekly – (International) Use of new technologies exposing UK
firms to risk, report finds. The adoption of new technologies is exposing UK
companies to high levels of risk, according to a government security survey. The 2008
Information Security Breaches survey for the Department for Business, Enterprise, and
Regulatory Reform reveals that although 17 percent of UK companies have adopted
voice over IP (VoIP), only 30 percent have evaluated the security risk involved.
Companies adopting VoIP were twice as likely to suffer a security breach, said the
author of the report, which shows the number of UK companies that have implemented
VoIP has doubled since the last survey in 2006. The same level of exposure was also
true for the 42 percent of companies that have adopted wireless networks and the 54
percent of companies that have implemented remote access to corporate IT systems, said
the report’s author. Instant messaging (IM) was another area of concern, he said,
because it exposes companies to the same risks as e-mail, but half of companies using
IM do not have any security controls in place. The report notes that financial companies
take the most steps to mitigate IM risks, but said even in this sector, a third have taken
no steps.
Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/04/23/230401/infosecurity2008-use-of-new-technologies-exposing-uk-firms-to-risk-report.htm
33. April 22, vnunet.com – (International) Most breaches down to lost or stolen kit.
Microsoft’s latest security report has shown that breaches from hacking attacks are
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plummeting, while lost equipment now accounts for over half of all security problems.
Lost or stolen hardware was responsible for 58 percent of all data security breaches in
the last six months of 2007. This compares with just 13 percent as a result of hacking,
down from an average of 23 percent for previous years. “We all have smartphones and
laptops and it is losing these that is a major problem,” said the general manager for
Microsoft’s Malware Protection Agency. “If you think about what is often kept on these
devices, losing it in public is a major problem.” The data comes from Microsoft users
around the world and is analyzed by Microsoft malware labs. The information has
allowed the company to create a threat map of the world, showing on average how many
computers need to be scanned to find one piece of malware.
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2214887/hacking-fades-favour-theft
34. April 22, IDG News Service – (National) Microsoft data show Web attacks taking off.
Criminals changed tactics in the last six months of 2007, dropping malicious e-mail in
favor of Web-based attacks, according to data reported to Microsoft by Windows users.
The company saw the number of Trojan downloader programs it removed from
Windows machines jump by 300 percent, according to the principal architect of
Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center. These programs masquerade as legitimate
pieces of software, but once installed they then download malicious software such as
spyware or adware onto the victim’s computer. They are typically installed via the Web.
The shift to the Web has been forced onto criminals, as system administrators have
become better at blocking executable files from being sent via e-mail. Many companies
compile data on Web attack trends, but Microsoft’s is the most comprehensive – based
on data from the approximately 450 million computers that run the Microsoft Malicious
Software Removal Tool that ships with Windows. On average, Microsoft removed
malware from one out of every 123 computers it inspected each month during the
period. In the U.S., that number was one in every 112. Japan was the least-infected
country, with malware found on just one in 685 machines. Microsoft published its
findings Monday in its Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 4.
Source:
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/04/22/M
icrosoft-data-show-Web-attacks-taking-off_1.html
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or visit their
Website: http://www.us−cert.gov.
Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center)
Website: https://www.it−isac.org/.
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Communications Sector
Nothing to Report
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Commercial Facilities Sector
35. April 23, Daily Times – (Maryland) Ocean City: Teen charged in motel bomb threat.
Resort police detectives charged a Centreville, Virginia, man yesterday in connection
with a recent bomb threat at the Best Western Motel in Ocean City, Maryland. On
Friday, police were called to the motel after a housekeeper discovered a note in a room
that made stated an explosive device on the premises. The hotel was evacuated for
nearly three hours while bomb dogs searched the area. Detectives contacted the person
who rented the room where the housekeeper found the note. The man told police his
cousin, who was visiting him in Ocean City, reportedly wrote the note as a prank.
Source:
http://www.dailytimesonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080423/NEWS01/8042
3022/1002
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National Monuments & Icons Sector
Nothing to Report
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Dams Sector
36. April 23, Evansville Courier & Press – (Indiana) Quakes may have left ‘sand boils.’
Researchers with the University of Illinois suspect the recent series of earthquakes
centered in the Mount Carmel, Indiana, area left behind some signature landmarks that
could help scientists further gauge the severity of the recent seismic events. An assistant
professor of civil and environmental engineering believes the series of quakes may have
left behind “sand boils” along the Wabash River or its nearby tributaries. Along a river
levee, a “sand boil” can be formed by a difference in hydraulic pressure between the
water the levee is holding back and saturated ground on the other side of the levee. The
researcher visited the Mount Carmel area earlier this week and spotted a possible sand
boil in Mount Carmel, near the levee that runs along the Wabash River. However, he
believes that feature may have been created by an earlier seismic event. Researchers are
hoping area farmers will spot these sand boils as they head into their fields to plant
crops.
Source: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/apr/23/quakes-may-have-left-sandboils/
37. April 22, Rapid City Journal – (South Dakota) Council OKs short-term fix for
Canyon Lake Dam. The Rapid City Council accepted a quote Monday from Quinn
Construction to build a standpipe at Canyon Lake dam as part of the short-term fix to
repair sinkholes undercutting the spillway. A study earlier this year recommended the
city should take immediate steps to plug upstream sinkholes that have tunneled under
the spillway. The report also recommended a major renovation or replacement of the
dam within the two years. The council last month declared an emergency and started
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designing a short-term fix for the dam. The city has also started making preparations for
a long-term solution that could involve complete reconstruction or replacement of the
spillway. The mayor said the standpipe is only the first phase of the short-term repairs; it
will allow the lake level to be reduced without injecting silt into Rapid Creek. The
standpipe will take water off the top of the lake, he said, instead of the lake bottom.
Source:
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/04/22/news/top/doc480eadfd8378280974
6409.txt
38. April 22, Tri-Parish Times – (Louisiana) Terrebonne breach repair still under way.
The 50 to 60 foot breach that opened up in the Montegut Marsh Management levee
south of Montegut, Louisiana, should be closed by the end of this week, said the
Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District executive director. The six-foot high levee,
which is maintained by the state Department of Natural Resources, keeps saltwater out
of the marsh in the Pointe-aux-Chenes State Wildlife Management Area. Wildlife and
Fisheries officials first noticed the break in the levee more than a month ago. Levee
Board and Wildlife and Fisheries workers have been setting rocks into the breach to
plug the gap. The rocks will then be capped with dirt. The area of the Montegut Marsh
Management levee where the break occurred is part of the proposed Morganza-to-theGulf hurricane-protection levee project, which – if funded – would pump federal dollars
into building a new levee.
Source: http://www.triparishtimes.com/articles/2008/04/22/news/253_50_breachpg1.txt
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DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports − The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a
daily [Monday through Friday] summary of open−source published information concerning significant critical
infrastructure issues. The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is archived for ten days on the Department of
Homeland Security Website: http://www.dhs.gov/iaipdailyreport
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
Content and Suggestions:
Removal from Distribution List:
Send mail to NICCReports@dhs.gov or contact the DHS Daily
Report Team at (202) 312-3421
Send mail to NICCReports@dhs.gov or contact the DHS Daily
Report Team at (202) 312-3421 for more information.
Contact DHS
To report physical infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact the National Infrastructure
Coordinating Center at nicc@dhs.gov or (202) 282−9201.
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or
visit their Web page at www.us−cert.gov.
Department of Homeland Security Disclaimer
The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a non−commercial publication intended to educate and inform
personnel engaged in infrastructure protection. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright
restrictions. DHS provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source material.
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