Homeland
Security
Current Nationwide
Threat Level
ELEVATED
Daily Open Source Infrastructure
Report for 27 August 2009
Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks
For information, click here:
http://www.dhs.gov
Top Stories

PC World reports that the Air Line Pilots Association is calling on the U.S. government to
temporarily ban cargo shipments of lithium batteries, saying they represent a serious safety
hazard. (See item 14)

According to Softpedia, researchers at Web security company ScanSafe advise that a new
mass compromise attack is underway and has affected over 62,000 URLs to date. A rogue
IFrame injected into the compromised Web pages loads a cocktail of exploits and malware
from other domains. (See item 40)
Fast Jump Menu
PRODUCTION INDUSTRIES
• Energy
• Chemical
• Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste
• Critical Manufacturing
• Defense Industrial Base
• Dams Sector
SUSTENANCE AND HEALTH
• Agriculture and Food
• Water Sector
• Public Health and Healthcare
SERVICE INDUSTRIES
• Banking and Finance
• Transportation
• Postal and Shipping
• Information and Technology
• Communications
• Commercial Facilities
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. August 26, Fort Collins Coloradoan – (Colorado) Tanker spills asphalt into Poudre
River. A tanker carrying 24 tons of hot asphalt spilled the morning of August 25 into
the Poudre River, forcing authorities to close a portion of Colorado Highway 14. The
tanker was westbound near milepost 114 when it lost control and ran off the road into
the Poudre River, a Colorado State Patrol spokesoman said. The load of liquid asphalt
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became a gel when it hit the cold water, he said. The driver suffered minor injuries and
was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital. A state patrol hazardous materials crew spent
hours arranging for special equipment to be brought to the scene and cleaning up the
spill. An estimated 500 gallons of asphalt went into the river. The tanker reportedly
carried about 5,700 gallons. At least a dozen agencies responded to the crash scene
because of the potential consequences of the spill, said a water resources, treatment,
and operations manager with Fort Collins Utilities. The spill occurred about two miles
upstream of the intake for a pipeline that carries Poudre water to the city water
treatment facility. City officials were notified of the crash within minutes and began the
process of shutting down the intake, he said. The city will draw from Horsetooth
Reservoir for its water supply until the river is deemed usable, he said.
Source: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090826/NEWS01/908260335/Tankerspills-asphalt-into-Poudre-River
2. August 25, WPBF 25 West Palm Beach – (Florida) Employees fired after reporting
security breach. When two Lake Worth Utilities employees, with 60 years of power
grid experience between them, noticed an unauthorized computer plugged into the
power system’s mainframe on two separate occasions, they knew they had a problem.
“If you turn it off, then somebody can come in and do all kinds of things to the electric
system,” said one man, “as bad as you can turn off the complete power grid to the state
of Florida.” Worried, they took their concerns to everyone they could think of. Last
month, they appeared before the city commission. They said they eventually gave
interviews to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. Then they were fired. The
city manager said she would answer questions about the employees. But she has not
done so yet. A news release issued by her office last month read: “After previous
allegations had been received and following an investigation in June this year, it was
determined that no security breach (a security breach being an external act that
bypasses or contravenes security policies, practices or procedure) had occurred to the
Lake Worth Utilities system at any time.” “I have to stand up for my own integrity,”
said one of the men, as he explained why he is still talking about what happened. He
and the other man said they have nothing to gain by coming forward — except the
satisfaction that they took a stand for what they believe in.
Source: http://www.wpbf.com/mostpopular/20552910/detail.html
[Return to top]
Chemical Industry Sector
Nothing to report
[Return to top]
Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste Sector
3. August 26, Reuters – (Kansas) Kansas Wolf Creek reactor up to 92 pct power. Wolf
Creek Nuclear Operating Corp’s 1,166-megawatt Wolf Creek 1 reactor in Kansas was
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at 92 percent power early Wednesday, up from 48 percent of capacity early Tuesday,
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a power reactor status report. The
unit, in Burlington, about 70 miles south of Topeka, the state capital, has been ramping
up from a recent outage.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN2630294020
090826
4. August 26, Reuters – (Florida) Progress Crystal River Fla reactor at 17 pct
power. Progress Energy Inc’s (PGN.N) 838-megawatt Crystal River 3 nuclear power
unit in Florida was at 17 percent power early Wednesday as it began to exit a recent
outage, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status report.
The unit, in Red Level, Florida, about 85 miles north of Tampa, was manually tripped
on Monday after a control rod was inserted into the core, a company spokeswoman said
previously.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN2625056920
090826
5. August 26, Reuters – (New Jersey) Exelon NJ Oyster Creek reactor down to 78 pct
power. Exelon Corp’s (EXC.N) 619-megawatt Oyster Creek nuclear power station in
New Jersey was at 78 percent power early Wednesday, down from full power on
Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status
report. It was not immediately known why the unit, in Forked River, New Jersey, about
60 miles east of Philadelphia, was reduced.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN2625349120
090826
6. August 26, Port Clinton News Herald – (Ohio) Terrorists’ near nuclear power plant
were costumed racers. The reports cited men in masks, a death squad van and other
suspicious sights around the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant. Authorities fielded a
flurry of calls Saturday from concerned residents who saw men in ski masks,
Ghostbusters, ballerinas, ninjas and Little Red Riding Hood costumes. The calls
initiated numerous traffic stops over three hours as the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office,
the Port Clinton Police Department’s Harbor Patrol, Carroll Township and Oak Harbor
Police and the U.S. Border Patrol responded to the calls. What callers saw was one of
the last stages of Rental Car Rally 2009, a road race that started in New York City and
passed through an abandoned coal mining town, a civil war cemetery, Ringing Rocks
Park in Pennsylvania and Safari Adventures at Kalahari Resort before ending at a
casino in Detroit. A U.S. Border Patrol public affairs officer said he is glad people
contacted authorities immediately. “Our primary mission is to prevent terrorism,” he
said, “so anytime someone sees something, they should call.” A FirstEnergy
spokesman said plant authorities were in contact with federal, state and local officials
Saturday afternoon. “Security force members focused on protecting the plant,” the
spokesman said. “At the point we were notified,” he said, “we took precautionary
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procedures.”
Source: http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/article/20090826/NEWS01/90825016
7. August 25, New York Times – (National) Nuclear regulators urge high-tech fire
detection. Many of the hundreds of workers at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in New
Hill, N.C., are busy with high-tech tasks like calibrating equipment, monitoring
radiation fields or controlling the reactor. But around the clock, there are three on duty
who might have come out of another century. They sniff for smoke. Pacing miles each
day, up and down stairs and through vast halls and narrow passages, they visit crucial
locations at least once an hour to make sure fire has not broken out. Yet Shearon Harris
wants to eliminate jobs like these procedures and so does the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. Instead, the commission is urging nuclear plants to embrace a more
systematic approach to assessing fire risk, one that relies on a computer program. Using
the new method, Shearon Harris is assessing every nook and cranny of its plant, across
hundreds of miles of electrical cables and scores of pumps and motor-driven valves.
The commission is promoting the approach as a replacement for its own “cookbook”
rules, which set strict procedures without allowing room for analysis, said the
commission’s associate director of engineering and safety systems.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/science/earth/26nuke.html?_r=1&em
[Return to top]
Critical Manufacturing Sector
8. August 26, Reliable Plant Magazine – (Connecticut) Firearms manufacturer fined
for guarding, LOTO hazards. Widespread machine guarding and lockout/tagout
hazards at a North Haven, Connecticut, manufacturer of small firearms has resulted in
$42,850 in proposed fines from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA). The Marlin Firearms Co. has been cited for a total
of 24 alleged serious and other-than-serious violations of workplace safety standards
following a comprehensive OSHA inspection that began March 3 at the company’s
plant on Kenna Drive. OSHA’s inspection identified dozens of instances throughout the
plant where workers were exposed to possible lacerations, amputation and crushing
injuries from unguarded moving parts of mechanical power presses and other
machinery as well as a lack of specific procedures to prevent the accidental startup of
numerous machines during set-up, maintenance and repair. The inspection also found
electrical, fall, and compressed air hazards as well as improperly recorded injuries and
illnesses. “Workers can lose their fingers, limbs, or lives in a few seconds if a machine
starts up unexpectedly or its moving parts are not guarded against contact,” said the
OSHA’s area director in Bridgeport. “There is no reason for those injuries to occur if
the employer ensures the proper safeguards are effectively and continuously in place
and in use.”
Source:
http://www.reliableplant.com/article.aspx?articleid=19647&pagetitle=Firearms+manuf
acturer+fined+for+guarding,+LOTO+hazards
-4-
9. August 25, Associated Press – (National) Maytag recalls more refrigerators. Maytag
said on August 25 it is recalling about 46,000 refrigerators under the Maytag, Magic
Chef, Performa by Maytag and Crosley brand names, due to a fire hazard. Because of
an electrical failure in the device that turns on the compressor, the company said there
is a chance of overheating that can lead to fire. About 1.6 million similar refrigerators
were recalled in March. Maytag, which is now part of Whirlpool Corp., said it has
received 23 more reports of refrigerators catching fire. Of those, there were four reports
of property or smoke damage. The refrigerators in question are side-by-side and top
freezer refrigerators made in black, bisque, white, and stainless steel. They cost
between $350 and $1,600 and were sold from September 2000 to May 2004.
Refrigerators with freezers on the bottom are not included in the recall.
Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hMhZ5JlRi9x_AnGDhoVMhT
EleqPgD9A9V8305
[Return to top]
Defense Industrial Base Sector
10. August 25, Aviation Week – (International) CSeries fuselage ready for
testing. Bombardier has taken delivery of its first CSeries fuselage test barrel from
Chinese supplier Shenyang Aircraft Corp. (SAC) and next month expects to start a twoyear trial. The 23-foot-long (7 meters) aluminum alloy test barrel will be used by the
Canadian airframer for risk elimination trials, an internal study the manufacturer said
will help it meet its delivery schedule. Similar trials are scheduled for early next year at
Bombardier’s Northern Ireland unit for the CSeries’ wing unit, while a spring date has
been set to start empennage testing in Montreal, said the company’s VP-Commercial
Aircraft. “Each trial will run three life cycles, or 180,000 cycles of fatigue testing,” said
the VP. The fuselage barrel will be pressurized for its three-life-cycle test before
undergoing a round of residual testing. It will then be dismantled for detailed
examination. “This is a full-size piece of fuselage, with the same diameter [12 ft.] as
the real aircraft. The only difference is this section is 10 seats long,” he said.
Bombardier will have to simulate about 1,000 flights each day, 24hours a day over the
two-year trial period to meet its three-life-cycle goal. Separate trials will be required for
certification. The test fuselage was built by SAC, a division of China Aviation Industry,
and shipped from Dalian, in northeast China, to California on July 20. It was then
delivered to Bombardier’s facility in St. Laurent, Quebec. SAC is also contracted to
build the CSeries’ forward, mid- and aft fuselage sessions. “The test barrel for the
CSeries aircraft arrived on schedule, and meets the quality standards equivalent to a
final production unit. This achievement underscores the strength of our partnership
with Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and China Aviation Industry,” said Bombardier’s
VP-Integrated Product Development Team for the CSeries Aircraft Program.
Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/CSER08259.xml&headlin
e=CSeries Fuselage Ready For Testing&channel=comm
[Return to top]
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Banking and Finance Sector
11. August 25, Bloomberg – (National) Court orders Fed to disclose emergency bank
loans. The Federal Reserve must for the first time identify the companies in its
emergency lending programs after losing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The
Manhattan chief U.S. district judge ruled against the central bank on August 24,
rejecting the argument that loan records are not covered by the law because their
disclosure would harm borrowers’ competitive positions. The Fed has refused to name
the financial firms it lent to or disclose the amounts or the assets put up as collateral
under 11 programs, most put in place during the deepest financial crisis since the Great
Depression, saying that doing so might set off a run by depositors and unsettle
shareholders. Bloomberg LP, the New York-based company majority-owned by the
mayor of New York, sued on November 7, 2008 on behalf of its Bloomberg News unit.
“The Federal Reserve has to be accountable for the decisions that it makes,” said a U.S.
Representative, who is a Florida Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee,
after the judge’s ruling. “It’s one thing to say that the Federal Reserve is an
independent institution. It’s another thing to say that it can keep us all in the dark.”
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7CC61ZsieV4
12. August 25, Dow Jones Newswires – (New York) NY businessman charged with $74
million bank fraud against Citigroup. A New York man was charged with allegedly
defrauding Citigroup Inc. out of $74 million in loans. The U.S. attorney in Manhattan
and the Federal Bureau of Investigations say the defendant, with residences in
Manhattan and Katonah, New York, fraudulently applied for the loans for Nemazee
Capital Corp., of which he is chairman and chief executive. Federal prosecutors
contend Nemazee obtained the money by giving the banking giant “numerous
documents that purported to establish the existence of accounts in Nemazee’s name at
various financial institutions containing many hundreds of millions of dollars,” the
Justice Department said in a statement. “In fact, those were fraudulent and forged
documents.” According to an FBI report, the defendant first contacted Citigroup’s
Citibank in December 2006 to borrow $25 million, and later raised the sum to $80
million. The defendant paid back more than $74 million on August 24, after being
questioned by federal agents on August 23 as he was checking in to board a flight from
Newark International Airport in New Jersey to Rome.
Source:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200908251258DOWJONESDJO
NLINE000315_FORTUNE5.htm
13. August 25, Computerworld – (National) Cybercrooks increasingly target small
business accounts. An organization representing more than 15,000 financial
institutions has issued a warning about a growing wave of attacks against small banks
and businesses by cybercriminals using stolen banking credentials to plunder corporate
accounts. In an alert to its members earlier this month, NACHA — the Electronics
Payments Association — said that attackers are increasingly stealing online banking
credentials, such as user names and paswords, from small businesses by using
keystroke logging tools and other malware. The cybercriminals are using the stolen
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credentials to “raid” and “take over” corporate accounts and initiate the unauthorized
transfer of funds over electronic payment networks. NACHA oversees the Automated
Clearing House (ACH) electronic payments network. NACHA’s alert said that the
cybercrooks are apparently targeting small businesses because of their relative lack of
strong authentication procedures, transaction controls and “red flag” reporting
capabilities. In some cases, the alert said, attackers are tricking small business workers
into visiting phishing sites with the same look and feel as their company’s financial
institution, where they would log on using their credentials.
Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137112/Cybercrooks_increasingly_target_s
mall_business_accounts
[Return to top]
Transportation Sector
14. August 26, PC World – (International) Airline pilots want ban on lithium battery
shipments. An airline pilot union is calling on the U.S. government to temporarily ban
cargo shipments of lithium batteries, saying they represent a serious safety hazard. The
Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents pilots in the U.S. and Canada,
asked that the U.S. government prohibit shipments of lithium batteries on all cargo and
passenger flights until measures are taken to insure that such shipments are safe. The
proposed ban on the batteries, which are widely used in electronic devices like phones
and computers, would not prohibit passengers from carrying batteries on planes. During
the last two months, there have been three incidents where fire or smoke on aircraft was
caused by shipments of lithium batteries. On August 14, the crew of a plane that landed
in Minneapolis received a warning of smoke in the plane’s forward cargo compartment.
When fire crews opened the compartment, they found flames coming from a container
filled with electronic cigarettes, each containing a lithium-ion battery. In another
incident in July, a container filled with lithium-ion batteries on a flight to Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic, was found smoking and smoldering. In the third
incident, which took place in June, a burned package containing a lithium-ion bicycle
motor was discovered when cargo handlers unloaded a plane in Honolulu. ALPA said
all three incidents recall a 2006 incident where lithium batteries caused a fire on board
a UPS plane that injured three crew members and damaged cargo.
Source:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/170815/airline_pilots_want_ban_on_lithium_battery_s
hipments.html
15. August 26, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – (Alaska) Fairbanks International Airport
evacuated after gas smell reported. Airport personnel and travelers were evacuated
about 9 p.m. Tuesday from the Fairbanks International Airport (FIA) terminal after an
odor of gas was reported by several passengers waiting on the upper level. The
evacuation lasted a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes, said a FIA public information
officer. Airport Fire and Rescue and maintenance crews on duty searched the building
for the source of the smell. Flight arrivals and departures were not affected by the
-7-
evacuation.
Source: http://newsminer.com/news/2009/aug/26/fairbanks-international-airportevacuated-after-ga/
16. August 24, Grand Junction Sentinel – (Colorado) Three accused of tampering with
train. Three transients tooted a locomotive’s horn before being arrested in Glenwood
Canyon, authorities say. An eastbound freight train was brought to an emergency stop
in the canyon after the trio entered a rear locomotive and began playing with the brakes
and horn, said a railroad spokesman. The three face felony and misdemeanor charges
including endangering public transportation, trespassing, criminal tampering and
conspiracy to commit a felony. The incident occurred on a Burlington Northern Santa
Fe train on Union Pacific track at the Bair Ranch Rest Area near the east end of
Glenwood Canyon in Colorado. The sheriff’s department said the train’s cargo
included hazardous materials. An arrest affidavit said the conductor told investigators
the transients’ actions could have caused a derailment, but the sheriff’s office
disagreed. The conductor said the rear locomotive was being remotely controlled by the
crew in the front locomotive. The transients did not have the ability to make the train
move, but playing with the brakes caused the train to automatically brake and come to a
stop, he said. The locomotive had to be decontaminated after urine and other substances
were found in it.
Source:
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/08/24/082509_1a_transient
s_and_train.html
For more stories, see items 1, 52, and 54
[Return to top]
Postal and Shipping Sector
Nothing to report
[Return to top]
Agriculture and Food Sector
17. August 26, USAgNet – (Florida) Georgia food processor faces fine over safety
breaches. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed fining
Mar-Jac Poultry Inc. of Gainesville, Florida for failure to keep its hazard analysis
records up to date, as well as citing dozens of serious health and safety breaches,
reports Food Production Daily. The poultry processing company is facing almost
$380,000 in fines for a series of ‘willful and serious’ health and safety violations
committed over a five-year period. These were listed as a failure to update its hazard
analysis at five-year intervals as required, not establishing specific maintenance
procedures for its processing equipment, as well as not carrying out equipment and
procedural changes for its ammonia refrigeration system in 2004, 2005 and 2008. The
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poultry processor was also censured for failure to perform required compliance audits
for the years 2000, 2003 and 2007.
Source: http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=1766&yr=2009
18. August 25, Associated Press – (California) Deadly citrus pest migrates to Orange
County. California state agriculture officials are imposing a quarantine in part of
Orange County after a bug capable of damaging the state’s citrus industry was trapped
there. Officials say it’s the Asian citrus psyllid’s first migration out of the San DiegoImperial counties quarantine zone. Five adult psyllids were trapped on a backyard
lemon tree in Santa Ana. Tests are being conducted to determine whether they carried
the huanglongbing disease, a bacteria that has caused billions of dollars of damage
across Florida. Infected psyllids spread the tree-killing disease, calling “citrus
greening,” when they feed on leaves. So far the only psyllid found infected with the
bacteria was detected by a Fresno County sniff dog last month in a FedEx package
shipped from India.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13199382?nclick_check=1
19. August 25, Reliable Plant Magazine – (Indiana) Clean-air violations will cost
Vertellus $1.13 million. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement with Vertellus Agriculture and
Nutrition Specialties LLC on alleged clean-air violations at the company’s agricultural
and nutritional chemical plant in Indianapolis, Indiana. The agreement, which includes
a $425,000 penalty and a $705,000 environmental project, resolves EPA allegations
that Vertellus failed to comply with leak detection and repair requirements of the
national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants. Vertellus has already taken
steps to come back into compliance by installing a new incinerator to control hydrogen
cyanide and benzene emissions and to implement a comprehensive set of leak detection
and repair practices that go beyond regulatory requirements.
Source: http://www.reliableplant.com/article.aspx?articleid=19648&pagetitle=Cleanair+violations+will+cost+Vertellus+$1,13+million
[Return to top]
Water Sector
20. August 25, Stafford County Sun – (Virginia) Lightning strike causes pump station
overflow. The sewage pump stations at Austin Run and Potomac Hills overflowed on
August 22 due to lighting strikes that disabled the flow transducers at both stations,
according to a press release from Stafford County, Virginia. The transducers control the
pumps that move the effluent from the wells to the Aquia treatment center. The Austin
Run station overflowed approximately 2.5 million gallons into Austin Run and Aquia
Creek. The Potomac Hills station overflowed approximately 55,000 gallons, also into
Aquia Creek. The sewage from both stations has been washed downstream due to the
rapid flow of water caused by the heavy thunderstorm on August 22. The overflow
volumes are much higher than normal because the telemetry system for these two
stations malfunctioned and did not trigger the station alarms, as they are designed to do
-9-
during an overflow. The telemetry system monitors flows at the sewage pump stations.
Because the alarms did not activate, Utilities plant operators were unaware of the
overflows when they occurred. The overflows were not discovered until Utilities
mechanics rebooted the telemetry system at 7 a.m. on August 24, after their routine
inspection of the telemetry system. The stations have been repaired and are now
operating normally. Staff is also working with the telemetry contractor to determine
how to prevent the malfunction from recurring. In addition, staff has spread lime to
disinfect the area of the spill. The overflows were reported to the Virginia
Departmental of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The Health Department was also
notified. Staff has notified the Aquia Harbour Homeowners Association because some
homeowners have property that abuts Aquia Creek.
Source:
http://www2.staffordcountysun.com/scs/news/local/article/lightning_strike_causes_pu
mp_station_overflow/42074/
21. August 25, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – (Connecticut) Industrial
launderer will pay $525,000 for Clean Water Act violations. AmeriPride Service,
Inc., an industrial launderer with a facility in Hartford, Connecticut, will pay a
$525,000 penalty under the terms of a settlement for alleged violations of federal and
state clean water laws and a government-issued permit. The settlement was announced
jointly by a United States attorney and the Acting Regional Administrator for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England Office. A civil Complaint and
Consent Decree were simultaneously filed on August 24 in U.S. District Court in New
Haven. According to the EPA Complaint, AmeriPride violated a federal environmental
law by discharging low pH wastewater to the sewer system that flows into the
Metropolitan District Commission’s Hartford wastewater treatment facility. The
complaint also alleges that AmeriPride violated a discharge permit issued by the State
of Connecticut that set industrial discharge limits for a number of pollutants. From July
of 2001 through March of 2008, AmeriPride’s wastewater discharge repeatedly
violated the “National Pretreatment Standard” prohibiting the discharge of wastewaters
with a pH lower than 5.0 Standard Units in violation of the Clean Water Act.
AmeriPride’s wastewater discharges also frequently violated industrial discharge
limitations for pH, oil and grease, and total zinc, total lead and total copper imposed in
a May 31, 2001 industrial discharge permit that the State of Connecticut issued to
AmeriPride. Despite years of numerous violations, AmeriPride did not fully resolve its
wastewater violations until March of 2008 when AmeriPride completed the installation
of a new industrial wastewater treatment system.
Source:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/3E1A04B6AC5398588525761D006A67E8
22. August 25, Milford Daily News – (Connecticut) Milford asks state to review water
problems. Selectmen are calling in a state agency to listen to residents’ concerns about
the Milford Water Co. and take action, following the Connecticut town’s two-week
drinking water crisis. The board voted the night of August 24 to petition the
Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to hold public hearings and put the private utility
under a microscope. The state would look at overall quality of service, infrastructure
- 10 -
and other aspects of the business, then issue directives, including on potential rate
hikes. A town-wide boil order, issued due to bacterial contamination of the drinking
supply, was fully lifted on August 21. Reports on the crisis are expected from the town,
Milford Water Co. and state Department of Environmental Protection (which comes
under DPU’s umbrella). Selectmen saw merit in getting the agency involved. The
Milford Water Co. vice president said management certainly wants to learn from the
company’s first and only crisis like this, and make sure the water is never dirty again.
An investigation continues, but officials believe the source of the E. coli and coliform
bacteria was the Congress Street water storage tank. An inspection revealed holes in its
Fiberglas roof and issues with the caulking on the edges. The free bottled water
distribution at the high school was a fiasco, between the traffic tie-ups, need for police
details and belief that some people abused the system. It ran for eight straight days and
ran up a bill of more than $200,000 for the company.
Source: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1476163597/Milford-asks-state-toreview-water-problems
23. August 25, Associated Press – (New Jersey) Spill at sewage plant could close Sandy
Hook beach. A chlorine spill at a sewage treatment plant on the New Jersey shore
could temporarily close part of the beach at Sandy Hook. The spill occurred on August
25 in a plant operated by the National Parks Service that serves the entire peninsula. A
Parks Service spokesman says about 20 gallons of chlorine spilled and created a cloud
of gas. Employees were evacuated and no injuries were reported. Beachgoers at
Gunnison Beach were evacuated, and he said if the treatment plant is not back online
by August 26 the beach may have to be closed.
Source:
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20090825_ap_spillatsew
ageplantcouldclosesandyhookbeach.html
24. August 25, EE Times – (Massachusetts; National) MIT’s robotic fish target
monitoring tasks. Robotic fish could swim in schools of hundreds to perform surveys,
environmental monitoring, reconnaissance and other underwater tasks, according to
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers who recently displayed
prototypes. Measuring just a few inches long, the robotic fish combine flexible
polymers with microprocessor controllers to swim, observe and return to report their
findings. “If you use traditional materials like pulleys, cables and gears, you end up
with a very complex and expensive mechanism that has a high probability of failing,”
said an MIT researcher. “We wanted to make robotic fish that were cheap, robust and
resilient in the real world, so we enclosed everything in a flexible monolithic body with
no parts that can break loose.” The polymer compounds used to make the fish were of
variable stiffness in different sections to perform the functions of discrete components.
MIT’s original design back in 1994 had over 2,000 components, including six motors.
Other researchers have continued to design similar robo-fish using traditional materials,
but the MIT researchers took a cue from the design of modern prosthetic limbs to make
their robo-fish cheaper and more reliable by virtue of reducing the number of moving
parts to just 10, including a single motor. Some prototypes have survived in the lab for
four years of constant underwater tests without a leak. Since radio communications
- 11 -
underwater are limited, even with powerful tranceivers, the MIT engineers proposed to
instead release the robo-fish in schools of hundreds, depending on them swimming
back home to report any findings. The schools would perform such missions as sensing
each other with visual cues and precision pressure sensors that allow the robo-fish to
“run” together.
Source: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219401431
25. August 24, Toledo Blade – (Ohio) Thousands of fish killed in Swan Creek. Dead fish
lined the banks of a popular fishing spot along Swan Creek on August 23 as the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) investigated a large fish kill numbering in
the tens of thousands in a roughly two-mile area near Highland Park. The cause of the
deaths was unclear. Oxygen depletion in the water caused the fish to drown, but what
caused the oxygen level to fall was unknown. The acidity balance and water clarity
were good, and the creek appears to be an otherwise healthy ecosystem with large-sized
bass and pike found among the dead fish. Several ODNR officers waded in the water
counting the fish, and Toledo Environmental Services tested the water to help identify
the source of the problem.
Source:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090824/NEWS16/90824033
3
For another story, see item 1
[Return to top]
Public Health and Healthcare Sector
26. August 25, Palm Beach Post – (Florida) Angry patient makes bomb threat on
suburban Delray Beach doctor’s office. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office
cleared a doctor’s office this morning after a patient threatened to blow up the Delray
Beach facility because it was closed on Monday. The bomb threat prompted authorities
to evacuate about 40 people from the building about 10:30 a.m. A K-9 unit was brought
to Primary Care Associates located on Atlantic Avenue just west of Military Trail to
search for any explosives. Authorities said a male patient, apparently upset that the
doctor’s office was closed on Monday, left the threat with an answering service.
Source:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2009/08/25/0825bom
bthreat.html
27. August 25, U.S Food and Drug Administration – (International) FDA authorizes
emergency use of H1N1 test for U.S. troops serving overseas. The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration Tuesday announced it has issued an Emergency Use
Authorization (EUA) that allows a 2009 H1N1 influenza virus test to be used to detect
the virus in troops serving overseas.The EUA allows the U.S. Department of Defense
to distribute the H1N1 test to its qualified laboratories that have the required equipment
and trained personnel to perform the test and interpret its results. An EUA authorizes
- 12 -
the use of unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical
products during a declared public health emergency. The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the test, which is called the CDC swH1N1
(swine) Influenza Real-Time RT-PCR.
Source:
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm180153.htm
28. August 25, Associated Press – (National) Veterans wrongly told they have fatal
disease. Letters were sent to 1,864 veterans about disability benefits for those with
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and a “small number” have contacted the
VA indicating they received the letters in error, a VA spokeswoman said Monday
night. However, the National Gulf War Resource Center said Reid was among at least
1,200 veterans who received the letter, even though they had not been diagnosed with
the illness. Veterans were initially suspicious, but still went through the pain not
knowing whether they had the degenerative disease, which typically kills people within
five years. The Resource Center said at least 2,500 letters informing veterans of
disability benefits for ALS sufferers were sent, with almost half a mistake. A VA
spokeswoman said the number sent was not that high and that only less than 10 people
had called to say they had gotten an ALS benefits letter but didn’t have the disease.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,542086,00.html?test=latestnews
29. August 24, Associated Press – (Maryland) Md. hospitals to share data, track
diseases. Maryland’s governor plans to announce the launch of a computer system that
will allow all hospitals in Maryland to share data on admittances, diagnoses and
treatments. The system will allow hospitals to quickly track the spread of diseases
including swine flu. A spokesman for the governor says Maryland is the first state in
the country to have 100 percent of its hospitals participating in such a program. The
governor will talk about the system at a news conference in Laurel next Monday
afternoon. He also intends to discuss Maryland’s efforts to slow the spread of swine flu.
State health officials are planning to offer the swine flu vaccine to every Marylander
who wants it, but the plan depends on the widespread availability of the vaccine.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082401329.html?hpid=topnews
[Return to top]
Government Facilities Sector
30. August 26, WLWT 5 Cincinnati – (Ohio) Scene cleared after bomb threat at Job
Corps. A bomb scare ended Wednesday morning with no explosives found. Police said
a threat was found scribbled on a bathroom wall inside the Cincinnati Job Corps
building at 1409 Western Ave. The building was temporarily evacuated while bombsniffing dogs were called in to look for explosives. The Job Corps’ director told News 5
that nothing was found. People were being allowed back into the building. The
Cincinnati Job Corps offers free education and training to young people to help them
- 13 -
find and keep a job, as part of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Source: http://www.wlwt.com/news/20562345/detail.html
31. August 25, Nextgov – (National) DHS official: Agencies must make high-risk cyber
threats top priority. Federal agencies should prioritize their information security
requirements to ensure mission-critical operations are protected first, and delineate
between “that which is aggravating and that which is truly dangerous,” the Homeland
Security Department’s cyber chief said during a conference on Tuesday. Cyberattacks
are growing far more sophisticated, in part because they are more difficult to detect,
said the assistant secretary of DHS’ Office of Cybersecurity and Communications. He
and the chief executive officer of security vendor McAfee spoke Tuesday at the GFirst
conference in Atlanta hosted by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. “The
more sophisticated attacks ...are low and slow, designed to not draw attention, but
insidiously get at data and resources,” the assistant secretary of DHS’ Office of
Cybersecurity and Communications said. “Yet at the same time, the level of noise from
less sophisticated attacks continues to grow. This makes for an environment where it is
easy to focus on the wrong pieces of the puzzle while bad things happen under the
radar.” The challenge for agencies is determining where to focus their limited resources
in such a hostile environment, he said in an interview with Nextgov.com after his
speech. “We have to put an appropriate level of resources to those issues” that are less
critical, he said, such as a denial-of-service attack that temporarily blocks access to an
agency’s network or Web defacement that alters online content. “At the same time, we
need to recognize that those are not the really dangerous attacks. It’s a resource
[allocation] issue; when you have so much attention focused on these areas that are not
as critical, the less noisy attacks can” go unnoticed. Only agencies can prioritize
information security efforts based upon their individual missions, he said. “[DHS] can
help set some requirements and assist in moving the ball forward, but the agencies
themselves have to understand their risk profiles and execute against their mission,” he
said.
Source: http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090825_7424.php
32. August 25, WDTV 5 Bridgeport – (West Virginia) Chemical spill evacuates part of
WVU building. A chemical spill sent one person to the hospital and evacuated part of
a West Virginia University (WVU) building. WVU issued an emergency alert Monday
at about 8:00 PM. Crews evacuated the 2nd floor of the Health Sciences Center and
about an hour later confirmed it was safe to go back inside. Morgantown fire officials
say a graduate student was splashed with Phenol after a “small spill” in a lab. A school
spokeswoman said the student suffered only minor burns to her leg.
Source: http://www.wdtv.com/news/local/54759642.html
[Return to top]
Emergency Services Sector
33. August 26, Belleville News-Democrat – (Illinois) Veteran police officer’s gun is
stolen from patrol car. East St. Louis police are investigating a report from one of
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their veteran officers that his duty weapon was stolen. The officer in question made the
report August 11. The gun was apparently stolen after the officer left it in his patrol car
after finishing a shift.
Source: http://www.bnd.com/179/story/896559.html?storylink=omni_popular
34. August 25, WTAE 4 Pittsburgh – (Pennsylvania) Fake murder/hostage call triggers
huge police response. A man is wanted for allegedly calling in a false report that
gunmen had taken over a church camp, causing state police troopers from Greensburg,
Somerset, Uniontown and New Stanton to quickly respond, along with a helicopter
from Altoona. Police at the Uniontown barracks said the 47-year-old man’s call on
August 15 cost more than $3,200 in wasted manpower as state troopers scrambled
toward what they believed to be a chaotic, dangerous scene. “The resources that we had
brought to the situation — if something else major would have happened in the county,
we would have been slow to respond, so you’re risking a catastrophe someplace else in
the county,” a trooper said. “We still had manpower to respond but not as much as we
wanted.”
Source: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/cnn-news/20551947/detail.html
35. August 24, Associated Press – (Iowa) Flood-damaged Iowa center to be
demolished. Demolition is expected to start soon on the flood-damaged Benton County
Law Enforcement Center in Vinton. A Cedar Rapids company, Design Dynamics, has
given county supervisors a timeline for razing the building, which was swamped during
last summer’s floods. Supervisors have already approved design drawings for a new
center, which will include a 32-bed jail, a 911 dispatch center and offices for the
sheriff, deputies and investigators.
Source: http://wcco.com/wireapnewsia/Demolition.soon.for.2.1141547.html
[Return to top]
Information Technology Sector
36. August 26, Network World – (International) Trojan attacks up, phishing attacks
down this year, IBM finds. Spam-based phishing attacks declined noticeably during
the first half of the year, but cyber-criminals may simply be shifting to other
technologies found to be more effective in stealing personal data, according to IBM in
its semi-annual security threat report. “The decline in phishing and increases in other
areas (such as banking Trojans) indicate the attackers may be moving their resources to
other methods to obtain the gains that phishing once achieved,” is the explanation
offered in the “IBM Internet Security Systems 2009 Mid-Year Trend & Risk Report.”
It says Russia is the top country of origin for phishing e-mails, with 7.2 percent share,
while China is the top hosting country for spam URLs. IBM’s semi-annual security
report presents a broad view of trends based on its own analysis of volumes of sensor
data, Web crawling technologies and other resources used to gather information
through its Internet Security Systems division. In the first half of 2009, 55 percent of
the new malware seen was Trojans, an increase of 9 percent over last year, the report
says. Trojan malware, which includes components called downloaders and info-
- 15 -
stealers, are mainly being used in the form of “public-available toolkits” that are “easy
to use” by criminals, the report points out. The number of malicious Web links used to
trick users into downloading malware or visiting dangerous sites has increased, up 508
percent in the first half of 2009 in comparison to the number discovered in the first half
of 2008, says the report. The U.S. is the top country where such malicious Web links
can be found, accounting for 36 percent of known malicious links, with China holding
the second spot.
Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/082609-ibm-malware-trojans.html
37. August 26, Daily Tech – (International) Apple reportedly using malware detection in
Snow Leopard. Not wanting to be made the target of new PC ads mocking its lack of
antivirus support, Apple reportedly is packaging its new OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”,
set to air on August 28, with free antivirus software. Security research firm Intego,
which maintains a Mac security blog that monitors various OS X-specific malware,
first noticed and reported the development. The firm was running the new version of
OS X, when they noticed it detected and removed malware. The process was carried
out via a popup window, which they took a screenshot of, but they were either unable
to determine or chose not announce who made the antivirus software. Intego’s post
indicated that they were not making the product. ClamAV — currently the AV engine
in Apple’s server operating system — also seems unlikely as the virus detected had the
signature “OSX.RSPlug.A”, a signature that ClamAV currently doesn’t support
(ClamAV does have a signature for “OSX.RSPlug” [1]). Similar, McAfee and Sophos
use the names OSX/Puper.a [2] and OSX/RSPlug-A [3], respectively. That leaves
Symantec as one possibility. Another is that Apple has developed its own proprietary
antivirus software, which would not be surprising.
Source:
http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Reportedly+Using+Malware+Detection+in+Snow+L
eopard/article16083.htm
38. August 26, The Register – (International) MS phishing filter blacklists everything. A
wide range of uk.com websites were misclassified as malign by anti-phishing
technology built into the latest versions of Microsoft’s browser software on August 26.
Microsoft’s SmartScreen Filter, which is built into IE7 and IE8, labelled every uk.com
top level domain site as a phishing site following what appears to be a dodgy rule
change applied overnight. Many of the sites have been unblocked, but many others
remain labelled as potentially dangerous to surfers visiting the site running Microsoft’s
consumer protection technology. The issue created a headache for UK ISPs, with
hosting customers calling up wondering what the heck was going on. An ISP source
who was the first to tell The Register about the problem said that its phones are “red
hot” from calls about the issue. Microsoft responded to The Register’s queries promptly
by saying it was investigating the issue. CentralNic, registrar for uk.com domains,
published a statement saying Microsoft has promised to resolve the problem within two
hours, by 1330 BST. “We have been made aware that the Microsoft SmartScreen filter
included with Internet Explorer 8 is erroneously marking some domain names as being
unsafe,” it said. “The most likely explanation is that a genuinely unsafe website under
one of our suffixes was reported to Microsoft, but they incorrectly added all the
- 16 -
domains under that suffix to their list of unsafe websites.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/26/ms_phishing_filter/
39. August 25, CNET News – (International) Google patches severe Chrome
vulnerabilities. Google has fixed two high-severity vulnerabilities in the stable version
of its Chrome browser that could have let an attacker remotely take over a person’s
computer. With one attack on Google’s V8 JavaScript engine, malicious JavaScript on
a Web site could let an attacker gain access to sensitive data or run arbitrary code on
the computer within a Chrome protected area called the sandbox, Google said in a blog
post Tuesday. With the other, a page with XML-encoded information could cause a
browser tab crash that could let an attacker run arbitrary code within the sandbox.
Chrome 2.0.172.43 (click to download for Windows) fixes the issues and another
medium-severity issue. Once Chrome is installed, it retrieves updates automatically and
applies them when people restart the browser. Google won’t release details of the
vulnerabilities until “a majority of users are up to date with the fix,” a engineering
program manager said in the blog post.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10317320-264.html
40. August 25, Softpedia – (International) Over 62,000 new URLs serving exploit
cocktail. Security researchers advise that a new mass compromise attack is underway
and has affected over 62,000 URLs to date. A rogue IFrame injected into the
compromised Web pages loads a cocktail of exploits and malware from other domains.
Web security company ScanSafe has been monitoring this new threat and advises that
the infection pattern is a hidden IFrame loading JavaScript content from a domain
called a0v.org. A Google search for “script src= reveals 62,100 results. A senior
security researcher at ScanSafe, has told The Register that the infections are the result
of SQL injection attacks. The x.js called from a0v.org has the role of loading exploits
from a number of seven other domain names. At the moment of writing this article,
Google’s Safe Browsing was tagging a0v.org as malicious. “The malware hosting
domains were registered on or after August 3, 2009 and include: ahthja.info,
gaehh.info, htsrh.info, car741.info, game163.info, car963.info, and game158.info. The
most prolific observed by ScanSafe thus far has been ahthja.info,” the researcher writes
on the company’s blog. If exploitation is successful, several malware installers are
dropped and executed onto the victim’s computer as drive-by downloads. The security
researcher warns that “post infection, additional malware may also be downloaded”
from a different host. The exploits target vulnerabilities in popular software, including
Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat or
avast! Antivirus. AV detection rates for the malicious executables downloaded during
the attack range from poor to moderate on Virustotal.
Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Over-62-000-New-URLs-Serving-ExploitsCocktail-120006.shtml
41. August 25, Softpedia – (International) New Chinese social networking worm
discovered. Security researchers warn that a new worm has been spotted on Chinese
social networking website Renren.com. The worm masquerades a flash music video of
Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and spreads by exploiting a cross-site scripting
- 17 -
hole. The message has the title “Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here” and it contains a
maliciously crafted Flash component loaded with AllowScriptAccess=“always”
parameter. According to Adobe “When AllowScriptAccess is ‘always’, the SWF file
can communicate with the HTML page in which it is embedded even when the SWF
file is from a different domain than the HTML page.” The flash file is used to execute
the JavaScript code present in the message body and load a script called evil.js from an
external domain. As researchers indicate, the JavaScript code is used to exploit a crosssite scripting (XSS) flaw present in the website and spread the worm through its API.
Social networking worms have been increasing in number for the past few years,
suggesting that these new platforms are good hunting grounds for cybercrooks. Boris
Lau, a virus researcher at antivirus vendor Sophos, which detects this new threat as
W32/Pinkren-A, points out that “this is same technique used back in 2007 by the Okurt
worm.” Renren is a Facebook-like website very successful in China. Such local threats
are important to the Westerners as well, because Chinese computers compromised by
worms like these will join to form large botnets. These armies of zombie computers
will then be used to send spam and perform distributed denial of service attacks
globally.
Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Chinese-Social-Networking-WormDiscovered-120021.shtml
42. August 24, The Register – (International) Scammers step up attacks on Warcraft
players. A researcher from anti-virus firm Webroot has written how official forums
offered by WoW creator Blizzard are being used to spread links that lead to malware
that steals passwords and other game credentials. The scam employs the common
technique of telling visitors that their Adobe Flash player needs to be updated and then
offering a malicious trojan instead of the real installation file. Elsewhere, phishers are
churning out emails that purport to be official communications from Blizzard,
according to researchers from security provider Sophos. The emails claim the game
maker is launching a new service and invites them to click on a link for a free sneak
peak. The resulting website, in turn, phishes user credentials. The attack outbreaks
come a few weeks after Blizzard issued an update for Warcraft III that fixed a gaping
hole that could lead to the complete hijacking of machines running the real-time
strategy game. According to a Webroot researcher it was exploited simply by getting
vulnerable victims to join a custom game hosted with booby-trapped maps. Attackers
targeted the vulnerability in a game called DotA, or Defense of the Ancients, by
creating fake maps that used the same file configurations as legitimate custom maps.
“What makes this exploit particularly nasty is the fact that your PC gets infected the
moment you join a game where the infected DotA map is in use,” the researcher wrote.
“Once downloaded, the game automatically unpacks the infected map and executes the
malicious code.”
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/24/world_of_warcraft_attacks/
- 18 -
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US-CERT at sos@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/.
[Return to top]
Communications Sector
43. August 26, Information Week – (International) Dell launches 10 gigabit ethernet in
storage array. Dell on August 25 introduced an upgrade of its Dell/EMC CX4 storage
arrays that includes a 10 Gigabit Ethernet, which the vendor says addresses the
input/output needs for the growing compute density of virtualized environments within
data centers. The latest version of the CX4 arrays contains an UltraFlex Modular I/O
that enables customers to add ports supporting 8 Gb and 4 Gb Fibre Channel and 1 Gb
and 10 Gb iSCSI. The latter enables companies to consolidate “stranded servers” onto
an existing storage-area network, support more virtual servers and aggregate multiple 1
Gb iSCSI connections to fewer 10 Gb ones, Dell said. “Ethernet is increasingly being
chosen as the networking technology for storage as customers look to consolidate and
virtualize their data centers,” the vice president of enterprise storage and networking at
Dell, said in a statement. “With a 10 gigabit option and its inherent advantages in
virtualized environments, Ethernet’s case gets even stronger as the most simple and
capable networking fabric.” In addition, Dell has added virtualization-aware
Navisphere management software that provides automatic discovery of virtual
machines and VMWare ESX servers, virtual-to-physical machine mapping and
advanced search for VMs. Finally, the arrays upgrade includes drive spin-down as a
standard feature to help reduce power and cooling requirements. The feature enables
users to set policies for drives to power down when not in use.
Source:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?article
ID=219401489
44. August 26, Wired News – (International) Cutbacks could be causing IT
outages. When eBay’s PayPal unit suffered a worldwide outage early this month,
Sailrite Enterprises Inc., a sailing supply company based in Churubusco, Ind., lost its
critical customer payment services for six hours.The next day, August 4, PayPal’s
services failed Sailrite again, this time for about an hour, according to the a vice
president at Sailrite. He posted a blunt message on PayPal’s blog site: “This is not
acceptable.” In an e-mail, San Jose-based PayPal blamed the outage on a problem with
a “back-end router” that was complicated by a failure in the company’s redundancy
measures. The PayPal electronic payment system is one of many Internet-based
services that have been hit with outages. And based on news reports, the number of
such incidents appears to have been increasing in recent months, analysts said. They
cited shutdowns of the Google Apps software hosted by Google, outages at data centers
- 19 -
run by Rackspace Hosting Inc. and a distributed denial-of-service attack on Twitter.
Observers pointed to several possible reasons for the apparent uptick in online outages,
including IT budget and personnel cutbacks, increasing corporate dependence on
hosted applications, and bad luck. The chief security strategist at Citrix Systems in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, said he wonders whether a two-hour shutdown of Cisco Systems’s
Web site this month “would [have] happened a few years agoâ ¦ when they had
multiple people checking every single change.” Cisco blamed the outage on human
error. IT staff cuts spurred by the economy are likely to continue throughout the
remainder of the year. According to a survey of 300 IT center managers last year by the
Association for Computer Operations Management, half of all data centers were
planning to cut 2009 budgets by an average of 15%. Respondents at 14% of those
companies said the cuts would include layoffs of IT staffers. A executive director of
Uptime Institute Inc., a data center engineering and consulting firm, said such budget
and personnel cutbacks can prove disastrous to IT. “We’re not doing the maintenance
we should be doing, and when you don’t do maintenance, you increase the probability
of catastrophic failure,” he said. The executive added that energy-efficiency efforts may
be prompting data centers to cut back on redundant equipment and run their systems
harder, exposing equipment flaws.
Source: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/cutbacks-could-be-causing-itoutages/
45. August 25, SCMagazine – (International) Wireless flaw could let hackers breach
wired network. Researchers at a security firm on August 25 disclosed a vulnerability
within the Cisco wireless framework that could offer intruders a gaping entryway into
an organization’s network. The AirMagnet Intrusion Research Team said it discovered
an exploit, known as “skyjacking,” which could enable someone, either on purpose or
by accident, to take control of a wireless access point (AP) and point it to an outside
Cisco controller. “Access points do not normally get connected to the wrong
controller,” the AirMagnet’s director of product management told SCMagazineUS.com
on August 24. “If [one does], you have a big problem. We’ve uncovered a way where,
by accident or design, an access point could get connected to the wrong controller or a
controller that’s not in its network.” By doing that, attackers could assume control of a
legitimate access point, which not only gives them visibility into relayed data but also
could open the gates into an organization’s wired network. “You’ve taken an approved
AP and turned it rogue,” the director said. “At this point, you’ve got the keys to the
castle. You have an authorized wireless connection into a wired network. Not only
would you be able to see everything that access point does but, more importantly,
you’ll have accessed your way into the wired part of that network...So you’ve got a full
breach.” Researchers at AirMagnet, which has been acquired by Fluke Networks, also
detected another problem in the Cisco network. Leveraging Cisco’s Over-the-Air
Provisioning feature, engineers found that data belonging to wireless controllers, such
as IP and media access control (MAC) addresses, is inadvertently broadcast
unencrypted. With that information, attackers can target these devices, which support
large numbers of access points, with attacks such as denial-of-service attempts, the
AirMagnet director said. In addition, intruders can use the data to learn more about a
company’s network topology.
- 20 -
http://www.scmagazineus.com/wireless-flaw-could-let-hackers-breach-wirednetwork/article/147241/
46. August 25, Datamation – (International) 85 cloud computing vendors shaping the
emerging cloud. The era of cloud computing is dawning amid great fanfare, supported
by mountains of cash and reams of hype. Whether this change is positive is debatable,
very real concerns plague cloud computing, but the tech industry has decided: the cloud
is king. Just as the hulking mainframes of the 1960s were replaced by client server
systems in the 1980s, the in-house datacenter is now shifting toward an externallybased model. Vendors of every size are maneuvering, targeting this new market. The
U.S. government just unveiled plans to start offering cloud computing services to
federal agencies. Currently, many vendors are slapping the term ‘cloud’ on their
product. Cloud computing allows for access of software over the Web, instead of on a
hard drive. Software might sit on a server in New York or New Delhi or New Haven,
Connecticut. Or maybe that app combines services from apps that reside in New York
and New Delhi, with an add-on from a New Haven provider. Microsoft, with its Azure
cloud initiative, is quietly investing massively in leviathan datacenters across the
country to host its cloud offering. IBM’s cloud push benefits greatly from the
company’s global stance and deep focus on services. Google’s cloud strategy is
supremely well positioned, with a well-tuned international server network and its Webbased Chrome OS. Some industry wags deride Amazon as the utility cloud provider
whose offering isn’t differentiated enough, yet it keeps growing.
Source: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3835941/85-CloudComputing-Vendors-Shaping-the-Emerging-Cloud.htm
[Return to top]
Commercial Facilities Sector
47. August 25, Lukin Daily News – (Texas) Investigator: Motel fire set by meth
cooks. Two Angelina County men suspected in setting fire to American Motel earlier
this year were reportedly cooking methamphetamine, according to an Angelina County
Sheriff’s investigator. The early morning fire at the L-shaped motel off U.S. 59 North
nearly destroyed the place on January 13, gutting 16 rooms and sending a Redland
volunteer firefighter to the hospital where he stayed for three days. The fire occurred
after one man checked into the motel at 3 a.m., according to a state fire marshal’s
report. Another man joined him from a vehicle parked outside and they both went into
room 28, the report stated. Fifteen minutes later the hotel room was fully engulfed in
flames. The motel owner told investigators her husband was able to get all guests out of
their rooms before they dialed 911. The fire was of an incendiary nature, meaning it
was deliberately set, the report stated. Investigators also found bottles of lighter fluid at
the scene, according to American Motel owner.
Source:
http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/08/26/motel_fire.htm
l
- 21 -
48. August 25, Gloucester County Times – (New Jersey) Fumes from faulty battery force
office evacuation. Strong sulphur-like fumes emanating from a faulty computer battery
forced the evacuation of an office building in the American Metro Center complex in
Hamilton on Monday, according to officials. Four office workers were treated at the
scene for respiratory irritation, and one firefighter was transported to Robert Wood
Johnson University Hospital Hamilton for a minor ailment, officials said. A Mercerville
fire deputy chief said the problem began when a battery unit in Office Building 300
malfunctioned around 7 a.m. on Monday. The battery began giving off a rotten egg-like
smell that became strong enough to result in workers calling fire officials around 11
a.m. Firefighters evacuated the building, removed the battery, and began a lengthy
ventilation process that took close to four hours due to the building’s large size,
officials said. Workers, who congregated outside the building for a while as firefighters
worked, were eventually dismissed for the day.
Source: http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/index.ssf?/base/news17/1251179130251190.xml&coll=5
49. August 24, Jersey Journal – (New Jersey) Suspicious package detonated in front of
Stanley Theater in Journal Square. A portion of Journal Square in Jersey City was
closed this morning while police investigated a suspicious package in front of the
Stanley Theater at the corner of Pavonia Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard. It is believed
that police detonated the package at about 10:45 a.m. One witness said the package was
a briefcase. Police responded to the briefcase at about 9:30 a.m. Kennedy Boulevard,
where it splits with Bergen Avenue, was closed all the way up to Cottage Street, and
side streets and sidewalks were closed. All the roads have been reopened. There were
two firetrucks, numerous police vehicles and a Jersey City Medical center EMS vehicle
on the scene.
Source:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/suspicious_package_detonated_i.html
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National Monuments and Icons Sector
50. August 25, United Press International – (California) Wildfire burns in Angeles
National Forest. Campgrounds in a national forest near Los Angeles were evacuated
Tuesday after a quick-moving wildfire broke out in late afternoon, authorities said. The
fire on San Gabriel Canyon Road in Angeles National Forest spread to 50 acres within
a few hours. At least one vehicle was burned by the flames. The force included six air
tankers, a helitanker and four helicopters supplied by the Forest Service and two
helicopters from the county fire department.
Source: http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/104553.html
51. August 25, WWL 4 New Orleans – (New Orleans) Plaquemines wants to put Fort
Jackson back on the map. About 30 miles upriver from the mouth of the Mississippi
River – behind numerous chains and padlocks – sits a fort that’s been part of the
landscape here for nearly two centuries. “We, as Plaquemines Parish people, are
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constantly trying to save the history, but it’s really hard. Because of hurricanes, we
keep losing our history,” said a man with the Plaquemines Historic Association. The
repair costs are immense – more than $20 million for Fort Jackson alone – money the
parish does not have. For safety reasons, the fort remains closed. However, two bills
are now working their way through Congress, which could put this and another nearby
fort, Saint Phillip, into the National Park System. Parish officials said they would
welcome the federal designation for the forts, which could not only pay for their
restoration and upkeep, but also help put them on the map – literally. It’s a potential
historical attraction, which could provide added economic revenue to the parish. The
legislation could pass by the end of this year and the study could be finished before the
end of next year. In the meantime, the parish is making some emergency repairs to Fort
Jackson, so that the Plaquemines Orange Festival can return to the site in 2010.
Source:
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl082509cbjackson.117404b4e.html
For another story, see item 23
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Dams Sector
52. August 26, Dayton Daily News – (National) Stronger barrier to keep Asian Carp out
of Great Lakes now on. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Coast Guard
have turned up the heat on Asian carp that threaten the Great Lakes. After years of
debate and concern, the permanent electronic barrier near Chicago has been turned on,
operating at two volts per inch. It has the capacity to operate at four volts per inch, but
there is concern for the safety of boating traffic if the barrier is set at that level. A
temporary barrier has been in operation, but only operating at one volt. But there is
another problem. Apparently the new barrier has to be shut down for a couple of hours
for maintenance every six months. That would leave the one-volt barrier as the only
defense and it probably would not stop juvenile carp from invading. There is talk about
using fish poison in the water between the barriers. A third barrier is in the design stage
and is not supposed to be operational until 2011. The Coast Guard has recently
completed safety testing for vessels using the Chicago Shipping Channel where the
barriers are located. “These carp are clawing at the door now,” a Great Lakes Fishery
Commission spokesman told the Detroit Free Press. “They have the potential to be
every bit as devastating as the worst invasives we have seen — sea lamprey and zebra
mussels.”
Source: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ohio-recreation/fishing/stronger-barrier-tokeep-asian-carp-out-of-great-lakes-now-on-266285.html
53. August 25, Kennewick Tri-City Herald – (Washington) Canal seepage forces KID
water shutoff. Approximately 2,900 customers of the Kennewick Irrigation District
(KID) in Washington will be without water this week while emergency repairs are done
to the Badger East Canal. About 2,000 feet of the canal in the Country Ridge area
between Keene Road and Brantingham Road in south Richland have to be coated with
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a spray-on concrete mix to stop seeping water that has damaged several residential
yards and at least one home’s basement. The canal is dirt- and rock-lined, with a clay
base put in last winter that helps to minimize, but not stop, seeping, said a KID
spokeswoman. But the seepage has steadily increased over the past month, causing
several neighbors to complain. A Richland rheumatologist, said his wife reported the
problem to KID several weeks ago after noticing water was collecting in a window well
for their basement. And his next-door neighbor said they also had water pooling in their
backyard near the patio and back door. After monitoring the situation for the past
month and receiving numerous complaints, KID’s engineers decided August 26 to
install temporary seepage water diversions on two Country Ridge residents’ properties.
The seepage began this summer after about seven miles of the Badger East Canal was
refurbished by deepening and packing its sides and bottom with clay and dirt. The
project involved removing a 20-year-old plastic lining that was determined to be near
the end of its useful life, the spokesman said. “Earthen canals are designed to seep, but
the Badger East Canal is in no danger of failure.” KID will let the drained canal dry out
on August 25 and begin applying the concrete on August 26. The Badger East Canal
should be flowing with water again on August 28 to all affected customers.
Source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/855932.html
54. August 25, Newson6 Tulsa – (Oklahoma) Locks and Dams repaired near Port of
Catoosa. The two locks and dams closest to the Port of Catoosa in Oaklahoma are
closed for maintenance. The work will delay shipping on a portion of the McClellanKerr Arkansas River Navigation System for at least 10 days, but it could prevent
problems over the next decade. For the first time in 20 years, the lock and dam is
almost dry. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scheduled this rare dewatering for
heavy maintenance. “We have to close off both ends and pump the middle out, is the
simplest way to explain it, so it’s safe for everybody to work down inside the chamber
and equipment and work on it as long as we need to repair the damage,” said the
project manager. On the downstream side, workers dig out dirt from the miter gates that
hold back the water. Other workers replace anti-corrosion blocks in spots normally 15
feet under water. On the upstream side, the wear and tear of 20 years of service really
shows. Wooden bumpers are worn away; the gates are bent because logs get trapped as
they close. The workers will cut off and replace those massive parts. The water is so
murky, divers work by feel alone, communicating with spotters watching the leaks.
Other workers use hoses to spray out mud trapped in the gates. Every inch of the 600
foot long lock will be inspected and repaired. The work is crammed into 14 days so not
interrupt shipping any more than necessary. By the end of the job, the seven feet of
mud in the bottom will be bulldozed out and the lock should be ready for traffic for at
least another 12 years. The next lock downstream, at Choteau, is undergoing the same
kind of maintenance. The projects together are costing $1.5 million. It is only the
second time the locks have been serviced since they opened in 1971.
Source: http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=10990445
55. August 25, WIRED – (National) Old American dams quietly become a multibilliondollar threat. Dams are getting older in the United States. The average age of
America’s 80,000 dams is 51 years. More than 2,000 dams near population centers are
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in need of repair, according to statistics released this month by the Associated of State
Dam Safety Officials. Last year, 140 dams were fixed, but inspectors discovered 368
more that need help. That is why the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
gave the nation’s dams a grade of “D” in its 2009 report on the nation’s infrastructure.
There are just too many aging dams and too few safety inspectors. “With the huge
number of dams getting older every day, it’s becoming a bigger and bigger problem,”
said the deputy executive director of the ASCE. “The policing of maintenance and
filing of inspection records is relatively haphazard, not because of lack of focus or
knowledge of significance, but they just don’t have the monetary resources to do it.”
The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimate that $16 billion would be
needed to fix all high-hazard dams. The total for all state dam-safety budgets is less
than $60 million. The current maintenance budget does not match the scale of
America’s long-term modifications of its watersheds. There was little state or Federal
regulation, particularly of the little dams in small watersheds, until the 1970s, when
five major dam failures took hundreds of lives and caused almost $1.5 billion in
damage. The Carter Administration began to put safeguards in place, but the
inspections continue to be carried out at the state level. Worse still, more people are
moving into risky areas. As the American population grows, dams that once could have
failed without major repercussions are now upstream of cities and development. That is
why the number of high-hazard dams has increased from less than 9,000 in 2001 to
more than 10,000 now.
Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/agingdams/
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DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
About the 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:
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