Homeland
Security
Current Nationwide
Threat Level
ELEVATED
Daily Open Source Infrastructure
Report for 20 August 2009
Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks
For information, click here:
http://www.dhs.gov
Top Stories

The New London Day reports that a 21-year-old man with a history of mental illness was
charged last month with tampering with fire hydrants in Colchester, Connecticut and illegal
bomb-making. A friend of the accused called police on July 29 and said the accused had
been talking about adding a chemical to a public water supply and was making explosives
in his garage. (See item 19)

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, an “operational emergency” was declared
Tuesday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee after a spill of 50 to 100 gallons
of a nitric acid solution at a waste-processing facility. As a precaution, thousands of lab
employees were told to “shelter in place” while the situation was evaluated. (See item 23)
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 19, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – (Pennsylvania) Hefty fine sought in
Murrysville gas leak. A Sunoco subsidiary faces a $232,900 fine for allegedly
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violating pipeline-safety regulations in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, in November when
11,760 gallons of gasoline leaked because of a failed valve on an interstate
transmission pipeline, the Department of Transportation announced this week. The
November 25 spill forced the evacuation of several businesses along Route 22 as gas
spewed onto vehicles in a parking lot at Walnut Hollow Plaza and seeped into nearby
Turtle Creek, killing virtually all of the aquatic life in a three-mile stretch. Department
officials issued a “probable violation” against Sunoco Pipeline Limited Partnership on
Friday, a spokesman said. The company has 30 days to contest the probable violation
and proposed fine and request an administrative hearing. An investigation by the
department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration found that
Sunoco Pipeline allegedly failed to meet regulatory requirements for properly operating
and maintaining its pipeline and failed to ensure that all of its staff were adequately
qualified, according to a news release.
Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3423711
2. August 18, Fort Worth Star-Telegram – (Texas) Texas land commissioner seeks
hearings on oil-well accusations against Exxon. Texas’ land commissioner called on
the state’s powerful oil regulatory agency Tuesday to open hearings into allegations
that Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp. improperly plugged and sabotaged oil wells in a
South Texas county after failed negotiations to reduce royalty payments. He said the
alleged violations could possibly result in more than $1 billion in administrative fees to
the state from the nation’s largest oil company. Exxon Mobil said in a statement that
the official’s allegations are “groundless” and “paint a false and misleading picture” of
its involvement in the Refugio County wells. The land commissioner, who oversees 20
million acres of state-owned minerals, is accusing Exxon Mobil of committing
“irrefutable, intentional and flagrant violations” of state oilfield regulations.
Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/1545217.html
For another story, see item 38
[Return to top]
Chemical Industry Sector
3. August 18, Atlanta Journal-Constitution – (Georgia) Ga. 400 lanes reopen after
chemical cleanup. The two right lanes of Ga. 400 northbound between Holcomb
Bridge Road and Mansell Road reopened around 9 p.m. on August 18, according to the
Georgia Navigator Web site. Earlier on August 18, a commercial vehicle hauling car
wash sediment spilled its load onto the highway, an Alpharetta officer said. Vehicles
were able to exit Ga. 400 onto Mansell Road, but the ramp from Mansell onto Ga. 400
northbound was closed until the spill could be cleaned up.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/ga-400ga-400-lanes-reopen-after-chemicalcleanup-118542.html
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Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste Sector
4. August 18, St. Cloud Times – (Minnesota) Monticello nuclear plant will conduct
safety tests. State, federal and local authorities will conduct an exercise today and
Wednesday on the work needed to protect area residents in case of a nuclear accident.
The field activities will take place around the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in
Sherburne and Wright counties. People who live near the plant should not be alarmed,
the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said. The Department of Homeland
Security requires one drill every other year. A public briefing on the exercise is
scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Wright County Government Center.
Source:
http://www.sctimes.com/article/20090818/NEWS01/108180014/1009/Monticellonuclear-plant-will-conduct-safety-tests
[Return to top]
Critical Manufacturing Sector
5. August 18, Wall Street Journal – (International) China shuts smelter after
protest. Authorities closed a smelting plant in northwest China’s Shaanxi province
following a protest on August 17 by villagers upset over the lead poisoning of more
than 600 children in the area, state media reported August 18. Hundreds of residents
who live around the Dongling Lead & Zinc Smelting Co. in Baoji city stormed its plant
on Auggust 17, breaking through the factory gates and damaging at least 10 trucks and
other vehicles on the premises, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. In
recent weeks, at least 615, or more than 80 percent, of the children under the age of 14
in two villages near the smelter were found to have excessive lead levels in their blood,
and 154 have been hospitalized. Anger among residents escalated after details emerged
of a suicide attempt by a teenage student who feared she had been poisoned, Xinhua
said. Residents complained that parts of the plant continued to operate. On August 6,
lead and zinc operations were suspended after the lead poisoning outbreak was traced
to the factory, but coke production had continued. Responding to the concerns, the
Baoji Mayor said all operations had been halted on August 17, explaining that the coke
production had not stopped earlier because there had still been gas in the production
pipelines that created a risk of explosion, according to Xinhua. The county government
has pledged free health care for affected children. It also said that a delayed relocation
plan for families who were supposed to be moved away from the smelter, which
opened in 2006, would be completed within two years.
Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125056623766339251.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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Defense Industrial Base Sector
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6. August 18, Aviation Week – (National) NASA tests re-entry vehicle. An inflatable heat
shield with possible applications on future missions to Mars and other celestial bodies
with atmospheres survived its first flight-test before sinking in the Atlantic Ocean. The
Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) launched on a Black Brant 9 sounding
rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast at 8:52 a.m. EDT
Aug. 17, rising to an altitude of 131 miles. Packed into a 15-inch diameter shroud, the
test article started inflating with nitrogen as it fell back through the 124-mile point, and
reached its 10-foot diameter in less than 90 seconds. The mushroom-shaped test bed,
made of silicone-coated industrial fabric, reached peak heating and pressure for about
30 seconds after it re-entered the atmosphere at about 50 miles altitude, sending back
telemetry that is still being analyzed. Ultimately IRVE splashed down in the Atlantic
about 90 miles east of Wallops and sank. Plans call for building larger inflatable
aeroshells to test their ability to handle higher heat rates, according to the project
manager.
Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/NASATests081809.xml&
headline=NASA Tests Re-entry Vehicle&channel=space
7. August 17, Aviation Week – (National) Orion pad abort test slips into 2010. NASA
will ship the first Orion crew module for launch abort tests at White Sands Missile
Range, New Mexico, on August 19, but confirms that the Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) flight test
has slipped into early 2010. NASA originally hoped to deliver the vehicle to New
Mexico in February 2009 and scheduled the PA-1 for late April, having already
postponed it several times from its first target date of September 2008. Most of the
early delays were caused by development problems with the avionics, although the
latest hold-ups are thought to be related to issues with the control electronics in part of
launch abort system (LAS).The LAS will be integrated with the crew module at White
Sands and the basic functionality of the 48.5-foot tall combined module and LAS will
be tested in PA-1. This will be the first of five tests. A follow-on Ascent Abort 1 (AA1) test will evaluate the ability of the LAS during maximum aerodynamic pressure in
the ascent. Two further tests include a PA-2 to evaluate a higher fidelity test unit, and
AA-2 to evaluate LAS operation as it goes supersonic. AA-3 will test the LAS in the
event that the launch vehicle goes out of control. The system is designed to carry the
Orion crew vehicle during a pad abort to 5,000 feet altitude and downrange distance
from the launch area. After a safe launch, the LAS is designed to jettison at 200,000
feet.
Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/orion08179.xml&headline
=Orion Pad Abort Test Slips Into 2010&channel=space
For another story, see item 25
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Banking and Finance Sector
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8. August 19, Washington Post – (International) Swiss Bank UBS to divulge at least
4,450 account names. A deal finalized on August 20 between the United States and
Switzerland paves the way for a potentially historic disclosure of Swiss bank secrets—
the names of thousands of Americans suspected of using secret accounts to hide money
from the IRS. Under the agreement, UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, is expected to
turn over the names of Americans who controlled 4,450 accounts that are currently
open or have been closed. The secret accounts at one point held as much as $18 billion,
the IRS said. “We will be receiving an unprecedented amount of information,” the IRS
Commissioner told reporters on August 19. The settlement follows a long-running
effort by the U.S. government to penetrate Swiss bank secrecy and catch tax evaders.
The U.S. government had been seeking a federal court order demanding that Swiss
banking giant UBS identify the holders of 52,000 accounts. The Swiss government
vowed to prevent such a disclosure, leading to weeks of negotiations. Switzerland was
fighting to preserve the reputation for privacy that has made its banking industry a
global powerhouse and a pillar of the Swiss economy. The deal includes concessions
that might make it easier for Switzerland to argue that its tradition of secrecy survived
the battle.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/08/19/AR2009081901395.html
9. August 18, Dow Jones Newswires – (National) NY Fed, FDIC see threats posed by
CIT. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. at last appear to be getting to grips with CIT Group Inc. That they recognize the
threats posed by the company should be a lesson to Wall Street firms. The N.Y. Fed
last week ordered CIT report daily cash positions and daily client funding, some weeks
after the FDIC had issued a cease and desist order against CIT Bank prohibiting it from
accepting brokered deposits and requiring it to submit a capital plan. In their secondquarter earnings calls, leaders of various investment banks unequivocally dismissed
their risk exposures to CIT. Such confidence looked misplaced, for CIT has complex
and opaque financial relationships. In some cases, CIT advances funds against the
accounts receivable it buys from small businesses. In others, it provides trade credit,
protecting clients against payment default by their customers. Small businesses are
incented to use a factor such as CIT for trade credit with bank financing, owing to the
interest expense savings. A sample of bank loans collateralized by cash flows factored
by CIT suggests that such arrangements reduce the small businesses’ funding spreads
to Libor by 30 percent relative to the cost of financing through CIT in connection with
factoring. CIT appears unaware of systemic risk resulting from its position as the nexus
between small businesses and the banking system. No one from the company was
available for comment.
Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125060523989940101.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
For another story, see item 35
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Transportation Sector
10. August 19, Merrillville Post-Tribune – (Indiana) Lawsuit claims CSX didn’t do
enough to prevent crash. The woman who lost her daughter and two granddaughters
after their minivan was hit on September 1, 2007 by two trains has filed a lawsuit
against CSX, claiming the rail company did not do enough to alert people to the
oncoming trains. Video from a surveillance camera showed the driver in a South Shore
Line parking lot and then making a turn onto Johnson just in front of an eastbound
train. Police said at the time it appeared the driver was racing the train in order to cross
the tracks before the train got to the intersection first. However, another train was
headed west and struck the minivan, which was then hit next by the eastbound train.
The suit claims that CSX should have installed crossing arms at the crossing section to
help protect people. It also says the train operators did not blare their horns, which
could have alerted the driver to the oncoming trains, and that the trains were speeding.
The crossing had flashing lights installed at the time of the accident. CSX had signed
an agreement with the city of Hammond a few years before the accident to reroute
trains to another line south of where the accident occurred. However, it had not
completed the process yet because of finances.
Source: http://www.post-trib.com/news/1722736,csxsuit0819.article
11. August 18, Aviation Web – (National) AEA warns of burdensome safety
management system proposal. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has
issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would require a broad spectrum
of aviation businesses, from repair stations to airlines, to implement formal “safety
management systems” (SMS) that document the safety procedures throughout the
operation. The International Civil Aviation Organization defines an SMS as
“systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary organizational
structures, accountabilities, policies and procedures.” The Aircraft Electronics
Association (AEA) calls it an “overarching, regulatory ‘blanket’ to your business” that
it says even the FAA admits is a major administrative and operational burden. The
AEA is urging members to comment on the NPRM but not before they attend a seminar
on its potential impact. The AEA is afraid members will inadvertently signal support
for the proposal if they do not get the straight goods from the meetings. At the heart of
the SMS is a formalized decision-making process that business owners would “use to
plan, organize, direct and control their normal, day-to-day business processes.” The
FAA is quick to point out that in no way does an SMS substitute for or override all the
paper trails it already requires to ensure compliance with its own regulations.
“Therefore, the FAA is proposing a significant additional burden without any financial,
administration, or administrative benefit to AEA members,” the AEA said in a news
release.
Source:
http://www.avweb.com/avwebbiz/news/FAAProposesSafetyManagementSystems_201
018-1.html
12. August 18, Aviation Herald – (North Carolina) Republic E170 at Charlotte on Aug
17th 2009, rejected takeoff after multiple bird strikes. A Republic Airlines Embraer
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ERJ-170 on behalf of US Airways, performing flight RW-3282/US-3282 from
Charlotte, North Carolina to Indianapolis, Indiana rejected takeoff from runway 18C at
high speed after the airplane hit multiple geese. The airplane stopped safely and taxied
back to the apron. The pilots reported that about 20 geese had been sitting on the
runway about 6,000 feet down the runway and another 20 were flying low when they
struck the birds. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that one goose was
ingested into the right hand engine and another one struck the right main landing gear
resulting in unknown damage to the airplane.
Source: http://avherald.com/h?article=41e69ecd&opt=4865
13. August 17, Bloomberg – (New York) Air controllers union disputes Hudson crash
findings. A report from U.S. safety officials last week “mistakenly and unfairly” put
blame on the air traffic controller handling the small plane that collided with a
helicopter over the Hudson River, the controllers’ union said. The National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the Teterboro, New Jersey, controller did not
warn the plane’s pilot about other aircraft before the August 8 crash that killed nine.
While the NTSB said several aircraft were detected ahead of the plane, its assertion that
the helicopter was among them is “absolutely false,” the union said in a statement
today. The union made its determination after reviewing voice and data recordings kept
by the Federal Aviation Administration, said the president of the union. In response, the
NTSB removed the union from its role in the accident inquiry, saying the labor group
broke rules on disclosing information. “We believe the NTSB is wrong to infer there
was a traffic advisory that could have been issued from Teterboro tower to the aircraft,”
said a facility representative for National Air Traffic Controllers Association at the
Newark tower. The NTSB removed the union as a participant in the accident
investigation, in which it was providing technical expertise.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aA9XwYc81DUE
For more stories, see items 1 and 3
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Postal and Shipping Sector
Nothing to report
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Agriculture and Food Sector
14. August 18, Wall Street Journal – (National) Biofuel bet aims to harvest fish that feed
on algae. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is the second largest in the world, after one in
the Baltic Sea. The Louisiana seafood industry worries that dead zones threaten the
ecosystems that support the state’s $1 billion shrimp industry as well as other fisheries.
Turning algae into a bio-based oil to run in conventional refineries alongside crude has
been a long-held dream of biofuels entrepreneurs. Environmental groups are concerned
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that the runoff from agricultural fertilizer is pushing a natural ecosystem toward
collapse. A Silicon Valley, California start-up wants to address all these issues by using
the algae in the dead zones to step up a food chain, using algae to feed fish that could
be processed for oil. The fish would gobble up the algae and then be harvested, cooked
and pressed to extract fish oil — a method already used to produce omega-3 fatty acid
dietary supplements. The company envisions building caged fish farms in parts of the
algae blooms in Louisiana bayous and offshore in the Gulf. The algae would provide a
free source of food to raise the fish, and natural tidal flows would churn the algae to
keep fresh nutrient-rich water flowing through. Algae blooms are seasonal and move
around from year to year, so the company might have to design mobile fish farms to
capture the moveable feasts.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125055779852138901.html
15. August 18, Food Product Design – (National) Kraft Global recalls frozen pizza. The
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that Kraft Foods Global, Inc.
is recalling approximately 8,000 pounds of frozen pepperoni and sausage pizza
products because they may contain an undeclared allergen, soy protein concentrate. The
recall involves 17.2-ounce packages of “Kraft, Jack’s Original, Sausage and Pepperoni
Pizza, made with pork, chicken and beef,” which may bear a “Tombsone Original 12”
Pepperoni Pizza” label on the back of the product. Any products bearing a “Jack’s”
back label are not subject to the recall. The packages bear the product number
“7192100519,” a Julian lot code number “09320,” and the USDA mark of inspection,
with establishment number “EST. 2461” ink-jetted on a white paper label on the back
of the product. The products were produced on July 19, 2009, and distributed to retail
establishments in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin.
Source: http://www.foodproductdesign.com/news/2009/08/kraft-global-recalls-frozenpizza.aspx?tw=20090819072855
16. August 17, Associated Press – (Kentucky) Officials ‘confident’ blaze began at
grocery store. Investigators looking into the cause of a fire that blazed through an
eastern Kentucky city’s downtown are meeting to confirm its origin. The Lexington
Herald-Leader reports investigators are expected to confirm on August 17 that the fire
started at Jack’s IGA grocery store. A spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says authorities are “confident” a mechanical or
electrical fire in the refrigerator compressor ignited the blaze that devastated three
businesses. Rose Bros. department store and the Beattyville Enterprise were also
destroyed in last week’s fire.
Source: http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/898469.html
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Water Sector
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17. August 19, Engineer Online – (California) Sensors detect pipe faults. Engineers at UC
Irvine, in California, plan to outfit their local water system with sensors that will alert
officials when and where pipes crack or break thanks to a $5.7 million grant from the
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology and several local water groups.
About 240,000 water-main breaks occur per year in the U.S. according to the
Environmental Protection Agency, and water system failures are estimated to waste up
to 6 billion gallons of drinking water every day. The researchers created the compact
sensing devices that attach to the surface of pressurized (drinking water) and nonpressurized (wastewater) pipes. They will detect vibration and sound changes that
could indicate pipe problems. Through antennae, the sensors will relay information
wirelessly over long distances to a central location for recording, processing and
analysis. Initially, the sensor network will cover about one square mile of the local
water system; eventually, it could encompass more than 10 square miles, the largest of
its kind to date. The research team is now designing a system that functions
underground as well as over a larger area. The main hurdles, they say, are powering the
sensors (batteries and solar energy are not powerful enough), making them more cost
effective and robust in tough environments, and achieving long-range wireless
communication efficiently and accurately.
Source: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/312758/Sensors+detect+pipe+faults.htm
18. August 18, Virginian-Pilot – (Virginia) Water main that flooded tunnel passed test
in 2006. More than three years ago, transportation workers discovered that the
concrete-encased fire main beneath the eastbound lanes of the Hampton Roads
(Virginia) Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) had sprung a leak. The state launched a major
project to install a reinforcing lining inside part of the fractured pipe. But the
westbound water main, which is 20 years older than its counterpart, got no such
attention. It passed the same water-pressure test at the time and was left alone, with no
plans to test it again until 2011. Then, last month, the westbound pipe burst, releasing
more than a million gallons of water inside the bridge-tunnel tube and closing the road
for most of a day. Information about eastbound main repair was included in annual
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) reports to the state fire marshal’s office
that were provided to The Virginian-Pilot. In the wake of the July 2 shutdown, state
officials have launched an investigation. They are adding water level alarms to the
lower chambers of the HRBT. And they are studying whether more frequent, in-depth
tunnel inspections are needed. By comparison, in the nearby Chesapeake Bay BridgeTunnel, which is not managed by VDOT, workers check the mechanical and electrical
systems daily, and the tunnel gets a complete annual inspection. Human error appears
to be the reason that the July main break went undetected for hours, VDOT officials
have said. The flood was finally spotted when water spilled from the lower chamber
onto the roadway. Other signals, such as the automatic switching on of fire pumps that
feed the broken main, should have alerted staff long before, they said. The tunnel
shutdown cost residents at least $2.2 million in fuel and lost time because of a massive
regional traffic jam, VDOT calculates.
Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/08/water-main-flooded-tunnel-passed-test-2006
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19. August 18, New London Day – (Connecticut) Police say bomb suspect wanted to
tamper with water supply. A 21-year-old man with a history of mental illness and an
obsession with fire and explosions had moved back into his parents’ home in
Colchester, Connecticut for just three weeks before he was charged last month with
tampering with town fire hydrants and illegal bomb-making. A friend of the accused
called police July 29, the same day the town’s water department discovered that
somebody had tampered with a fire hydrant on Lebanon Avenue, releasing 314,000
gallons of water. The friend told police the accused had been talking about adding a
chemical to a public water supply and was making explosives in his garage. The next
day, the state police bomb squad executed a search warrant on the detached garage at
Walker’s parents’ home on Elm St. They seized a form of homemade napalm and
bomb-making materials and arrested the man at the scene. He was arraigned Friday in
Superior Court in Norwich on charges of attempted manufacture of illegal bombs, four
counts of first-degree criminal mischief, third-degree larceny, first-degree reckless
endangerment, two counts of second-degree breach of peace and sixth-degree larceny.
He is being held on $100,000 in bonds at the Corrigan Correctional Institution. His case
was transferred to the New London court where major crimes are heard and continued
to August 31. He admitted to using a pipe wrench to open fire hydrants in the area,
saying he had “heard about it being done and wanted to see how difficult it was,”
according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He also admitted to buying materials to build
pipe bombs and making and detonating two other types of bombs — one made with an
empty CO2 cartridge and another with Drano, the drain clog cleaner. The water
department found one of the hydrants had been pressurized, a condition that is
potentially dangerous to somebody servicing the hydrant.
Source: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=ca13a9dc-97aa-42ee-aff8-5df133165218
For another story, see item 44
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Public Health and Healthcare Sector
20. August 18, Reuters – (National) U.S. government to advise businesses on swine
flu. U.S. government officials plan to release guidance on Wednesday for businesses
seeking advice on how to deal with the swine flu pandemic. The Commerce Secretary,
the Homeland Security Secretary, and the Health and Human Services Secretary will
hold a joint news conference to advise employers and businesses. The new H1N1
influenza virus has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century and is spreading out of
control, according to the World Health Organization. When the northern hemisphere’s
autumn weather sets in it is expected to worsen. U.S. officials have issued guidance for
vaccinations and for schools. The government says healthcare workers, pregnant
women and people with chronic diseases such as asthma should get immunized first as
the H1N1 vaccine becomes available.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE57H6AF20090818
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21. August 18, Erie Times-News and Associated Press – (Pennsylvania) Pa. bomb threat
suspect upset over hospital wait. A man is awaiting arraignment on charges he called
a bomb threat into an Erie hospital because police say he was upset that his
grandmother had to wait long for treatment. Police did not immediately release details
about the suspect’s grandmother, but say the man made the call from his cell phone
Monday evening, claiming there was a bomb near a hospital exit. Police found nothing.
Police used information from cell phone towers to locate the man who was arrested on
charges of making terroristic threats and risking a catastrophe early Tuesday.
Source:
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20090818_ap_pabombt
hreatsuspectupsetoverhospitalwait.html
22. August 18, Mobi Health News – (National) Can hackers control wireless implantable
devices? While investigating potential security holes in wireless pacemakers, a
software engineer and assistant professor of computer science at University of
Massachusetts-Amherst, has created a prototype “heart-attack machine,” according to a
MIT Technology Review report. The researcher spent nine months de-constructing the
“matchbook-sized microchip and antenna coil” that connects the latest generation ICDs
to the Internet to uncover its security risk potential. He correctly believed that hackers
could be able to listen in on the wireless communication between an ICD and its
programming computer and then use that signal to control the device and inflict harm
on the patient. He created a device, that could be “easily miniaturized” to an iPhonesized device, that can communicate with a patient’s ICD, according to the report.
Source: http://mobihealthnews.com/3949/can-hackers-control-wireless-implantabledevices/
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Government Facilities Sector
23. August 19, Knoxville News Sentinel – (Tennessee) No injuries in nitric acid spill at
ORNL; recovery operations over next few days. An “operational emergency” was
declared Tuesday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory after a spill of 50 to 100 gallons of
a nitric acid solution at a waste-processing facility. As a precaution, thousands of lab
employees were told to “shelter in place” for a couple of hours in the morning while the
situation was evaluated. The emergency status was terminated by mid-afternoon. A
U.S. Department of Energy spokesman said the spill occurred when a solution of 60-65
percent nitric acid was being off-loaded from a 4,000-gallon tanker truck into a holding
tank at Building 3544. The nitric acid is used for processing of low-level nuclear waste
at the building, which is managed by Bechtel Jacobs Co. The spokesman said four
workers were evacuated from the building and moved to the lab’s cafeteria. No one was
injured, and there was no release to the environment, he said. The nitric acid that
overflowed from the tank was contained in the building’s sump, scrubber and filter pit,
the spokesman said. DOE and its Oak Ridge contractors plan to complete the recovery
operations “over the next few days” and return the building to normal operations, he
said.
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Source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/aug/19/no-injuries-in-nitric-acid-spillat-ornl/
24. August 19, Detroit Lakes Online – (Michigan) Felony charge dismissed against
Detroit Lakes high school student accused of setting off ‘Drano bomb’. Charges
have been dismissed against a Detroit Lakes High School student accused of setting off
a “Drano bomb” in a garbage can at school. The 17 year-old suspect, from Detroit
Lakes, was charged with setting off an explosive or incendiary device, a felony. He was
allegedly a “co-conspirator” with another teen, an 18 year-old, who also faces a felony
charge in Becker County District Court. According to court records: In the late
afternoon of February 25, two so-called “Drano bombs” were set off in garbage cans at
Detroit Lakes High School — one in an upper hallway and one in a lower hallway. The
devices made loud noises and at least one sent up a cloud of vapor. The devices are
easily made by mixing Drano crystals with a few other simple ingredients in a plastic
bottle, which causes the bottle to explode a short while later. Both allegedly admitted
setting off the devices, using material that the co-conspirator brought from home. But
the suspect’s attorney successfully petitioned the court to suppress statements made to
police and any evidence obtained because of those statements, arguing that they were
“obtained in violation of the child’s constitutional right against self-incrimination and
his right to due process.”
Source: http://www.dl-online.com/event/article/id/46863/
25. August 18, Advanced Packaging – (National) Fed invests $6M for anti-tampering
chips from Endicott Interconnect Technologies. A New York Democratic
Congressman joined Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EI) officials to announce that
he has secured a $6 million federal investment for the company to develop state-of-theart microelectronic chips for the U.S. military that will safeguard against foreign
tampering of weapons. “As the tactics of U.S. enemies become more sophisticated, it’s
imperative that we stay ahead of the curve and develop technology for our military that
will be tamperproof and prevent any intentional malfunctioning of U.S. weapon
systems,” the Congressman said. The microchips are expected to be used for unmanned
ground and aerial vehicles, artillery shells, robots, satellites, and other military
equipment.The company will develop the design structures for the anti-tampering
detection technology into EI circuit boards that will be manufactured and placed into
various military weapons and equipment. The microchips will be fully integrated into
the weapons’ circuit boards in order to avoid an enemy’s ability to tamper with just one
section of a circuit board. EI will also develop equipment that will be used to test the
circuit board microelectronic systems in the various military weapons.
Source: http://ap.pennnet.com/display_article/367991/36/ARTCL/none/INDUS/1/FedInvests-$6M-For-Anti-tampering-Chips-from-Endicott-Interconnect-Technologies/
26. August 18, KXTV 10 Sacramento – (California) Stockton school evacuated for
possible bomb. School authorities evacuated Cesar Chavez High School in Stockton
Tuesday morning in order to detonate a possible bomb in a backpack, according to
authorities. The school, located at 2929 Windflower Lane, will be closed the rest of the
day. The spokesman for the Stockton Unified School District, said the backpack was
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left in a classroom. Police said the incident began when a student told his teacher that
he had a bomb in his backpack. The bomb squad safely detonated the backpack at noon
after the campus had been cleared of students and staff. Officers have arrested the
student. It was unknown at this time what charges the student may face. No one was
hurt in the incident.
Source: http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=65382&catid=2
27. August 18, Battle Creek Inquirer – (Michigan) City hall reopens after bomb
scare. Battle Creek City Hall has been reopened in time for a city commission meeting
after a bomb scare. A 61 year-old resident said he and his wife found mysterious
material in the basement of their home, where they have lived six years. He drove the
material to the Michigan State Police Post in Battle Creek, but that office was closed,
so he drove to the Battle Creek City Hall Parking lot and contacted officers at 4:57 p.m.
A police spokesman said the resident found explosive cord and blasting caps and
because there was a chance it could explode, about 25 people were evacuated from city
hall and some others from the Masonic Temple until about 6:15 p.m. The spokesman
said the explosives would be destroyed.
Source:
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20090818/NEWS01/308180015/1002/Bom
b+threat+closes+city+hall
28. August 18, Aiken Standard – (South Carolina) Two leave hospital after SRS chemical
spillage. Two of the three workers taken to an Augusta hospital on August 18 after
being injured in a chemical spill at the Savannah River Site were released. A third
worker is still being evaluated for a burn on his arm. Four other workers were evaluated
by on-site medical personnel, said a spokesman for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.
The injured workers were part of a crew that was preparing an F Area facility for
removal of process piping about 7:45 a.m., he said. About a pint to a quart of nitric acid
spilled, he said. F Area is a former chemical processing complex, where plutonium was
made, that was deactivated in 2006. Nitric acid was used in the plutonium production
process. No radioactive material was released. Details of how the incident occurred
were not available.
Source: http://www.aikenstandard.com/Local/0819-Chemical-spill
[Return to top]
Emergency Services Sector
29. August 19, Eugene Register-Guard – (Georgia) Man charged with burglarizing
police station. The man who allegedly burglarized the North Bend Police Station last
week, stealing two department-issue Tasers, a radio, and a police cruiser, has been
arrested. The man faces charges of burglary, possession of burglary tools, theft,
unlawful use of a motor vehicle, unlawful entry into a motor vehicle, criminal mischief,
criminal trespass, tampering with physical evidence and reckless driving. The building
was remodeled recently, a police official said, but the outer doors are difficult to lock
properly, so that’s probably how the suspect got inside. Once through the outer
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perimeter, the suspect encountered a door that was locked securely, but that didn’t stop
him, the official said, he simply kicked it in.
Source: http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/1885638241/story.csp
30. August 19, Boston Globe – (Massachusetts) Boston firepower lacking, FBI
says. Boston is making itself vulnerable to a terrorist attack like the rampage in
Mumbai last year by not adequately arming its police with the semiautomatic assault
rifles widely available to officers in many of the nation’s other major cities, the top FBI
agent in Boston said yesterday. Not only could the police force not easily defend
against an attack by well-armed terrorists, but the absence of weapons could actually
make the city a target, said the special agent in charge of the local FBI field office. He
said a recently shelved plan to arm as many as 200 neighborhood officers with the
weapons “should be revisited sooner rather than later.’’
Source:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/19/boston_police_fi
repower_lacking_says_citys_top_fbi_agent/
31. August 17, York Dispatch – (Pennsylvania) Southwestern York fire chiefs might
dump new radios. Three southwestern York County fire chiefs will meet Tuesday to
decide whether their firefighters should continue using the county’s new 911 system.
Penn Township’s fire chief said the new digital system, which cost about $36 million,
is worse in southwestern York County than its analog predecessor. There are big gaps
in coverage, he said, and communication between firefighters at incidents is unreliable.
He said he, Hanover’s fire commissioner, and the Pleasant Hill volunteer fire co. chief
will meet to decide how best to protect their firefighters. The trio could decide to tell
their firefighters to stop carrying radios for the new system and instead rely on the old,
analog network. Fire department and ambulance personnel switched to the new 911
system late last month.
Source: http://yorkdispatch.inyork.com/yd/local/ci_13143916
[Return to top]
Information Technology Sector
32. August 19, The Register – (International) Old-school virus threatens Delphi
files. Virus writers have gone old school with the creation of a virus that infects Delphi
files as they are built. When a Delphi file infected with Induc-A virus is run, it searches
for Delphi programming installations on an infected machine and attempts to infect this
installation. More specifically, the malware attempts to infect SysConst.pas, which it
then compiles to SysConst.dcu. Once this process is completed the SysConst.dcu file is
programmed to add the Induc-A virus to every new Delphi file that gets compiled on
the system. Even the vast majority of computer users that are not Delphi developers can
be affected by running programs written in Delphi that happen to have been
contaminated. Up until August 18 the labs at Sophos have received more than 3,000
infected files, submitted by users who have found infections. “This makes us believe
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that the malware has been active for some time, and that a number of software houses
specialising in developing applications with Delphi must have been infected,” writes a
senior technology consultant at Sophos. Examples of infections have included
applications described as “a tool for downloading configuration files onto GSM
modules” and “a compiler interface that operates between our third-party design
software and our CNC woodworking machinery.”
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/19/delphi_malware/
33. August 19, Information Management Online – (International) Ghosts in the machine:
Attacks may come from inside computers. The next wave of hacking into computers
and stealing data will not be requests or code coming from remote points across the
Web, security experts are warning. Instead, the most sophisticated Trojan Horses
appearing on Wall Street financial systems may be threaded into the silicon of
integrated circuits by design, their malicious instructions baked right into the tiny
physical aspects and intricate mapping of the chip itself, according to scientists and
academics working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the White
House and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center in Dulles,
Virginia. Detecting such malware after a chip is fabricated will be extremely difficult,
if not impossible, these experts say, because the microchips that run servers have
millions to billions of transistors in them. Adding a few hundred or even just tens of
transistors can compromise an integrated circuit can serve attackers’ purposes and
escape notice. “You can never really test every single combination on the chip. Testing
a billion transistors would take a very long time. It would be very difficult to detect
hardware Trojans without having some idea of what you’re looking for to begin with,”
said a associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Arkansas, coauthor of a 2007 paper which described a “Hardware Threat Modeling Concept for
Trustable Integrated Circuits.” Tweaking chips themselves will make them prone to
manipulate data, shut down a critical function, or turn a system into a bugged phone
that steals and relays vital information, the experts say. To combat the threat, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal government’s
technical standards laboratory, is releasing in September an inter-agency report meant
to serve as the first set of best practices for government and industry to mitigate
security risks to hardware included in the IT supply chain.
Source: http://www.informationmanagement.com/news/security_computers_data_web-10015938-1.html
34. August 18, The Register – (International) Adobe patches ‘critical’ flaws in
ColdFusion, JRun. Adobe Systems has released updates that patch vulnerabilities in
two widely used web development applications, several of which let attackers steal
sensitive data or take complete control of users’ machines. In all, the patches fix seven
flaws in versions 8.0.1 and earlier of ColdFusion and JRun 4.0. The most serious of
them are XSS, or cross-site scripting, bugs that allow attackers to execute malicious
code on an underlying system by supplying a target with a booby-trapped web link.
Adobe engineers also fixed a separate management console flaw. It allowed
unauthenticated users to traverse restricted directories, a vulnerability that could lead to
information disclosure. Proof-of-concept code released August 18 showed the flaw
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could be exploited using a URL.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/18/adobe_coldfusion_jrun_patches/
35. August 18, SearchSecurity.com – (International) SQL Injection continues to trouble
firms, lead to breaches. SQL Injection, one of the most basic and common attacks
against websites and their underlying databases, offer an easy entry point for
cybercriminals, according to security experts. The hackers responsible for the largest
data security breach in U.S. history allegedly used a SQL Injection attack. The coding
error was cited as the starting point in the indictment handed down against a Miami
man and two Russian hackers, enabling them to allegedly bilk Heartland Payment
Systems Inc. and Hannaford Brothers Co. of more than 130 million credit and debit
card numbers. But security experts say that while SQL Injection errors are relatively
easy to find, as simple as finding a poorly coded input field in a Web form, they are
often difficult and costly to fix. A vulnerability scan is likely to turn up thousands of
errors that lend themselves to SQL Injection, said the chief technology officer of
Citigal Inc., a software security and quality consulting firm. New defenses for
automated SQL injection attacks: By automating SQL injection attacks, hackers have
found a way to expedite the process of finding and exploiting vulnerable websites.
“Sometimes there’s one problem that results in a thousand possible cross-site scripting
issues and if you fix that problem they’ll all be fixed, but that’s not always the case,”
the chief technology officer said. “There been a lot of bugs that built up behind the dam
and now we’re seeing the dam starting to rumble.”
Source:
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1365263,00.html
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
36. August 17, Stateline.org – (National) United States spending billions to become a
broadband nation. With the state’s help, an increasing number of residents in rural
Washington County in Down East Maine are using high-speed Internet connections to
run their blueberry farms and lobster fleets, educate their children and communicate
with doctors from remote areas. But it is a large county and its 34,000 residents are
spread out: At twice the size of Rhode Island, it takes four hours to cross in a car, and
yet there is only one traffic light. That means it is slow going for local Internet
provider, Axiom Technologies, which is working town by town to set up wireless
access points, sometimes serving as few as 12 households per connection. Axiom
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maxed out financially some time ago to expand on its own, even as other towns asked
to join the broadband network. The state stepped in and awarded Axiom grants of
$750,000 over the last three years, said the company CEO. “With 38 additional towns,
by the end of 2009, we will have created an umbrella over all 2,500 square miles” of
the county, the CEO said. Maine gives out about $1 million about every 10 months to
help its residents get high-speed Internet connections. In July, it approved nine projects
costing the state almost $800,000 to get 5,000 families hooked up. States across the
country have pursued similar efforts toward creating statewide broadband policies and
better access for their residents. But their scale pales in comparison to the $7.2 billion
in stimulus money the federal government has committed over the next two years to
improve high-speed Internet connections around the country. Every state is supposed to
get a share, and every governor will get a chance to weigh in on how the funds are
spent. In this wash of new money, state officials are scurrying to identify the states’
greatest needs, coaching providers applying for stimulus money and developing
overarching plans for how to roll out expanded service.
Source: http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/nation/united-states-spending-billions-tobecome-a-broadband-nation
[Return to top]
Commercial Facilities Sector
37. August 19, Beacon Journal – (National) Meth labs spawn testing, cleanup
industry. Companies such as Safety Elements in Akron and others that test for and
clean up after meth labs are experiencing a business boom because of the ongoing meth
problem in Ohio. Last year, the Summit County Drug Unit busted 68 meth labs, which
turn homes, motel rooms, storage lockers and anywhere else the drug is made into a
toxic waste site. The need for professional testing and cleanup services is expected to
keep growing, experts said, as people become more aware of the potential health
hazards of living in a former meth lab. Landlords, hotel owners and others also are
starting to understand the legal ramifications of renting homes, apartments or rooms
used in meth operations without first cleaning them.
Source: http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/53574807.html
38. August 18, KIITV 3 South Texas – (Texas) Explosive device found at gas station. The
Corpus Christi, Texas, bomb squad had to be called into action Monday morning after
an explosive device was found in a convenience store parking lot. Workers were
cleaning up the parking lot the Stripes store when they noticed a plastic bottle filled
with an unusual looking fluid. The Bomb Squad quickly responded, first covering the
bottle with a white trash can, then using their robot to place the device in a bomb
disposal container. Officers say this is not the first time this type of explosive has been
seen over the past six months. No arrests have been made, but police say the suspect or
suspects may have been caught on the store’s surveillance video.
Source: http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/53565717.html
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39. August 18, WBBM 2 Chicago – (Illinois) 2 workers escape explosion at Lombard
shop. An explosion happened at 9:12 p.m. Monday at a shop that sells wholesale
welding supplies in Lombard, Illinois. Two men who closed up the shop just moments
before it exploded got out in time. One of the building occupants was treated on the
scene for minor burns, according to the acting battalion chief. Crews on the scene
discovered evidence of an explosion, significant damage to the south side of the
building and fire in one of the tenant spaces, the release said. The explosion took out
the roof and back wall. The fire department does not yet know how the explosion or
fire started but said it was under investigation. The damage estimate of the structure
and contents is between $75,000 and $100,000, according to the release.
Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/lombard.shop.explosion.2.1133033.html
For more stories, see items 16 and 27
[Return to top]
National Monuments and Icons Sector
40. August 19, Associated Press – (California) Pot farm fire reveals a troubling
trend. Narcotics agents said Tuesday they had little doubt that the nearly 90,000-acre
La Brea fire was started by Mexican drug traffickers who were tending a large,
sophisticated marijuana farm planted on the side of a mountain. The growers apparently
fled as firefighters approached the source of the fire and are still at large, Santa Barbara
County’s sheriff said. Their abandoned site was similar to other illicit plots planted by
Mexican nationals and discovered by drug agents in recent years. Investigators found
30,000 top-grade cannabis plants ranging in height from 2 feet to 6 feet. Stacks of
propane tanks, melted irrigation tubing, empty fertilizer canisters, mounds of trash, a
torched cooking stove and a semiautomatic rifle were also found at the Los Padres
National Forest location, the sheriff and other agents said. U.S. Forest Service fire
investigators believe a propane-fed camp stove sparked the fire August 8. “This is the
trend,” a special agent for the U.S. Forest Service, said at a Santa Barbara news
conference.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fire19-2009aug19,0,3207658.story
41. August 17, Salem News – (Massachusetts) Painters’ heat gun sparked Ropes
blaze. Workers cleaned out the Ropes Mansion on Sunday in the aftermath of a twoalarm fire in the historic mansion. The blaze, in which two firefighters were injured,
was ignited early Saturday afternoon by painters using a heat gun on the exterior of the
building to remove old paint from the 280 year old house, according to investigators.
Firefighters said the blaze damaged artifacts and contents of the mansion, which is
owned by the Peabody Essex Museum. The deputy fire chief said he could not estimate
the cost of the damage to the building, which is in the McIntire Historic District and on
the National Register of Historic Places. Firefighters from seven cities and towns
responded to battle the fast-moving fire, which traveled across the third floor and attic.
Source:
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_228234822.html?keyword=topstory
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[Return to top]
Dams Sector
42. August 19, Stayton Mail – (Oregon) Big Cliff Reservoir closed for dam repairs. The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identified problems at Big Cliff Dam (in Detroit,
Oregon) that called off recreation in the Big Cliff Reservoir for the past month. The
reservoir’s only boat ramp remains closed and the Corps is still advising people to stay
away from the reservoir until the repairs are finished, a Corps spokesman said.
“Because of the construction work taking place in this narrow reservoir, there is more
traffic around the dam,” he said. “The water level can also fluctuate (as the work is
taking place).” The work is scheduled to start in mid-September and wrap up in
November, he said. Contractor Knight Construction is currently preparing for the work.
The project, including the interim repairs, is estimated to cost $300,000 to $400,000.
The problem was faulty hardware that connects to wire ropes that lift the spillway
gates. The dam’s three spillway gates maintain river flows. The Corps has already
completed interim repairs to the first gate. Climbing inspections of the three gates at
Big Cliff indicated they are in good shape. The Corps will maintain a steady release of
water from Detroit Dam that will flow freely over Big Cliff Dam’s spillway during the
repair period. During normal operations, the Corps raises and lowers Big Cliff’s
spillway gates several times a day to regulate the downstream release of water from
Detroit Dam.
Source:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090819/COMMUNITIES/908190374/1133
43. August 19, Appeal Tribune – (Oregon) Repairs to improve dam’s spillway. Repairs
that will target weather-related damage are scheduled this month at Silver Creek Dam
in Oregon. City officials said the estimated $30,000 project also will improve the flow
of the spillway. The Silverton Public Works director said this is the first repair project
at the dam, in terms of concrete repairs, since it was constructed about 35 years ago.
Two concrete wall joints on the dam’s spillway will be resurfaced to repair damage
from weathering. In addition, the concrete apron at the crest of the spillway will be
extended and rounded to prevent debris from building up during storms. City staff
designed the extension after discussion with state officials. “This is standard
maintenance that will extend the life of the spillway,” said the Silverton Public Works
maintenance supervisor. During the three-week-long project, the reservoir will be
closed to the public, both for safety reasons and to prevent any damage to the work or
the contractor’s equipment. A start date for the project has not yet been set, but the
Public Works maintenance supervisor anticipates it will begin by the end of this month
or in early September. Specialized Concrete Solutions of Estacada has been contracted
to do the work. The project will be paid for through the city’s water fund. Studies
predict that if there were a catastrophic breach of the dam and the multi-million gallon
reservoir it contains were unleashed, downtown Silverton would be flooded by a wave
of water 10 feet high in some places. To address that potential threat, the city adopted
an emergency action plan, and in the future, plans to install an early-warning system
that would trigger sirens to alert residents.
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Source:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090819/COMMUNITIES/908190387/1132
44. August 18, Associated Press – (California) Schwarzenegger: New dams critical for
water supply. The California governor on Tuesday said he will reject any proposal to
overhaul state water policy that fails to include funding for new dams. The governor
made his comments Tuesday outside the Capitol as lawmakers were holding a hearing
on a package of bills intended to upgrade California’s decades-old water-delivery
system. The governor and lawmakers from both parties have made water-related issues
a top priority now that the state’s fiscal mess has been addressed. Yet the legislative
package before lawmakers this week was written by Democrats and omits funding to
build reservoirs, prompting critical comments Tuesday from GOP lawmakers and the
Republican governor. “I will not sign anything that does not have above-the-ground
and below-the-ground water storage,” the governor said. The Central Valley is among
the nation’s most productive agricultural regions but has seen soaring unemployment
over the past year, with jobless rates exceeding 30 percent in some communities.
Farmers blame a three-year drought and federal reductions in water pumping that have
forced them to fallow thousands of acres of crops and orchards. Democrats say they are
not ruling out money for dams but say the Legislature must first address problems with
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the ecosystem that serves as the main conduit
moving water from north to south. At the same time, scientists have raised concerns
about the stability of some 1,115 miles of earthen levees. If they are breached, the delta
could be inundated with salty water from San Francisco Bay, tainting the drinking
water supply for two-thirds of California’s 38 million residents.
Source: http://cbs5.com/wireapnewsca/Schwarzenegger.vows.to.2.1133934.html
[Return to top]
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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:
http://www.dhs.gov/iaipdailyreport
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Send mail to NICCReports@dhs.gov or contact the DHS Daily
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Contact DHS
To report physical infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact the National Infrastructure
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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
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restrictions. DHS provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source
material.
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