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"Bail Posted to Free Power Plant Protester From Palm Beach County Jail"
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (FL) (02/13/09) Peter Tsolkas, an environmental activist who told a judge he planned to continue his high-profile protests of a Palm Beach County power plant on the edge of a wildlife refuge, has posted bail after serving 10 days of a 60-day jail sentence. Peter Tsolkas was jailed along with fellow activist Lynne Purvis on Feb. 2 after a jury found them guilty in December of trespassing, unlawful assembly, and resisting arrest without violence outside the proposed Florida Power & Light plant. The Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition provided the $5,000 to enable Tsolkas to post bond. At sentencing, Tsolkas told County Judge Laura Johnson, "I have every intention to leave this courtroom and continue what I'm doing and trying to stop that power plant however I can." Everglades Earth First! and the Environmental Coalition organized the protest outside the proposed West County Energy Center to say it will damage the water supply and the natural habitat.
(go to web site) "For Fifth Time, Arson Tried on La Puente Strip Mall"
San Gabriel Valley Tribune (CA) (02/12/09) ; Tedford, Daniel Police in La Puente, Calif., are investigating an attempted arson at the Durango Plaza strip mall, which has been targeted by arsonists four other times in the last several weeks. In the most recent incident, which occurred on Thursday, an arsonist tried to start a fire inside an empty shop in the strip mall at about 12:30 a.m. However, the fire-starting implements that the arsonists had placed inside the shop never caught fire because the strip mall's on-site security guard quickly called police after smelling fuel, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Derek Yoshino, who works in the Arson Explosives Unit. Yoshino noted that investigators are still operating under the assumption that the attempted arson on Thursday and the other four incidents are related, although different methods were used each time to start the fires. In addition, the latest arson attempt was the first incident in which the arsonist tried to start a fire within the building. Authorities say they have no motive for any of the attempted arsons. However, some of the strip mall's tenants say they believe local gangs may be to blame.
(go to web site) "River Forest Man Charged With Sending Threats to Public Officials, Oil Execs"
Chicago Tribune (02/11/09) ; Coen, Jeff A 28-year-old River Forest, Ill., man was arrested Tuesday and charged with allegedly sending more than 25 threatening letters and packages to corporate officials and several Illinois politicians beginning in late 2007. According to authorities, the man, Ronald Haddad Jr., faces one count of making threatening interstate communications for allegedly sending expletive-filled letters to oil executives and state and local officials such as former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and several Chicago aldermen. Some of the letters were accompanied by powder and shotgun shells that were rigged to explode on opening. However, none of the shells exploded, and the powder was deemed to be harmless.
(go to web site) "Heartland Data Breach Update: Now More Than 150 Institutions Impacted"
BankInfoSecurity.com (02/11/09) ; McGlasson, Linda At least 157 financial institutions were affected by the security breach on Heartland Payment Services' authentication system last year, reveals a recent survey by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). More than 80 percent of the 512 institutions that responded to ICBA's survey said they had either credit and/or debit cards affected by the Heartland breach. Just 13 percent of the responding institutions said they still didn't know if their customers' card accounts were compromised in the breach. Among those most affected by the incident was Jackson, Miss.-based Trustmark Bank, which had 75,000 of its cards compromised in the breach; Raleigh, N.C.-based State Employee's Credit Union, which had 56,000 of its cards compromised; and El Paso, Texas-based GECU, which had 25,000 of its cards compromised. Heartland says that a variety of information associated with those cards was stolen in the breach, including account numbers, expiration dates, and some customer names.
(go to web site) "Debate Over Digitizing"
Wall Street Journal (02/07/09) ; Mincer, Jilian Some consumer groups are concerned about President Barack Obama's proposal to computerize medical records within five years. According to these groups, computerized medical records could be misused and there could be more medical identity theft if safeguards are not put in place. In fact, security breaches of electronic medical records could be far worse than the recent incidents that have resulted in the release of thousands of patients' personal information because data will be more easily disseminated when it is computerized, says Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum, a research group that focuses on privacy issues. Other groups, meanwhile, are urging the government not to make efforts to protect the privacy of patients so onerous that they will slow down the efficiency of the nation's healthcare system. "We believe that there's got to be an appropriate balance between protecting privacy and allowing safe, high-quality care to be delivered," says Tina Grande of the Healthcare Leadership Council, which represents healthcare corporations.
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"Financial Crisis Called Top Security Threat to U.S."
Washington Post (02/13/09) P. A14 ; Pincus, Walter; Warrick, Joby During a nearly two-hour congressional hearing on Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told lawmakers that for the first time in six years terrorism is not the most immediate security threat to the United States. According to Blair, the threat posed by terrorism has now been supplanted by a variety of threats that could be created by the economic turmoil sweeping the globe. In his remarks before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Blair said that the most immediate effect the recession will have on the United States will be allies not being able to fully meet their defense and humanitarian obligations. In addition, the number of refugees from the Caribbean could increase because of the economic turmoil. However, the recession could also create more dire threats such as "high levels of violent extremism," similar to what was seen during the Great Depression, Blair said, adding that there could also be "regime-threatening instability" in some countries if the recession lasts for another one to two years. Yet despite the threat posed by the recession, Blair said he was not refocusing the intelligence community's basic collection and analytic work away from terrorism and nations such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China.
(go to web site) "Suspect Charged in Deadly Australia Fires"
Wall Street Journal (02/13/09) Australian authorities have arrested a person they suspect may have started one of the wildfires that has taken the lives of more than 180 people in Australia. Authorities have not identified the man out of concern for his safety, but believe he ignited a wildfire not far from Churchill. "He has been moved from that area and moved to the Melbourne metropolitan area for security reasons," said Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Dannye Moloney at a news conference. The Churchill blaze, which authorities say killed at least 21 people, is one of hundreds of fires that have torn through southeastern Victoria since Feb. 7. Police expect the final death toll to exceed 200. If convicted of two counts of arson, the suspect faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years for the deadly arson charge, and 15 years on the second charge.
(go to web site) "Report Faults Homeland Security's Efforts on Immigration"
New York Times (02/12/09) ; Thompson, Ginger The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute has released a report criticizing the Department of Homeland Security's approach to immigration. According to the report, which was released on Wednesday, the department's efforts to deal with illegal immigration have been hampered by wasteful spending along the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement efforts that are focused on arresting illegal workers instead of high-risk criminals, and a bureaucracy that discourages people from entering the country legally. The report also included 36 recommendations for the Obama administration to change the nation's approach to immigration. For instance, the report calls on the Department of Homeland Security to suspend construction of the controversial security fence along the Mexican border until its effect on the environment, commerce, and relations along border communities--along with its ability to prevent illegal crossings--can be determined. The report also calls on DHS to expand the use of employment verification systems and conduct fewer workplace immigration raids. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently called for a review of immigration policies that addressed many of the concerns raised in the Migration Policy Institute's report.
(go to web site) "Iran Offers 'Dialogue With Respect' With U.S."
New York Times (02/11/09) ; Fathi, Nazilia In a move signaling Tehran's readiness to deal with the Obama administration, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has extended an invitation to hold formal talks with President Obama. The Iranian leader says his country is ready for a respectful dialogue with the United States. "The new U.S. administration has said that it wants change and it wants to hold talks with Iran," Ahmadinejad says. "It is clear that change should be fundamental, not tactical, and our people welcome real changes. Our nation is ready to hold talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere." However, the offer included the caveat that the U.S. government take punitive steps against President Bush for his Middle East policies and his actions in the Persian Gulf. Referring to Obama's predecessor, Ahmadinejad added that "if you really want to uproot terrorism, let's cooperate to find the initiators of the recent wars in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region, try them and punish them." His remarks were in response to President Obama's recent interview on Arabic-language television in which he reiterated his administration's openness to diplomacy in the Middle East.
(go to web site) "Rendition Case Under Bush Gets Obama Backing"
Wall Street Journal (02/10/09) ; Perez, Evan The Justice Department is supporting the Bush administration's arguments to block a lawsuit involving the U.S. government's rendition program. Plaintiffs in the case are suing a Boeing subsidiary for providing transportation to the Central Intelligence Agency to use to transport them to another country, where they were subsequently tortured as part of the government's "extraordinary rendition" program. The Bush administration had argued against the case going to trial, citing national interests. On Feb. 9 before the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court in San Francisco, attorneys for the Obama administration concurred, saying state secrets and national security would be jeopardized if the case was allowed to proceed. The rendition case was part of a broader examination of state-secrets privilege that Attorney General Eric Holder ordered to guarantee that the legal argument could not be used to suppress information from the American public.
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"Sniffing Out Illicit BitTorrent Files"
Technology Review (02/12/09) ; Graham-Rowe, Duncan Illegal content transferred using the BitTorrent file-trading protocol can be detected and tracked though a new method that monitors networks without disrupting the data stream, according to its creators. When the tool spots an illicit file, it retains a record of the network addresses involved for analysis, says the Air Force Institute of Technology's Karl Schrader. Peer-to-peer transfers now account for the majority of Web traffic for many Internet service providers, which are generally only interested in this kind of traffic for the purpose of controlling or "throttling" it to liberate bandwidth for other uses. Schrader says this method does not reveal anything about the contents of each transfer, and while a small number of network-monitoring tools can identify specific BitTorrent files, it is generally a slow process. "Our system differs in that it is completely passive, meaning that it does not change any information entering or leaving a network," he says. The system first detects files that exhibit the signs of the BitTorrent protocol by analyzing the first 32 bits of the files' header data, and then examines the files' hash. If a hash matches any stored in a database of banned hashes, then the system will record the transfer and store the network addresses involved. The speediness of the method is partly explained by the presence of a specially configured field programmable gate array chip and a flash-memory card that stores a log of the illegal activity, allowing file contents to be scanned directly by tapping into an Ethernet controller buffer without interfering with network traffic. Schrader says the network monitoring cannot be detected by users.
(go to web site) "Malware Writers Use Multiple Botnets to Spread Valentine's Day Heartache"
eWeek (02/11/09) ; Prince, Brian A successor to the Storm botnet that worried security managers in 2007, the Waledac botnet is believed by experts to be the source of a massive Valentine's Day spam campaign. Researchers at Marshal8e6, an Internet email and security provider, have discovered at least two other botnets assisting Waledac in the campaign, in addition to numerous spam attacks from other unidentified sources. The Waledac botnet was spotted in late 2008, not long after Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool eradicated the Storm botnet in September 2008, says Marshal8e6's Patrick Murray. Like its predecessor, Waledac relies on peer-to-peer connections with fast-flux Domain Name System capabilities and secured communication. Researchers believe Waledac may employ as many as 20,000 bots that could be responsible for as much as 1 percent of all spam volume.
(go to web site) "Malicious Insider Attacks to Rise"
BBC News (02/11/09) ; Shiels, Maggie The number of security breaches caused by malicious employees will likely rise as the economy worsens, warns Microsoft's Doug Leland. He says that breaches caused by malicious insiders are one of the biggest threats companies face because employees have relatively easy access to corporate assets. Symantec's Kevin Rowney also warns that security breaches caused by malicious insiders will likely continue to increase as the economy deteriorates, since more people will be motivated by "revenge, fear, or greed." However, companies still need to focus on the threats posed by employees who do not intend to cause harm for their employers, Rowney says. One reason why companies need to concentrate on these threats is because they are more prevalent than the threat posed by malicious insiders. A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute found that 88 percent of data breaches are caused by simple negligence on the part of employees. In addition, Rowney notes that mistakes made by well-meaning employees can serve as a "prequel" to breaches caused by hackers and malicious insiders because they help to proliferate the spread of confidential information, which in turn makes it easier for malicious employees to get hold of the data.
(go to web site) "FAA Suffers Massive Data Breach; More Than 45,000 Affected"
Federal Computer Week (02/10/09) ; Mosquera, Mary The breach of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) computer has left the names and Social Security numbers of more than 45,000 agency employees and retirees exposed. FAA administrator Lynne Osmus told employees the same day that the breach was discovered by the Cyber Security Management Center while investigating some alarming activity on the agency's server. The accessed server was not connected to any system that could have disrupted FAA's operations or put passengers in danger, the agency said. The agency has not disclosed all of the details about the hack, but Mike Rothman of eIQnetworks commended the agency for responding quickly and for swiftly locating the server where the breach occurred. "Their response shows they had a good response plan in place and they executed on it well," Rothman said. However, he said the FAA should enhance its information security by implementing a "very monitoring-centric approach to understand what's happening with your data."
(go to web site) "Obama Taps Bush Aide Melissa Hathaway to Review Federal Cybersecurity Efforts"
Computerworld (02/09/09) ; Vijayan, Jaikumar President Barack Obama has tapped Bush administration official Melissa Hathaway, architect of a multi-billion dollar project aimed at better securing federal infrastructure against network threats, to head a 60-day audit of the government's cybersecurity initiatives. As the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council's acting senior director for cyberspace, Hathaway will be in charge of leading a systemwide review of the government's cybersecurity programs and drafting recommendations to ensure they are meeting their objectives in the public and private sectors. Sources say Hathaway also is the top choice to become the White House cybersecurity secretary once the review is finished. Hathaway chaired the National Cyber Study Group, a multi-agency group that spearheaded the development of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), which was approved by former President George W. Bush last year. "She has been really charging and moving forward with CNCI for the past 24 months," says former U.S. cybersecurity director Amit Yoran, who says Hathaway is well known within the federal cybersecurity community. Gartner analyst John Pescatore praises Hathaway's appointment, but says the CNCI is behind the private sector in dealing with intrusion prevention and detection. "I don't think it's a very good model for how the government should move forward," he says.
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