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Arrests Made in Lilly Heist
Wall Street Journal (05/03/12) Rockoff, Jonathan D.
Authorities said Thursday that they have broken up a group that was allegedly involved in the theft of more than $70 million in prescription drugs from an Eli Lilly warehouse in Connecticut in March 2010. That announcement came after Amaury and Amed Villa were arrested in connection with their involvement in the theft and indicted on federal conspiracy and theft charges. Amaury Villa and 10 other men were also indicted on other charges stemming from the theft, including conspiracy to sell stolen medicines and other goods. During the theft at the Eli Lilly warehouse, thieves cut a hole into the roof of the building and used a rope to slide down to the floor. The thieves then stole 49 pallets of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and other types of prescription medicines. The drugs were eventually recovered. Following the theft, Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies stepped up security of their warehouses and tractor trailers that were being used to haul prescription drugs. These security measures included surveillance cameras on the roofs of warehouses, bars under skylights, and using two drivers in tractor trailers so that medicines are not left unattended. Those security measures have helped bring the number of prescription drugs thefts down to 36 last year, while the value of those thefts declined as well to roughly $21 million.
In National Archives Thefts, a Radio Detective Gets His Man
Washington Post (05/03/12) P. A1 Wilber, Del Quentin
A retired National Archives official is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Thursday on charges of stealing thousands of historical radio recordings from the agency. Some of the recordings that 67-year-old Leslie Waffen of Rockville, Md., has admitted to stealing from the Archives are rare, including a recording of the 1937 Hindenburg tragedy. Prosecutors say that Waffen stole more than 2,100 recordings from the Archives and kept some in his home, while more than 1,000 others were sold. A total of 6,153 recordings were seized from Waffen's home. Waffen faces between a year and a half to two years in prison after being convicted on charges of stealing federal government property. Authorities were able to track down Waffen with the help of a Connecticut radio historian named J. David Goldin, who had donated some of the radio recordings to the National Archives that were later stolen and sold by Waffen. Goldin was able to alert authorities to the theft on 2010 after he recognized a recording on eBay as one of the items that he donated to the National Archives in 1976. Goldin purchased an item from the person who sold the recording on eBay and traced the seller's address back to Waffen, who was the very same person at the National Archives who accepted Goldin's donated recordings in the mid-'70s.
Card-Data Breach May Be Wider Than First Reported
Wall Street Journal (05/03/12) Sidel, Robin; Johnson, Andrew R.
Sources report that Global Payments' original estimates of credit and debit card accounts compromised in its recent data breach may have been conservative, in light of new information indicating that hackers could have had access to customer data as early as June 2011. At least 7 million accounts are now considered potentially vulnerable, up from 1.5 million as first reported. Global Payments was the U.S.'s seventh largest merchant acquirer last year, managing $120.6 billion of Visa and MasterCard card transactions, according to the Nilson Report.
Google-Oracle Trial: Jury Begins Copyright Deliberations
Guardian (United Kingdom) (05/01/12) Arthur, Charles
A federal jury is trying to reach a verdict in the copyright and patent infringement lawsuit brought by Oracle against Google. Oracle is seeking roughly $1 billion in damages from Google, whose Android mobile operating system allegedly violated its patents and copyrights to Java. Google has incorporated Java into Android. According to Oracle, Google copied 37 out of the 166 application programming interfaces (APIs) used in Java. But an attorney for Google says that the correct comparison of the 37 APIs was with the 2.8 million lines of code in Java rather than the 166 total APIs. The attorney added that APIs should not be thought of like a book or a play, since they are simply a functional element utilized by developers to access source code. Google has also defended itself by saying that Android was designed in a so-called "clean room" by people who did not have any knowledge about the deeper functions of Java so that the mobile operating system would not infringe on copyrights. The verdict in the case depends on whether or not the judge finds that APIs can be copyrighted. Oracle will only be able to win its lawsuit if the judge finds that APIs attract copyright.
Envelopes With White Powder Sent to Mayor and 6 Banks
New York Times (05/01/12) McGeehan, Patrick
Envelopes containing white powder were sent to New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and six banks in Manhattan, officials said Monday, ahead of planned May Day protests across the country. The powder, later found to be harmless, caused evacuations and shutdowns of the bank branches and a city building while the police and fire departments investigated. No one has claimed responsibility for the incidents.
In Letters, Bin Laden Worried About al-Qaida Image
Associated Press (05/04/12) Keath, Lee
U.S. officials on Thursday released 17 letters that had been written by Osama bin Laden and his senior associates in al-Qaida. The letters, which were seized during the U.S. raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan last year, show that the core part of al-Qaida had complicated relationships with affiliated groups in Yemen, Iraq, North Africa, and Pakistan. Bin Laden wanted to exert greater control over al-Qaida's affiliates, in part because he was concerned that the killing of Muslim civilians by these groups was hurting al-Qaida's cause. The al-Qaida leader urged the group's affiliates to instead focus on attacking Americans, whether they were in the U.S. or in countries where jihadists would not be retaliated against. However, al-Qaida's affiliates did not necessarily comply with bin Laden's requests, in part because these groups largely operate independently from al-Qaida's leadership. In addition to showing that bin Laden wanted to have greater control over al-Qaida affiliates, the letters also show that the al-Qaida chief wanted to try to shoot down President Obama's plane during a visit to Afghanistan.
Special Report: Documents Allege HSBC Money-Laundering Lapses
Reuters (05/03/12) Mollenkamp, Carrick; Wolf, Brett; Grow, Brian
A recent special report shows that, beginning in 2003, the U.S. unit of London-based HSBC Bank came under fire from federal regulators for failing to sufficiently monitor potential money laundering activity. The bank subsequently hired federal prosecutor Teresa Pesce to oversee its anti-money laundering activities, and installed new monitoring systems. However, Pesce left the bank in 2007, and recent documents from two U.S. Attorneys offices indicate that further investigations still found lapses in the bank's system that failed to catch transactions that could be used to finance terrorism, drug trafficking, and other criminal activity. As recently as February, the bank has been found unable, or unwilling, to sufficiently police suspicious cross-border movements of large amounts of cash, or transactions connected to Iran and other countries under U.S. economic sanctions. For example, HSBC failed to report any suspicious activity after Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as drug dealers deposited millions of dollars in Paraguayan banks and then transferred the money to accounts in the U.S. via HSBC. They also investigated connections between one of the banks and the Lebanon-based Islamic group, Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. HSBC has since ended its relationship with that particular bank.
Cleveland Bridge Bomb Plot Nets 5 Arrests
Associated Press (NY) (05/02/12) P. A11
An FBI sting operation has resulted in the arrests of five men who were allegedly planning to bomb an Ohio bridge. The suspects, who were arrested on Monday night, are described as anarchists who had been associated with the Occupy Cleveland movement but had rejected the group's philosophy of non-violence. The men had reportedly grown angry with the corporate sector and the federal government and had considered a number of different plots designed to make a statement against both, including using smoke grenades to distract law enforcement officers while simultaneously trying to bring down the signs for financial institutions in downtown Cleveland, before deciding to attack the bridge in the city's suburbs. Authorities say that the group had researched explosives and obtained what they believed to be C-4 explosives, though by that point the FBI had learned of their plot and used an informant to give the men what seemed to be explosives but was actually harmless material. After obtaining what they thought was C-4 explosives, the men placed the fake explosives on the base of the bridge, armed them, and entered codes from a remote location in order to detonate the explosives. The group has been charged with conspiracy and attempting to bomb property used in interstate commerce. Authorities say that the public was never in any danger as a result of the alleged plot.
Terror Fears Fail to Halt Study
Wall Street Journal (05/02/12) Weaver, Christopher
The first of two studies that describe the mutation process required to make avian flu transmissible between mammals has now been published in the journal Nature. The study describes how University of Wisconsin investigators combined the avian flu virus, known as H5N1, with the H1N1 swine flu virus, which can pass from mammal to mammal but is less deadly. The resulting virus could be passed via sneezing between ferrets, but was found to be less lethal than the original virus, killing none of the ferrets. Lead study author Yoshihiro Kawaoka argued that his research needed to be published because mutations that can make H5N1 more deadly are already occurring in the wild. He his hopeful that if public-health officials knew what mutations to be aware of, "they can be alert for the emergence of viruses with pandemic potential and…take appropriate precautions." It was this reasoning that caused the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity to reverse its original ruling on the studies. The second study is currently under peer-review by the journal Science, and will be published should it be accepted. There have been concerns that Kawaoka's study could be used in a biological-weapons program, though experts say that the benefits of publishing the study outweigh the risks.
1 Year After Osama bin Laden Killed, Still No Answers From Pakistan
CBS News (05/01/12)
In the year since the U.S. launched the operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, Pakistan has provided few answers to questions about how the al-Qaida leader was able to hide out in its territory. Following the raid on bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, Islamabad announced that it was creating a committee to investigate how bin Laden was able to find refuge in Pakistan as well as the circumstances surrounding the U.S. raid on his compound. But a spokesman for the committee said last week that the committee's findings might not be released to the public. In addition, a number of statements made by the committee have been seen by some as suggesting that the panel was not going to conduct a legitimate investigation. For example, the head of the committee said shortly after the investigation began that he was certain that Pakistani security forces were not helping bin Laden to hide. However, Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency has acknowledged that an "intelligence failure" allowed bin Laden to set up residence in Abbottabad. Although the Obama administration has publicly taken the position that there is no evidence that high-level officials in Pakistan were helping bin Laden to hide, suspicions are growing now that one of bin Laden's wives has revealed that the al-Qaida chief lived in five different houses while trying to evade capture by the U.S. Bin Laden's widow has also said that two of the children her husband fathered were born in hospitals run by the Pakistani government.
Skype for Business Has Security Flaw, Researcher Says
Wall Street Journal (05/02/12) Schectman, Joel
A researcher at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Software Systems has discovered a security flaw in the business version of Skype. According to researcher Stevens Le Blond, the business version of Skype contains a vulnerability that could allow hackers to track users' IP addresses, which in turn could allow hackers to determine the location of users. A similar vulnerability was found in the consumer version of Skype by researchers at the French research institute INRIA and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in November 2010. Researchers said that this security flaw could be exploited by companies who want to track the movements of employees at competing firms. Doing so could allow a company to determine the business strategies of its competitors, researchers said. INRIA and the Polytechnic University of New York also found that they were able to track the locations of smartphone users who utilize Skype over Wi-Fi connections. Microsoft, which owns Skype, has said that it is investigating the security vulnerability in the business version of Skype. The flaw in the consumer version has yet to be patched.
Attackers Add Ransomware to Bank Fraud Malware: Security Researchers
eWeek (05/02/12) Prince, Brian
Trusteer researchers say a new ransomware attack infects computers and then sends a fake message from a group purporting to be the U.S. Department of Justice, threatening to lock the user out of the computer until he or she sends money. The researchers say this ransomware, known as Reveton, locks the compromised machine down and posts a message demanding $100 to unfreeze it as a fine from the Justice Department for the presence of child pornography on the machine. Although ransomware is not a new threat, this situation is a new example of what some security analysts say is a recent increase in such activity, which could be the result of attackers experimenting with new ways to make money. Trend Micro researchers in April reported on a piece of ransomware that went a step further and targeted the master boot record of a system to seize control. The attackers infected the Web site of the French sweets shop Laduree, and when users visited the site they ended up with systems infected with TROJ_RANSOM.BOV, a variant that sends a message supposedly from the French National Gendarmerie and demands payment from impacted users. The individuals behind this attack also have impersonated police officials from Germany, Belgium, and Spain, researchers say. Trusteer's Amit Klein says fraudsters can use this ransomware attack to commit online banking and credit card fraud via man-in-the-browser, keylogging, and other tactics, and notes that financial malware is now so sophisticated that a hacker can essentially carry out any type of attack.
DDoS Attackers Turning to Simple 'Booter' Scripts, Prolexic Warns
Techworld (05/01/12) Dunn, John E.
Internet attackers are using server booter shells, which are PHP, .ASP, or Perl script template files planted on compromised servers to force Get/Post commanded HTTP floods to overwhelm target servers, in place of DDoS attacks launched from networks of malware-infected bot PCs, Prolexic warns. Prolexic says the approach is more lucrative than conventional DDoS attacks because even non-technical users can place the booter shells on hosted or compromised servers, amassing a bot from individual servers with up to 1,000 times the capacity of one PC. The attack also is less expensive and quicker, and does not require the use of sophisticated malware and bot command-and-control infrastructure to create numerous zombie PCs. Many of the scripts for booter shell attacks are available in hacker black markets. Prolexic's Neal Quinn cautions that organizations and individuals are at greater risk of DDoS attacks as use of such powerful and potentially harmful techniques becomes more widespread. Businesses, particularly those in the financial sector, should "be prepared for DDoS attacks of a nature they may never have seen before," Quinn advises.
HTML5 Security: Will HTML5 Replace Flash and Increase Web Security?
SearchSecurity.com (04/12) Cobb, Michael
The new HTML5 standard could soon replace Adobe's Flash multimedia format, a change that could lower the number of malicious attacks that target enterprise networks. Of all the Web applications vulnerabilities that have been discovered by WhiteHat Security, roughly 14 percent were related to Adobe Flash. In addition, HTML5 is more secure than Adobe Flash in some respects because unlike Flash, it does not require a plug-in to run its applications. However, there are several potential security problems that could arise as a result of the move toward HTML5. For example, developers that fail to take the time to fully understand the features of HTML5 and how to securely implement those features before including them in enterprise Web sites could make it possible for attackers to access content that they should not be able to access. Those that want to use HTML5 also should be sure to perform penetration tests during their HTML5 development efforts, while security teams and developers need to pay attention to vendor updates so that patches and mitigating security controls can be installed as soon as possible.
Religious Sites are Worst for Malware, Report Finds
Wall Street Journal (04/30/12) Rooney, Ben
According to Symantec's most recent Internet Security Threat Report, religious web sites have a higher incidence of malware infection than pornography sites. The report states that the average number of threats on religious sites was 115, while pornographic sites had approximately 25. The company said the overall threat from malware is growing significantly, due mostly to the commoditization of malware. The report also found that the threat to mobile devices is growing and that targeted attacks are no longer limited to large companies and organizations. The report said that 50 percent of such targeted attacks occur at companies with less than 2,500 workers. The number of targeted attacks is growing as well. "When Stuxnet was uncovered in 2010 we saw about three targeted attacks that year," said Greg Day, Symantec's security CTO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "We are now seeing on average 94 a day, and in December 2011 that figure was 154 a day." Day also said targeted attacks are not just focused on executives anymore, but have trickled down to people in sales and human resources.
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