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Preventing Workplace Violence in the Healthcare Industry
SecurityInfoWatch.com (02/24/11) Griffin, Joel
According to Bryan Warren, the director of corporate security for Carolinas Healthcare System, the majority of incidents of workplace violence in hospitals are usually perpetrated by patients or other visitors against hospital staff. There are several factors, he said, that contribute to this phenomenon, including increasing numbers of homeless and psychiatric patients, long wait times and overcrowding, patients who are potential criminal suspects, and the overall stress of being at a hospital. In order to mitigate these factors, the Joint Commission recommends that hospitals work with their security departments to assess the risk for in-hospital violence, and take additional security measures accordingly. Regardless of the threat level, workplace violence drills and other training are necessary for any facility. Participants should practice evacuating patients and other staff without intervening, and should ensure their first priority is that they provide the police with a good witness.
Rescues Continue Amid Chaos at Airport
Associated Press (02/24/11)
More than 12 countries are trying to get their citizens out of Libya as the security situation in that country continues to deteriorate. In the U.K., for example, the country's crisis committee is scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Liam Fox to discuss options for evacuating 170 British oil workers and their foreign colleagues from desert camps in Libya. Among the options being considered is a military rescue operation. Americans are also trying to get out of Libya. A number of U.S. citizens are on board a ferry that had been scheduled to sail for Malta on Thursday, though the trip has been delayed by bad weather. Officials have said that the ship may not leave until at least Friday. Turkey, meanwhile, has already evacuated more than 7,000 of the 25,000 Turkish citizens who are in Libya, primarily via two ships that arrived on Thursday. Some of those who were evacuated reported seeing looting, bodies hanging from electrical polls, and militia members driving around in vans full of bodies. China and Russia are also trying to evacuate their citizens from Libya. Some foreigners are trying to leave the country via flights from Tripoli's airport, which was reportedly the scene of chaos as thousands of people tried to get home.
Suspect Briefly Left Security Guard Class Before Returning and Opening Fire, Police Say
Los Angeles Times (02/23/11) Blankstein, Andrew; Simmons, Ann M.
One person was killed and another was injured in a shooting at the Coast Career Institute in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The shooting took place in a security guard class at about 4 p.m., when the 22-year-old suspect--who was part of the class--left the classroom and re-entered minutes later, immediately opening fire at close range. The instructor of the class was killed, and one of the 13 students suffered a minor injury. After the shooting, the suspect once again left the classroom, dropped his weapon, and exited the building. He later surrendered to police without incident. The motive of the shooting is unclear. However, authorities say that the instructor was the intended target.
Federal Prosecutors Charge Former Rooms to Go Director in Kickback Schemes
St. Petersburg Times (FL) (02/22/11)
A former security director for the furniture chain Rooms to Go was charged with mail fraud on Tuesday for allegedly participating in two kickback schemes. Federal prosecutors say that Brian W. Ouellette took part in a kickback scheme with James B. Loftus Jr., who also served as a security director at Rooms to Go, in which the two received $835,000 in payments through a shell company from another company that had been chosen to provide security guards to the retailer. Loftus has already pleaded guilty to his involvement in the kickback scheme, which allegedly ran between 2002 and 2007. Prosecutors also say that Ouellette ran another scheme in which he collected $250,000 in payments to a shell company from vendors that had been selected to obtain information from employees at Rooms to Go who had been recruited by Ouellette to act as informants. Ouellette could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the charges against him.
ClairMail Unveils Fraud Management Alerting Service
American Banker (02/22/11) Bell, Stephanie
ClairMail Inc., a mobile banking vendor, is now offering an alerting service that could allow banks and consumers to respond more quickly to fraudulent transactions. The service works with institutions' existing fraud detection processes to help mitigate card, direct deposit, and online banking fraud by alerting consumers to suspicious activity via text message or e-mail alerts to their mobile phones. It will also allow financial institutions to cut their servicing and risk management costs by reducing false positives and minimizing the cost and time of fraud resolution. Consumers may sign up to receive as many immediate text message or e-mail alerts as they want, based on their specifications, and the alerts will also give them the option to respond immediately. Julie Conroy McNelley, an analyst with Aite Group LLC of Boston, says, "Banks are definitely taking advantage of the mobile channel for fraud prevention." She adds, "With the mobile alerts, there is less exposure, plus it shows consumers that their bank is looking out for their customers' best interests."
Saudi Held in Bomb Plot Against Bush Home
Houston Chronicle (02/25/11) Powell, Stewart M.
A Saudi Arabian man who is studying at South Plains College near Lubbock, Texas, was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday on charges of plotting to carry out terrorist attacks on several different targets in the U.S., including the home of former President George W. Bush. Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari was arrested after an investigation found that he had taken steps towards building an improvised explosive device. For example, investigators were tipped off that Aldawsari had attempted to purchase more than a gallon of a chemical known as phenol, which can be used to make the explosive Tri-Nitrol-Phenol. Authorities also said that Aldawsari had conducted research on how to booby-trap a vehicle with readily available household items and on how to use a cell phone as a detonator. In addition, Aldawsari allegedly sent e-mails to himself in which he identified possible targets to attack, including former President Bush's home in North Dallas and several nuclear power plants. A dozen reservoir dams in Colorado and California were also identified in the e-mails, as were the homes of three Americans who had been stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Aldawsari could face life in prison and fines of $250,000 if convicted on the charges against him.
Libya Power Void Raises Terror Fears
Wall Street Journal (02/25/11) Johnson, Keith
There are concerns that eastern Libya could become a hotbed for terrorism now that anti-government forces have taken over the region. Those concerns have been prompted by a number of factors, including the fact that many of the suicide bombers who carried out attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq came from the eastern Libyan city of Derna. However, a U.S. diplomat said in a 2008 cable that was recently released by WikiLeaks that the fighters from Derna were fighting U.S. forces in Iraq to express their pleasure with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who they believed was being propped up by the U.S. following his decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction in 2003. Concerns about eastern Libya becoming a hotbed for terrorist activity have also been prompted by the fact that the region is home to a younger generation of Islamic extremists who see violent jihad as a religious obligation. Despite these concerns, it is still too soon to draw a conclusion about whether a group similar to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula will develop in Libya, said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Libyan Protesters Launch New Push to Oust Qaddafi
Associated Press (02/25/11)
Massive protests against the rule of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi could take place across the North African nation on Friday. Residents of the capital of Tripoli have reportedly received text messages asking them to take part in demonstrations after Friday prayers. One resident of the city said thousands of people could participate in the protests, despite the fact that a pro-Qaddafi militia made up of both Libyans and foreign fighters has been patrolling the streets of Tripoli for the last several days. However, several anti-government activists have been arrested by the regime as part of an effort to prevent the demonstrations from taking place. In the eastern city of Benghazi, meanwhile, hundreds of people have gathered outside of a courthouse, and more are expected later in the day. The planned protests come a day after at least 17 people were killed in fighting in Libya, including an attack on a mosque in Zawiya by pro-Qaddafi forces. Despite the attacks, anti-government forces were able to seize a military air base on Thursday.
Uprisings Put al Qaeda on Sidelines
Wall Street Journal (02/23/11) Johnson, Keith
Terrorism experts generally say that the unrest that has taken place in the Middle East over the past month has had a negative impact on al-Qaida. Among them is Jean-Pierre Filiu, an expert on al-Qaida and related groups at the University of Sciences Po in Paris, who said that the uprisings are probably the worst thing that has happened to the terrorist group since it was created in the late 1980s. Some terrorism experts believe that al-Qaida has been hurt by the uprisings in countries like Egypt because the largely non-violent, secular, pro-democracy demonstrations represented a rejection of the group's beliefs. Former Islamic militants, meanwhile, say that the demonstrations will hurt al-Qaida in the short term because they will take the focus off of terrorist attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that the group will still have some appeal to some in the Middle East. Noman Benotman, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, noted that the small minority of people in the Middle East who are drawn to radicalism could become even more radical once they realize that democracy, free speech, and human rights are spreading throughout the region.
American Held in Pakistan Worked for CIA, U.S. Officials Say
Wall Street Journal (02/22/11) Wright, Tom; Entous, Adam
U.S. officials report that Raymond Davis, the American man being held in Pakistan for the killing of two armed men, was working as a contractor for the CIA. Pakistani intelligence officials say they were not informed of Davis's role, and warned that the revelation could seriously damage fragile ties between the U.S. and their country. Davis, who is a former member of the Army Special Forces, has been held in Lahore since late January. He was reportedly in the city to provide security for U.S. personnel, including intelligence officers working to undermine al-Qaida militants and their allies. However, he was not directly involved in controversial CIA spy or drone operations, which are unpopular in Pakistan. Davis says that he shot the two men in self-defense when they tried to rob him. While Pakistan does not appear to be prepared to release Davis, it has stepped up measures to protect him, including housing him away from the 4,000 other inmates at the jail, most of whom are militants. A court in Lahore is scheduled to decide in March if Davis has diplomatic immunity.
Security Pros' Top 2011 Threats
InformationWeek (02/24/11) Schwartz, Mathew J.
Application vulnerabilities and mobile devices are the biggest security threats facing businesses, according to the information security professionals who took part in a recent survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan. Of the 10,413 information security pros who participated in the survey, application vulnerabilities and mobile devices were seen as being the biggest security threat by 73 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Viruses and worms, internal employees, and hackers were all cited as being major security threats by at least half of all respondents. The survey also found that 70 percent of organizations have implemented policies and have begun using technologies to secure mobile devices. More than half of all respondents said their organizations also used mobile security tools such as data encryption, network access control, and mobile virtual private networking. In addition, the survey found that many organizations have not taken steps to mitigate the threat from social networking sites. More than a quarter of organizations do not place limits on employees accessing or using social networks from the workplace, while only 44 percent said that they enforce policies governing the use of social networking.
Cyber Criminals Find New Targets on Unsuspecting Sites
BBC News (02/23/11)
The percentage of Web sites secretly harboring malware has reached one in 3,000, says Kaspersky. It observed a spike in the number of Web-based attacks last year, with more than 580 million incidents recorded. Risk was no longer concentrated on sites with illegal content, such as pirated movies and music, the report says. Rather, cybercriminals were increasingly hijacking legitimate sites, such as shopping and online gaming. The malware creators target vulnerable Web servers, with owners frequently unaware of the attack, says Kaspersky Lab researcher Ram Herkanaidu. "They will put a piece of Java code, for example, onto a Web site and scramble it so it is hard to notice," he notes. "The Java code runs when you visit the site and redirects the user to malware." In the past, a user could avoid these attacks by not visiting sketchy Web sites, Herkanaidu says. Kaspersky's figures are based on reports from customers who have joined its security network. The rise in incidents of Web-based attacks far outpaced the number of new members last year, reflecting the growing threat, Herkanaidu says.
Memory Scraping Malware Goes After Encrypted Private Information
Network World (02/22/11) Messmer, Ellen
Security researchers at the SANS Institute say pervasive memory scraping is one of the most dangerous attack methods that hackers will use in the coming year. In such an attack, hackers gain administrative privileges for a file system in order to access personally identifiable information and other sensitive data, even if it is encrypted. This is done by accessing the data when it is unencrypted before being processed, and by stealing encryption keys from the system's memory to unencrypt the data. Consultant Ed Skoudis notes that this attack method is increasingly being seen in data breaches. Organizations may need to turn to the Metasploit Meterpreter software module to protect themselves from pervasive memory scraping, as data-loss prevention products and freeware may not provide sufficient protection from such attacks, experts say. SANS Institute researchers also warn about threats that may arise from the migration from IPv4 to IPv6. This migration can be dangerous because attackers can access IPv6 networks that organizations may not even know are turned on in newer versions of certain products, and because older versions of firewalls and intrusion prevention systems may not be looking for IPv6 traffic at all. As a result, organizations should turn off IPv6 on all devices if they do not need to use the protocol, says SANS' Johannes Ullrich.
New Fast-Flux Botnet Unmasked
DarkReading (02/18/11) Higgins, Kelly Jackson
Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit security researcher Joe Stewart uncovered a burgeoning botnet that uses the rare fast-flux method to stay operational and escape detection. Stewart recently demonstrated a sample of the botnet's malware he reverse-engineered, with evidence that the botnet uses fast-flux. Fast-flux is a round-robin tactic in which compromised bot machines serve as proxies or hosts for pernicious sites and are constantly rotated, switching their DNS records to prevent discovery by researchers. The now-extinct Storm and Warezov/Stration botnets were the first major ones to incorporate fast-flux, but the technique has remained rare despite concerns by researchers that this evasion method would become a trend. That is because an additional level of expertise and effort is needed to design the botnet this way, Stewart says. He uncovered the first signs of the fast-flux botnet, nicknamed Wibimo, while working on a spamming botnets study. "I don't think it's [a] huge [botnet]," he says. "But if feels like a new botnet: It doesn't mesh with what we've seen" with existing botnets.
Security Departments Not Prepared for New Technologies
CSO Online (02/18/11) Goodchild, Joan
Swift adoption of mobile technology, social media, and cloud computing in the office is creating a security problem for IT managers worldwide as they fight to stay current with demands, according to an (ISC)2 survey. The study found a growing pressure to provide even more services to organizations to protect not just the organization's infrastructure and information, but also its brand, end users, and customers. But the professionals tasked with doing this are not prepared, according to the study's authors, who say the study's results show a clear gap in skills required to protect organizations in the near future. "The information security profession could be on a dangerous course, where information security professionals are engulfed in their current job duties and responsibilities, leaving them ill-prepared for the major changes ahead, and potentially endangering the organizations they secure," the study says. The survey polled more than 10,000 information security professionals globally and found that 51 percent of all organizations allow employees to access Facebook at work, while 63 percent were permitted to use LinkedIn.
Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information, Inc. Bethesda, MD |
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