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Oregon Mall Shooter Used Stolen AR-15 Rifle
Wall Street Journal (12/13/12) Millman, Joel; Jones, Steven D.
Police in Clackamas County, Ore., on Wednesday identified the the man who on Tuesday walked into a suburban Portland mall and opened fire as 22-year-old Portland resident Jacob Tyler Roberts. Roberts reportedly entered the Clackamas Town Center mall through a Macy's department store and opened fire on shoppers in the mall's food court with an AR-15 rifle he is alleged to have stolen from an acquaintance. Roberts fired until the AR-15 jammed and then fled down a hallway. Police, who responded to the scene within a minute of the first 911 call, later found Roberts dead of a self-inflicted gunshot. Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts, no relation to the shooter, says that the gunman attempted to resume shooting after unjamming his rifle. But by then police had arrived, and the shooter appears to have committed suicide as he was boxed in. The victims of the attack have also been identified. Killed were 54-year-old Cindy Ann Yuille, one of the estimated 10,000 shoppers that packed the mall that night, and mall merchant Steven Forsyth. Kristina Shevchenko, a juvenile, was injured in the shooting.
Theft Charges Dropped Against Former Warren Hospital Security Director Robert Fulper, Guard
Lehigh Valley Business (12/13/12) Brenzel, Kathryn
New Jersey officials have dropped theft charges against two former employees at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg. Robert Fulper, the former security director of the hospital, and Bruce Sutton, a former security guard, were accused of cashing and splitting tuition checks intended for courses at Lion Investigation Academy. Fulper says he is glad to have the case behind him, saying "I never would have stolen from my Warren Hospital family." Fulper was originally arrested in 2010 after the alleged plan to cash tuition checks was reported to authorities. Sutton told police that Fulper asked him to help cash nearly $7,450 in checks between July 2007 and September 2008.
Living Safe: Proaction Can Help Prevent Workplace Violence
Your Houston News (12/10/12) Cabaniss, Katherine
Former Harris County, Texas, prosecutor Katherine Cabaniss offers advice on how to prevent workplace violence after a recent workplace shooting left the manager of a Houston car dealership critically injured. Cabaniss cites recent Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers to show that a majority of workplace homicides are committed by current employees and that most of these attacks are premeditated, not spontaneous. Cabaniss says that this means that employers, employees, and the general public have a number of opportunities to stop workplace violence before it turns deadly. Cabaniss advises employers to enact zero-tolerance policies towards workplace violence that include guidance for employees on how to recognize and report possible signs that a fellow worker is planning violence. Cabaniss notes that such reports must always be taken seriously, regardless of whether the threat seems probable or not. Violent outbursts, comments made in anger, and the purchase or preparation of weapons and ammunition are all possible signs that violence is being planned, Cabaniss says.
Workplace Disasters: How to Cope in a Crisis
Management Today (12/12) Russell, Kate
Companies need to be prepared to respond to the emotional and structural damage that comes from a crisis. Large-scale disasters are uncommon, but that does not mean that businesses can live without a plan to cope with them in advance. A proper disaster-recovery plan should include a full list of any possible risk to the business and the likelihood of that occurrence as well as the severity of the consequences. Recovery plans for each scenario must be put in place with stages in the process designated for immediately following the incident and long-term actions. Plans must also prioritize which business functions need to be resumed first and the employees critical to that process. Finally, the plan should be tested and all critical personnel should be well trained on how to proceed in the event of a disaster and beyond.
Snipers End Standoff: Suspect Fatally Shot, 2 Hostages Safe
Modesto Bee (California) (12/09/12) Arrington, Debbie; Ortiz, Edward
A three-hour standoff that began as an armed robbery of a Jack in the Box restaurant in Sacramento, Calif., ended on Dec. 8 after police sharpshooters fatally shot the suspected robber. The incident began around 12:30 p.m., when the suspect entered the restaurant and began threatening employees with a gun. Police quickly arrived on the scene and the suspect barricaded himself inside the restaurant along with two employees he was holding as hostages. The area was cordoned off, though business in the surrounding shopping district continued as usual as police attempted to negotiate an end to the confrontation. One hostage was released at 2:45 p.m. An hour later police detonated a trio of concussion grenades and sharpshooters fired into the building, wounding the suspect. The second hostage escaped unharmed and the suspect was taken to a local hospital where he died later that day.
22 Children, 1 Adult Injured in Knife Attack
Associated Press (12/14/12)
A man armed with a knife went on a rampage at a primary school in the Chinese village of Chengping on Friday, killing one adult and injuring 22 students. The attack began at about 8 a.m., just as students in the village in central China were arriving for classes. The alleged assailant, Min Yingjun, first attacked an elderly women before moving on to target students outside the school. Yingjun was eventually taken down by security guards at the school and was arrested. It remains unclear what Yingjun's motive may have been for going on a stabbing rampage. Authorities in the county where the attack took place have set up an emergency response team to investigate the incident. Similar attacks at Chinese school have taken place over the last several years. Several attacks that took place in 2010 resulted in the deaths of nearly 20 children. The most recent of these attacks took place in the southern city of Nanchang in August when a man armed with a knife stabbed two children at a middle school before he was able to escape. Most of the assailants have been mentally ill men who have either been involved in disputes with others or have been unable to adjust to the changes that have taken place in Chinese society.
Several Mississippi Courthouses Evacuated After Bomb Threats
Clarion-Ledger (12/13/12) Lane, Emily
Courthouses in 29 Mississippi counties were forced to evacuate and be swept for explosives after receiving bomb threats over the phone on Wednesday. Described as almost like political robocalls, the threatening phone calls were all made within a roughly two and half hour period and were likely all related. No bombs were found at any of the courthouses. "With there being this many [threats], we're inclined to believe they're bogus calls," said Franklin County, Miss., Sheriff James Newman. Still, the cost of investigating such threats is very real. "It pulls officers off the street from doing other duties in these localities," said Mississippi Homeland Security Director Jay Ledbetter. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating Wednesday's calls along with a series of very similar bomb threats against courthouses in Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington last month. A series of bomb threats were received by 30 courthouses across Tennessee on Nov. 27, while earlier that month 28 courthouses in Oregon were targeted. No explosives were found in any of these cases.
U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens
Wall Street Journal (12/13/12) Angwin, Julia
Documents released by the Obama administration through Freedom of Information Act requests as well as interviews with officials at a number of federal agencies have shed some light on the debate over a new counterterrorism program at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). That program, which was implemented in March, allows the NCTC to copy entire government databases and examine information about U.S. citizens in order to detect possible terrorist activity. The program allows the NCTC to keep data about U.S. citizens who have committed no crime for five years, while data about Americans that is "reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information" can be kept indefinitely. NCTC had previously been prohibited from storing information about U.S. citizens unless they were terror suspects or related to an investigation in some other way. In addition to making it possible for the NCTC to analyze information in U.S. government databases that could contain information about possible terrorist activity, the program also allows the federal government to share these databases with other countries so that they can analyze them as well. The NCTC said that these changes were needed in order to address the failures surrounding the failed bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day 2009 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called Underwear Bomber. However, some officials within the Obama administration were concerned about collecting data about innocent people.
North Korea Launches Long-Range Rocket
ABC News (12/12/12) Riviera, Gloria; Cho, Joochee; Fujita, Akiko
U.S., Japanese, and South Korean officials have confirmed that North Korea successfully launched an Unha-3 rocket early on Wednesday, just days after Pyongyang warned of a possible delay to the controversial launch. The launch was detected by the Korean Navy and the North American Aerospace Defense Command at 9:49 a.m. local time. Japanese officials report that the second stage of the rocket flew over Okinawa at 10:01 a.m. Many suspected that launch, which was ostensibly meant to put a weather satellite into orbit, was a covert attempt to test a missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload and reaching the American mainland. The launch was seen as especially provocative due to the fact that it came ahead of South Korea's Dec. 19 presidential elections.
Islamist Extremist Suspected After Bomb Found at Bonn Rail Station
CNN.com (12/11/12) Cruickshank, Paul
German authorities have arrested a known Islamist extremist after a crude pipe bomb was found on the tracks of the main railway station in Bonn on Monday. The police were alerted to the device by a 14-year-old who saw a bag lying on the tracks. Yassin Musharbash, an investigative reporter for the German newspaper Die Zeit, said that police had told him that the explosive device found in the bag was exceptionally crude and apparently lacked a detonator. German media reported Tuesday that police had arrested Omar D., a German citizen of Somali origin, in connection with the case. Omar D. had been on German intelligence's radar for years due to his identification with Islamist extremism. In 2008, Omar D. and a Somali associate were arrested at the Cologne Bonn Airport as they attempted to fly to Uganda. The two men allegedly intended to go on to Somalia or Pakistan, with the goal of joining al-Qaida or the Islamist militia al-Shabaab. There have been reports that Omar D.'s associate was also arrested in connection with Monday's attempted bombings, but police have not confirmed those reports.
10 Arrested in Theft of Personal Data
New York Times (12/14/12) Chen, Brian X.; Cushman Jr., John H.
The FBI and law enforcement agencies overseas have arrested 10 people accused of using malware to steal personal information from millions of victims. The suspects, who hail from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru and the United States, used a Butterfly botnet to spread malicious software called Yahos. This software is often spread over social networks such as Facebook as a way of compromising PC security to steal credit card information and other personal data. According to the Justice Department, this software and its variants infected 11 million computers and caused $850 million in losses. Facebook officials reports that the malware had hijacked user accounts and posted links to spread itself on the profiles of victim's friends. Facebook reverse-engineered the software in order to trace its activities, eventually leading authorities back to the computers controlled by the suspects.
Massive Bank Cyberattack Planned
CNN Money (12/13/12) Goldman, David
McAfee released a report on Dec. 13 warning about a possible cyber attack against more than two dozen U.S. banks next spring. The attack, which was also mentioned in a report issued by the security firm RSA in October, will consist of malware that is spread by a group of cyber criminals targeting customers of Chase, Wells Fargo, and 28 other banks in the U.S. The malware clones victims' computers in order to trick online banking systems into thinking that the computers the cyber criminals use to access the victims' bank accounts actually belong to the victims. This eliminates the need for cyber criminals to answer the security questions that banks sometimes ask their customers when they attempt to log in to their accounts from unrecognized computers, particularly computers located overseas. Once they have broken into the accounts, the cyber criminals will then transfer small amounts of money out of the accounts. By repeating this thousands of times over, the cyber criminals hope to avoid exceeding the transfer limits on individual accounts and thus reduce the chances that their scheme will be detected. According to McAfee, the cyber criminals behind the cyber attack--which has been dubbed "Project Blitzkrieg"--could potentially steal millions of dollars from U.S. bank accounts. But security researchers say that the leader of the plot has disappeared from online chat rooms, indicating that the Project Blitzkrieg may have been aborted or that the cyber criminals are being very cautious to avoid arousing suspicion.
IE Exploit Can Track Mouse Cursor - Even When You're Not in IE
Network World (12/12/12) Gold, Jon
A flaw affecting Internet Explorer versions 6 through 10 could potentially allow a hacker to monitor the movements of a user's mouse, even if the browser window is minimized. U.K.-based Web analytics firm Spider.io says this means that passwords and PINs could be captured by a savvy attacker if they are typed on a virtual (on-screen) keyboard. In addition, the flaw is already being exploited by two display advertising networks, the company said. Spider.io said that while the Microsoft Security Research Center has acknowledged the problem, there does not seem to be any immediate plans for developing a patch.
Cloud Security Will Overtake On-Premise Systems in Three Years: Gartner
eWeek (12/11/12) Prince, Brian
Gartner predicts a significant increase in the adoption of cloud-based security services used by companies along with more frequent mergers and acquisitions among IT security firms. Gartner says in its latest report that about 10 percent of overall IT security enterprise product functions will be delivered via the cloud by 2015. The report also says that over the next three years the growth rates for cloud-based security services will eclipse those of traditional on-premise security equipment. Gartner analyst Lawrence Pingree says the buying behavior changes for various organizational sizes, in that larger enterprises tend to choose security as a service to reduce costs and simplify their security programs or make them more flexible. Meanwhile, small and mid-market organizations turn to the cloud due to resource limitations and the lack of security expertise. The firm also notes that along with the adoption of cloud services will be a significant adoption of virtualization technologies. By 2015, the firm predicts that 20 percent of the virtual private network-firewall market will be deployed in a virtual switch on a hypervisor as opposed to a physical security appliance.
Dexter Malware Infects Point-of-Sale Systems Worldwide, Researchers Say
IDG News Service (12/11/12) Constantin, Lucian
Security researchers have discovered malware that has been infecting and siphoning off payment information from point of sale systems at major retailers around the world for months. Dubbed "Dexter" by Seculert, the malware has targeted the POS systems of major retailers, hotels, restaurants, and private parking providers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and numerous countries across Europe. Because most of the infected systems were not used for Web browsing, Seculert's Avi Raff says that Dexter likely gained access to the POS systems by initially infecting other computers on the companies' networks. Once in the POS systems, the malware searches for processes run by specific POS software and, if it is detected, dumps that data to the malware's command-and-control server, which Seculert tracked to a server in the Seychelles. A tool on the C&C server then parses the data to recover Track 1 and Track 2 payment card data, which can then be used to carry out card fraud. Raff says that some antivirus software already recognized Dexter as malicious and notes that the malware could have been easily thwarted if the effected businesses had used end-to-end encryption before passing the data to processing providers.
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