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At Algerian Oil and Gas Fields Once Thought Safe, New Fears and Precautions
New York Times (01/18/17) Krauss, Clifford
The oil and gas fields of the Algerian Sahara have always posed a challenge for global oil companies and their field workers. One of the most inhospitable environments on the face of the earth, the stony lands bake at 120 degrees in summer and chill to well below freezing in the winter. In spring and fall they are whipped by vicious sandstorms. Protected by Algerian security forces, foreign companies have operated for more than a decade in what they thought was a security cocoon, even as the instability of the Arab Spring erupted all around them. But that image is now gone. Taking no chances, the companies evacuated scores of employees from Algeria on Thursday after the attack and hostage-taking at one of those camps, the remote In Amenas natural gas field. Only a handful of companies acknowledged that they were removing personnel, but local oil executives said foreign oil service companies were in the process of quietly removing several hundred workers until they were confident that the security situation was stable.
Student Charged in St. Louis College Shooting
Associated Press (01/16/13) Salter, Jim
St. Louis, Mo. prosecutors have filed criminal charges against a man who shot a college administrator and then turned the gun, unsuccessfully, on himself on Tuesday. Prosecutors say that 34-year-old Sean Johnson, a part time student at the Stevens Institute of Business & Art, had engaged in a heated argument with his financial advisor, Greg Elsenrath, on Monday about Johnson's attempts to secure student loans. On Tuesday Johnson met with Elsenrath again and prosecutors allege that the 34-year-old pulled out a gun and shot Elsenrath in the chest before shooting and injuring himself. Both men are being treated for their wounds and Elsenrath at least is expect to fully recover. Prosecutors believe Johnson will also survive, and on Wednesday filed charges including first-degree assault, armed criminal action, and firearms violations against him.
Klobuchar Wants Construction Metals Theft to be Federal Crime
TwinCities.com (01/16/13) Gottfried, Mara H.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has called for the theft of construction metals to be made a federal offense. Her push for new legislation follows the theft of copper piping from a St. Paul ice rink that caused $20,000 in damages. Metal theft continues to be a problem, Klobuchar says, but her legislation is designed to fix the loopholes in Minnesota's already tough laws. In addition to making it a federal crime to steal metals from critical infrastructure, the new bill would require scrap-metal dealers to pay people selling metal with checks for transactions worth more than $100. Klobuchar is hopeful that doing so would make metal thieves easier to track. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, more than 25,000 insurance claims were filed for stolen metals between 2009 and 2011, which was 81 percent higher than the number of claims filed between 2006 and 2008.
Industrial Espionage: AMD Files Suit Against Former Employees for Alleged Document Theft
Extreme Tech (01/15/13) Hruska, Joel
The American computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has taken legal action against four former employees it alleges stole thousands of documents containing proprietary information about new and existing AMD products with the intent of sharing that information with Nvidia, one of the company's major competitors. The four employees, Robert Feldstein, Manoo Desai, Nicholas Kociuk, and Richard Hagen, were affiliated with AMD's graphics hardware division. Feldstein in particular played a major role in securing AMD contracts to provide graphics hardware for Nintendo's Wii U video game console and the next generation X-Box and Playstation. AMD alleges that the four men, who all left the company to work for Nvidia last year, colluded to steal more than 10,000 confidential company documents concerning AMD technology currently under development. AMD claims to have evidence that Feldstein and Hagen originated the scheme and then recruited Kociuk and Desai. AMD has copies of communications between Kociuk and Desai discussing how to delete evidence of their unauthorized accessing of documents. Kociuk alone is alleged to have transferred some 150,000 documents dealing with AMD desktop and laptop hardware to personal storage devices before he left the company. Nvidia has not been named in the legal action yet. A court has ordered the four former employees to turn over documents, computers, and storage devices for forensic analysis.
3 Reportedly Arrested in Los Angeles Hostage Robbery at Store
Associated Press (01/14/13)
Los Angeles police have reported that three of the suspects in the armed robbery of a Nordstrom Rack department store that turned into a hostage standoff on Jan. 10 have been arrested. During the late night robbery, armed gunmen took 14 employees of the store hostage, reportedly stabbing one and sexually assaulting another. The standoff lasted for more than three hours, but by the time a SWAT team raided the store the robbers had already left. One of the suspects was captured on Jan. 11 while another was detained the following day. Police say they are using information gathered in interviews with the victims and video footage to identify the suspects.
Deadly Algeria Hostage Crisis Not Over, Toll Murky
Associated Press (01/18/13) Ouali, Aomar; Schemm, Paul
Reports remained vague and contradictory on Friday about the outcome of an Algerian military operation to free hundreds of hostages, among them dozens of foreign nationals, being held by Islamist militants at a gas production facility in the country's remote southern desert. An uncertain number of militants, reports say as few as 20 and as many as 60 or more, attacked the facility earlier this week, taking dozens of foreign workers from the U.S., U.K., France, Norway, Romania, Malaysia, and Japan hostage. While the cited death tolls vary, conflicting reports from the militants, Algerian officials, and alleged witnesses all seem to agree that some number of foreign hostages were killed when Algerian special forces launched their raid on Thursday. According to reports from the Algerian military, six hostages have been killed, among them three Britons, two Filipinos, and an Algerian. However, the militants, who belong to an al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb splinter group calling itself the Masked Brigade, and a number of witnesses claim that dozens of hostages died when Algerian helicopters opened fire on the militants as they attempted to flee the facility in vehicles crammed with hostages. Postings on a jihadist website say that 35 hostages and 15 militants were killed in the helicopter attack alone. Algerian officials have reported that the operation was concluded some time on Thursday, but as late as early Friday morning, U.S. and British officials said the operation was "on going."
Aid Pledged to Mali as More Troops Deploy
Wall Street Journal (01/18/13) Hinshaw, Drew
On Thursday, U.S. officials said they would provide aircraft to help the French military airlift troops, equipment, and vehicles to Mali, in support of an international campaign against Islamist militants. U.S. officials added that they were considering whether to also provide surveillance drones and airborne refueling tankers. In Europe, E.U. members pledged some 500 troops to a 15-month training mission to support Malian and African troops, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius reported that several European nations were mulling broader logistical support for the operation. Meanwhile, the first of an expected 3,300 West African troops arrived in Mali on Thursday. A small force of soldiers from Togo landed in the capital Bamako along with some of the estimated 900 Nigerian troops expected to be in Mali by Saturday. Other nations including Niger and Sierra Leone are mustering troops and moving to secure their boarders with Mali. French and Malian forces clashed with militants near the town of Diabally, where residents have reported that the militants are using the locals as human shields to stave off further French airstrikes on their positions. Finally, Malian troops were rushed to the town of Banamba, only 90 miles north of Bamako, after reports that a militant convoy had been sighted on its outskirts.
Somali Militants Say They Will Kill French Hostage After Failed Rescue Operation
Associated Press (01/16/13)
The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab said Wednesday that it intends to kill French intelligence agent Denis Allex, who it has held prisoner since July 2009. The announcement comes after the failure of a rescue attempt by the French military last weekend that resulted in the deaths of two French soldiers and 17 Somalis. French officials have responded to the announcement, saying that Allex is likely already dead, although al-Shabab contests he was alive after the rescue attempt. The group did not offer proof of its assertions, nor did it say when he would be killed. Al-Shabab had allegedly been willing to exchange Allex for "Muslim prisoners," accusing France of persecuting Muslims and interfering in the situation in Mali. The French government recently announced its intention to aid the Mali government in its efforts to drive out the Islamic extremists who took over the northern part of the country in March 2012.
Afghan Spy Agency Hit by Suicide Blast
Wall Street Journal (01/17/13) Hodge, Nathan ; Totakhil, Habib Khan
At least one person was killed and 32 others were injured Wednesday in a terrorist attack in Kabul. The attack began when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a busy intersection near the compound of the Afghan National Directorate of Security, which is the country's domestic intelligence agency. Five other attackers wearing suicide vests then attempted to attack the compound, though they were shot and killed by Afghan security forces. Afghan officials said that a uniformed NDS guard was killed in the attack, while the injured included bystanders and civilians who lived and worked near the NDS compound. Officials also said that the attackers appeared to have been planning to hole up in the compound for an extended period of time, as they were found to be in possession of dozens of hand grenades and assault-rifle magazines.
Gun Attack on PM's Party HQ Escalates Greek Violence
Reuters (01/14/13) Kyriakidou, Dina; Georgiopoulos, George
Two unknown attackers fired on the headquarters of Greece's governing New Democracy party on Monday, in an incident that was the most recent in a series of attacks on journalists and government targets. Officials say that the gunmen exited a black car and shot at the building with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. One shot went through the window of a political office of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. However, Samaras no longer actively uses that office, and no one was hurt. Greece continues to suffer from a prolonged recession, and anger against the government and foreign lenders is high. Three offices for the New Democracy party were also targeted on Jan. 11, but nobody was injured in any of those attacks. Police have blamed the incidents on far-left protesters, angered by a police raid on a squat for anti-establishment groups that led to the arrest of approximately 100 people. Journalists too continue to be hit by ongoing violence, with a series of small homemade bombs exploding outside the homes of five employees of major media outlets on Jan. 11.
USB Sticks Infect Two Power Plants With Malware
TG Daily (01/17/13) Woollacott, Emma
The Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (ICS-CERT) is warning power plants to develop and implement policies regarding USB drives following recent malware infections at two facilities. In the first incident, a technician working for a third-party contractor inserted a USB drive containing a Trojan into the computer systems of an unidentified power plant. The Trojan, which was intended to be used for identity theft, was found on two engineering-based workstations used to control the power station. Although the attack was not malicious, since the contractor was not aware that the USB drive was infected with the Trojan, the malware nonetheless knocked the power plant offline for three weeks. In a separate incident, a more sophisticated virus was introduced on computers in a turbine control system at an unidentified power plant using a USB drive. ICS-CERT says that power plants can mitigate the threat from such incidents by keeping their anti-virus software up to date, properly patching systems, and having policies in place governing the use of USB drives and other removable media.
Oracle Fixes Java Flaw After Homeland Security Warning
New York Times (01/14/13) Perlroth, Nicole
Oracle issued a patch for Java on Sunday after a new exploit of the notoriously insecure programming software was discovered by European security researcher Kafeine on Jan. 10. Kafeine's blog post about the vulnerability was quickly followed by an advisory from the Department of Homeland Security advising users to completely disable Java. DHS noted in its advisory that the vulnerability in Java 7 Update 10 and earlier could be exploited by attackers to run arbitrary code. The DHS statement noted that, "this and previous Java vulnerabilities have been widely targeted by attackers, and new Java vulnerabilities are likely to be discovered." This exploit is just the latest in a growing list of damaging and risky Java security flaws that last year prompted Apple to stop shipping devices with Java enabled. Apple has even begun remotely disabling the software on its devices after a Java exploit last April caused the worst, most widespread malware attack against OS X users to date.
'Red October' Cyber Espionage Campaign Uncovered
PCMag.com (01/14/13) Albanesius, Chloe
An advanced cyberespionage network nicknamed Red October (Rocra), which targets diplomatic and government agencies, has been in operation for at least half a decade, according to Kaspersky Lab researchers. Its targets include Eastern European organizations, former members of the Soviet Union, and Central Asian nations, but its malware also has cropped up in Western Europe and North America. "The main purpose of the operation appears to be the gathering of classified information and geopolitical intelligence, although it seems that the information gathering scope is quite wide," Kaspersky says. "During the past five years, the attackers collected information from hundreds of high profile victims although it's unknown how the information was used." Most of Rocra's infection campaigns have been directed at Russia, while infections also have penetrated Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, and the United States. Kaspersky determined that the network's perpetrators reuse stolen data in later hacks, and Rocra's infiltration is not restricted just to traditional workstations but also mobile devices. Kaspersky says a nation-sponsored attack is not suggested by the data it has accrued, but it does suggest that Chinese hackers are behind the exploits.
Foxit Reader Vulnerable to Critical Remote Code Execution Flaw
IDG News Service (01/10/13) Constantin, Lucian
Foxit Reader, a PDF viewer application frequently used as an alternative to the Adobe Reader, contains a critical flaw in its browser plug-in component that can be exploited by attackers to carry out arbitrary code on computers. Although there is currently no patch for the problem, Foxit developers identified the root of the vulnerability and expect to release a patch soon. Secunia rates the flaw as highly critical since it can be exploited remotely to gain access to a system. Secunia says the flaw stems from a boundary error in the Foxit Reader plugin for browsers when processing a URL and can be leveraged to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via something such as an overly long file name in the URL. Foxit Reader installs the plug-in for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari Web browsers by default. Secunia confirmed the vulnerability using Firefox, Opera, and Safari, and urges users to disable the add-on and use other software, such as Adobe Reader.
Europe Weighs Requiring Firms to Disclose Data Breaches
New York Times (01/17/13) O'Brien, Kevin J.
The European Commission hopes to curb cybercrime via a proposal to require companies that store data on the Internet to report the loss or theft of personal data within the 27-nation European Union or face fines and sanctions. The policy would affect companies that oversee large databases, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and IBM. Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for the digital agenda, is drafting the proposal. Current laws in Europe have made reporting mandatory in Germany and Spain but voluntary in Britain and Italy. A 2012 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that large U.K. companies are attacked about once a week on average by cybercriminals seeking data, and small businesses are targeted once a month. “Harmonization of the notification requirements for security breaches is important and should be addressed,” says Thomas Boue, the government affairs director in Brussels for the Business Software Alliance. “More precise guidelines in the directive on the trigger and threshold procedures would make the system more workable.”
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