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| DHS OSI Report - July 25, 2007 |
|
| Wednesday, 25 July 2007 | |||||
DHS Open Source Infrastructure Report for 25 July 2007
Daily Highlights• Amid concerns about after-hours employee access to concourses at Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration and the airport have implemented several changes to ensure that local security procedures are in compliance with national requirements concerning screening employees. (See item 10) • The Boston Globe reports a spate of deadly chlorine bomb attacks in Iraq is prompting the Bush administration to urge nearly 3,000 municipal water treatment plants in the U.S. to make sure their chlorine gas is well protected. (See item 21)
Energy Sector
1. July 24, Associated Press — Oregon utility set to remove dams. A major Oregon utility says it's too expensive to keep two hydroelectric dams on the Sandy River, which comes roaring off Mount Hood and empties into the Columbia River. So on Tuesday, July 24, Portland General Electric (PGE) began tearing them down. When the dams are fully removed, one this summer and the other next summer, the Sandy River will be a free-flowing river for the first time in nearly a century -- and no longer a hindrance to steelhead and salmon returning to spawn. The dams to be removed are the 47-foot-tall Marmot, which is on the Sandy River, and the 16-foot high Little Sandy dam, which is on a tributary of the Sandy. PGE officials said the 22-megawatt capacity dam system, built in 1913, was too costly to maintain, particularly considering new environmental protections for endangered salmon and steelhead. The utility is building a 126-megawatt wind farm in southern Oregon that is expected to go online by December. The cost of removing the two dams is an estimated $17 million.
2. July 24, Platts Energy Bulletin — Buckeye to buy California gas storage facility for $440 million. Buckeye GP, the general partner of petroleum products pipeline operator Buckeye Partners, on Tuesday, July 24, said it plans to move into the natural gas storage business by paying an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners $440 million for a 22 Bcf gas storage facility in Northern California. Buckeye said it will pay approximately $428 million for the facility and another $12 million when it receives California Public Utilities Commission approval of a storage cavern expansion project associated with the assets. Buckeye said it expects to fund the acquisition by issuing limited partnership units for approximately half of the purchase price and debt securities for the balance.
3. July 24, Platts Energy Bulletin — Westinghouse, Shaw Group sign deal on four nuke plants in China. Westinghouse Electric and its consortium partner The Shaw Group on Tuesday, July 24, signed multi-billion-dollar contracts to provide four AP1000 nuclear power plants in China, Westinghouse said. Terms of the contracts were not disclosed. They are with State Nuclear Power Technology, Sanmen Nuclear Power, Shandong Nuclear Power, and China National Technical Import & Export. The four plants are to be constructed in pairs at Sanmen and Haiyang sites in China. Construction is expected to begin in 2009, with the first plant becoming operational in late 2013.
Chemical Industry and Hazardous Materials Sector :
4. July 24, KXLY (WA) — Fire rocks fuel depot. A fuel fire at a north Spokane, WA, fuel depot involving up to seven fuel tanks has triggered a three-alarm response and a mandatory evacuation within the vicinity of the conflagration. The fire was first reported at about 5:30 p.m. PDT Monday, July 23, with multiple calls coming in at Whitley Fuel Depot located at 2733 North Pittsburg in northeast Spokane. Spokane Fire Chief Bobby Williams, during an early evening media briefing, confirmed that around 3:30 p.m. PDT two tanker trucks carrying 5,500 gallons of diesel fuel parked on the west end of the Whitley fuel complex. The fire ignited underneath one of those trucks and quickly spread to tanker trucks filled with biodiesel and to a nearby warehouse filled with 55-gallon drums loaded with various petroleum products. Within minutes of the initial response the fire department began a mandatory evacuation within a one block radius of the fire. People within a six block radius of the fire were asked to stay in their homes while this fire was burning due to the explosions of fuel tanks that could send shrapnel over a wide area.
Defense Industrial Base Sector :
Nothing to report.
Banking and Finance Sector :
5. July 24, VNUNet — Half of UK financial institutions handle dirty cash. Convicted criminals and suspected terrorists are laundering money through UK financial services companies because most banks fail adequately to screen customer databases, according to survey by data integrity specialists Datanomic. The research reviewed 300 million customer records and uncovered instances of suspected terrorists, known drug dealers and scammers laundering money through UK financial institutions using aliases, joint accounts or associate names. It is an offense under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for firms to be involved in transactions that are the proceeds of crime, or are intended for terrorist groups. Datanomic believes that up to half of UK financial institutions are already unknowingly in breach of this legislation. Adding to the legislative burden, the third European Union Money Laundering Directive comes into force on December 15, 2007. The directive requires financial services organizations to fortify their systems against money laundering by criminal gangs, known terrorists and others whose activities may compromise foreign policy or national security. EU Money Laundering Directive: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/ l_309/l_30920051125en00150036.pdf
6. July 23, ComputerWorld — Pump-and-dump scammers turn to Excel. Pump-and-dump stock scammers have begun using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to deliver their get-rich-quick schemes, another in a series of moves they've made trying to slip past antispam filters. E-mail security vendor Commtouch Software Ltd. spotted several spam runs Saturday, July 21, that feature Excel attachments with file names such as "invoice20202.xls" and "stock information-3572.xls." The Excel worksheets contain the unsolicited message, which, as in all classic pump-and-dump scams, touts shares of one or more lightly-traded companies as hot and ready to climb. The scammers, however, have already bought shares and only spam their shills to get others to buy in. If enough do, the price goes up, and the scammers sell their holdings. The duped recipients of the spam are left holding the bag when the price later plunges.
7. July 21, Associated Press — Hacker gets into two University of Michigan databases. A hacker has accessed two University of Michigan databases containing student information, including names, addresses and some Social Security numbers, a spokesperson said Saturday, July 21. The School of Education databases also listed some birth dates and districts where former students were teaching. University spokesperson Kelly Cunningham said they contained no financial information. The suspicious activity was noticed July 3 on a server, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday, and the school notified 5,500 current and former students of the matter by letter on Monday.
Transportation and Border Security Sector :
8. July 24, Associated Press — Air traffic controllers fault maintenance. Air traffic controllers say poor maintenance of their aging work places has hampered and harmed them and could endanger the flying public. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which employees the controllers, has not given priority to maintaining and preserving aging air traffic control facilities, argued Patrick Forrey, president of the controllers' union. "The resulting environmental conditions have jeopardized the safety of workers as well as the effectiveness of the equipment they use -- both of which can negatively impact the safety of the air traffic system," Forrey said in testimony prepared for a hearing Tuesday, July 24, by the House aviation subcommittee . Water leaks, obscured sight lines, toxic fumes, mold, asbestos, pest infestations and poor heating and cooling were reported in a survey by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association of its field representatives at the nation's 314 airport towers and traffic and radar control centers. Of the 220 facilities reporting, 62 rated their conditions poor. Another 18 called theirs "outright dangerous" and said they "were concerned with their personal well being as well as the facility's ability to handle the daily aircraft operations."
9. July 24, Associated Press — United parent UAL reports $274M profit. United Airlines parent company UAL reported its biggest quarterly profit in seven years Tuesday, July 24, a $274 million gain that reflected fuller planes during a busy summer travel season and the benefits of cost reductions. The second-quarter results easily topped Wall Street estimates and more than doubled the company's earnings from a year ago, when it finished in the black for the first time since 2000. United registered improvement to its operating costs, which have been among the highest of any U.S. airline for years. Costs per average seat mile, excluding fuel and severance charges, declined 0.5 percent from the second quarter of 2006 and operating expenses were reduced by $177 million. The second-largest U.S. carrier , United has prospered in part by selectively cutting capacity, which has made existing flights more full of passengers. It filled 89.1 percent of its seats last month, the highest ever for June.
10. July 24, Transportation Security Administration — TSA and Phoenix airport make quick changes to increase security. Amid concerns about after-hours employee access to concourses at Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport (PHX), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the airport have implemented several changes to ensure that local security procedures are in compliance with national requirements concerning screening employees with access to concourses and other areas beyond the security checkpoint. TSA has taken over after-hours security screening at PHX and will now screen employees entering the airport's concourses and their property 24/7. All employees working in concourses, as well as goods sold in the "sterile area," are screened before entering those areas. The concourses of most major airports either remain secure 24/7 or are inspected before the checkpoint opens each morning. In addition, TSA has examined all other after-hours operations nationwide to ensure compliance with federal security standards. TSA statement on Phoenix screening: http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/phx_screening.shtm
11. July 23, Department of Transportation — Declining traffic deaths lead to lowest highway fatality rate ever recorded. The number of people who died on the nation’s roads fell last year, leading to the lowest highway fatality rate ever recorded and the largest drop in total deaths in 15 years, Department of Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced on Monday, July 23. In 2006, 42,642 people died in traffic crashes, a drop of 868 deaths compared to 2005. This two percent decline in traffic deaths contributed to the historic low fatality rate of 1.42 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, Secretary Peters said. Most significantly, fatalities of occupants of passenger vehicles -- cars, SUVs, vans and pickups -- continued a steady decline to 30,521, the lowest annual total since 1993, Secretary Peters said. Secretary Peters cautioned that troubling trends continue in motorcycle and alcohol-related crashes. Report: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810791.PDF.
12. July 23, Associated Press — Runaway military train derails in Watertown, New York. A runaway military train coasted for several miles Monday, July 23, before derailing, causing a propane tanker to catch fire and forcing evacuations, a fire official said. No injuries were reported from the accident, just after 9 a.m. EDT, said Watertown Deputy Fire Chief Milton Sayre. Businesses and homes within a half-mile area of the area were evacuated and part of Interstate 81 was shut down as a precaution, Sayre said. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, but the evacuation was to continue until authorities could identify all the materials on the derailed cars and make sure there was no further danger, he said. Sayre said he was told the train was carrying Army equipment bound for Iraq but had no further details about the cargo or the reason the train began rolling. The train originated at nearby Fort Drum, home of the 10th Mountain Division light infantry. Fort Drum spokesperson Ben Abel said the Army had no immediate comment and referred questions to civilian authorities because it occurred off the post. The runaway train derailed after striking a vehicle being used by a Conrail work crew repairing some rails, Sayre said.
13. July 20, GovExec.com — Controllers at busiest airports retiring in large numbers. A group of air traffic controllers, hired en bloc in the early 1980s after 11,000 controllers were fired for striking, now is retiring rather than continuing under a new pay scale and work rules imposed by Federal Aviation Administrator (FAA) Marion Blakey. Their departure is leaving FAA short on capability and expertise, a new Government Executive analysis shows. There are three kinds of air traffic control facilities in the United States: Air route traffic control centers (known as en route centers) handle planes in the middle of their flights; air traffic control towers handle planes as they move on the ground at airports and give pilots directions as they take off and land; and terminal radar approach controls (TRACONs) handle planes as they move into and out of the general vicinity of airports after they take off and before they prepare to land. At the 10 busiest en route centers in the country, seven percent to 23 percent of controllers will be eligible to retire by the end of the fiscal year, as will 13 percent to 38 percent of controllers at the 10 busiest towers and 13 percent to 55 percent of controllers at the 10 busiest TRACONs.
Postal and Shipping Sector :
14. July 23, Associated Press — FedEx cuts freight fuel surcharge. FedEx Corp.'s freight trucking operations, FedEx Freight and FedEx National LTL, announced a 25 percent cut in fuel surcharges Monday, July 23. Rates at FedEx Express, which operates the company's cargo airline, and at FedEx Ground, will not be affected by the change, the company said. Fuel surcharges for both of the less-than-truckload companies are updated weekly, based on fuel prices published by the Department of Energy. "By significantly reducing our fuel surcharges, we offer immediate and long-term assistance to shippers who are facing both a challenging economy and volatile fuel prices," said Douglas G. Duncan, president and chief executive of FedEx Freight.
Agriculture Sector :
15. July 25, Associated Press — NY: deadly fish virus continues spread. A deadly fish virus spreading through upstate New York has been detected in three new locations and for the first time has been found in rainbow trout, one of the state's top game fish, state scientists said Monday, July 23. Viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) was found in fish taken from the Little Salmon River in Oswego County and the Seneca-Cayuga Canal, as well as an isolated farm pond in Niagara County, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said. In New York, VHS has been identified in nearly two dozen species since first appearing last year, including muskellunge, the state's No. 2 sport fish. There is no known cure for VHS, which has caused fish kills in New York ranging from a few to thousands of fish. In the Little Salmon River, which empties into Lake Ontario, a single rainbow trout tested positive for VHS, the first detection of the virus in rainbow trout found in New York.
16. July 24, DNRonline.com (VA) — First case of West Nile found in horse in valley. Almost a month after a horse developed Virginia's first case this year of equine West Nile virus in Rockingham County, the Department of Agriculture and Consumers Services is still in the process of informing the public, officials say. The number of horses in the Valley confirmed with the virus has declined drastically since 2003. But local horse owners and veterinarians say it’s still important for the public to be informed about new cases, which are transmitted by infected mosquitoes. But VDACS spokesperson Marion Horsley said no public announcement was issued because officials were too busy dealing with the July 6 discovery of avian flu antibodies in a flock of 54,000 turkeys in Shenandoah County. Lydia Cunningham is manager of the Mountain Top Equine ranch in Elkton, the same town where the virus was confirmed in a horse on June 23. Cunningham said knowing about new cases reminds owners to get their animals vaccinated.
17. July 23, Stop Soybean Rust News — Soybean rust found in southwest Arkansas. Asian soybean rust was confirmed in commercial soybeans in southwest Arkansas Monday, July 23--the first in the state this year. Growers in that corner of the state are advised to spray soybeans in growth stages R1 to R6 as soon as possible. The rust was found at low incidence (
Food Sector :
18. July 23, Food Safety and Inspection Service — Public health based inspection to be topic of FSIS public meeting. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will hold a public meeting August 7 to discuss public health based inspection in slaughter plants. To meet the realities of food safety and public health challenges, FSIS intends to enhance its inspection system and to implement new, science-based policies. FSIS is considering proposing a new inspection system in slaughter establishments that will improve public health. Although rulemaking is not expected immediately, FSIS is seeking public input on the ideas, concepts, data, and analyses that it will use to form the basis for a technical plan and, in turn, to inform the rulemaking process. Additional information: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Meetings_&_Events/ind ex.asp Comments will be posted on FSIS' Website: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations_&_policies/2007_Notices _Index/index.asp
19. July 23, News Inferno — Taste of Chicago salmonella food poisoning continued rising last week. Salmonella food poisoning cases related to the salad served by Pars Cove at the Taste of Chicago food festival has risen to 717 as of noon on Friday, July 20, according to a press release from the Chicago Department of Public Health. Health officials have yet to pinpoint the exact source of the salmonella bacteria, but have thoroughly inspected Pars Cove Restaurant and administered stool tests for the presence of salmonella to all employees, the Department of Health said last week. The widely popular Taste of Chicago Food Festival, held outdoors at Chicago’s Grant Park, ran from June 29 to July 8. The Department of Public Health calls the festival “the most intensely regulated food operation in the city.” City inspectors detail each of the over 70 food booths at least four times each day, according to the department.
Water Sector
20. July 24, Bloomberg — About 140,000 homes without water in UK. Severn Trent Plc, the UK's second-biggest water company, said 140,000 homes may be without water for as long as two weeks after it shut a treatment facility following floods on the rivers Severn and Avon. It's likely to take seven to 14 days to return water supply to about 340,000 people in Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Gloucester in western England, Severn Trent spokesperson Doug Clarke said Tuesday, July 24. The company closed its Mythe Water Treatment works in Tewkesbury on Sunday after it was flooded. The utility is planning to distribute as much as three million liters (792,600 gallons) of bottled water a day to the affected areas, Clarke said. The company has set up 490 mini-tankers in streets. Rain over the weekend caused floods in central and southern England. Parts of towns including Gloucester, Oxford and Reading are still under water, with river levels along the Thames in Oxfordshire and Berkshire due to peak Wednesday, the Environment Agency said.
21. July 24, Boston Globe — Chlorine attacks in Iraq spur warnings in U.S. A spate of deadly chlorine bomb attacks in Iraq is prompting the Bush administration to urge nearly 3,000 municipal water treatment plants in the U.S. to make sure their chlorine gas is well protected. Although some plants have switched to less dangerous methods of disinfecting drinking and waste water, many still add chlorine gas to kill bacteria. With chlorine bombs becoming a high-profile weapon of choice for terrorists abroad, officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fear that terrorists might try to copy the tactic. However, DHS has no power to do anything more than urge vigilance on the part of water treatment plant operators. Although Congress passed a law in October giving DHS the power to make sure that most chemical facilities have effective security, lawmakers exempted water treatment plants from the new regulations. On Tuesday, July 24, the House Homeland Security Committee held its first oversight hearing on chemical security this year, and some watchdog groups are now calling on Congress to revisit its October 2006 chemical security legislation to make it tougher. Among the critics' chief targets is the exemption for water treatment plants.
22. July 24, Associated Press — Methane leaks into water wells. Oil and gas regulators in Pueblo, CO, are looking for the source of methane gas leaking into residential water wells after an explosion. Petroglyph Inc. agreed to shut down gas wells near the River Ridge Ranch housing development during the investigation, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said. Petroglyph will also replug a well that was shut down in 1972 in case it is the source of the methane leak, said Peter Gintautas, environmental protection specialist for the commission. The commission began testing water wells in the development after an explosion in June blew the roof off a well house. Tests of 37 water wells in the development found significant amounts of methane in 11, authorities said.
Public Health Sector :
23. July 24, Xinhua (China) — Vietnam seeks measures to control pig disease. A pig disease in Vietnam that has sickened 42 people and killed two has the government calling for speedier investigations and urgent measures to control the bacteria, the nation's agriculture minister said. Cao Duc Phat told health officials at a meeting initial assessments showed the disease caused by Streptococcus suis bacteria had spread in the country, the Vietnam Agriculture newspaper reported on Tuesday, July 24. "Since the disease involving Streptococcus suis bacteria is directly related to human health and the development of the husbandry sector so we need to act urgently, without any delay," Phat was quoted as saying at the Monday meeting. The bacteria came to light recently in the country of 85 million people after 22 people in the northern provinces became infected, followed by 20 in the southern region. Phat urged officials to check if there were any links between the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus, also known as Lelystad virus that has infected more than 27,000 pigs in the central region, and the Streptococcus suis bacteria. People can be infected after coming into direct contact either by hand or eating pork from a sick pig.
24. July 24, Vancouver Sun (Canada) — Doctor accused of faking medical records. Canadian authorities are investigating a doctor in India who they believe may have been paid off in exchange for submitting fake medical records that allowed seriously ill immigrants to come to Canada, The Vancouver Sun has learned. Most immigrants to Canada must undergo extensive medical checks before arrival to ensure they don't have any infectious diseases or serious medical problems that could pose a burden to the health-care system. To ensure the checks are done properly, only doctors pre-approved by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, known as Designated Medical Practitioners (DMP), are allowed to do them. But an internal Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) report, obtained by The Sun through the Access to Information Act, reveals serious questions have been raised about the work of one such doctor in India. According to the report, the CBSA is investigating allegations that two seriously ill immigrants from India "paid a DMP to submit medical results of other people with their applications for permanent residence." The two sick immigrants were then allowed to immigrate to Canada. At the time the CBSA report was written last January, only two sick immigrants had been identified by investigators. But the report suggests there could be many more.
25. July 23, Congressional Quarterly — U.S. biosecurity efforts need more development. Security agents said Monday, July 23, that border biosecurity in the U.S. needs significant development, including increasing resources and education as well as more coordination between responsible agencies. In a briefing on Capitol Hill, Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, and James Hodges, executive director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, addressed recent threats to U.S. border biosecurity, ways to control diseases entering the country and measures the government can take to quarantine people who have a disease gaining access to U.S. points of entry. At the event, Benjamin said the next steps to prevent threats from diseases include increased resources and support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), support for education between various agencies including CDC, border protection patrols and others, and introducing advanced technology after first increasing the effectiveness of the staff monitoring border biosecurity. Hodges said there are five major legal challenges to handling public safety concerns, including a specification and nationalization of public health agencies, balancing those challenges with states’ rights and national security concerns, examining globalization and global health responses and protecting public safety versus individual interests.
26. June 20, Government Accountability Office — GAO-07-696: Influenza Pandemic: DoD Combatant Commands' Preparedness Efforts Could Benefit from More Clearly Defined Roles, Resources, and Risk Mitigation (Report). An influenza pandemic could impair the military’s readiness, jeopardize ongoing military operations abroad, and threaten the day-to-day functioning of the Department of Defense (DoD) due to a large percentage of sick or absent personnel. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine DoD’s pandemic influenza planning and preparedness efforts. GAO previously reported that DoD had taken numerous actions to prepare departmentwide, but faced four management challenges as it continued its efforts. GAO made recommendations to address these challenges and DoD generally concurred with them. This report focuses on DoD’s combatant commands (COCOM) and addresses (1) actions the COCOMs have taken to prepare and (2) management challenges COCOMs face going forward. GAO reviewed guidance, plans, and after-action reports and interviewed DoD officials and more than 200 officials at the nine COCOMs. GAO recommends that DoD take steps to clarify the COCOMs’ roles and responsibilities for pandemic influenza-related efforts, identify the sources and types of resources needed for the COCOMs to accomplish these efforts, and develop options to mitigate the effects of factors that are outside of their control. DoD concurred with each of these recommendations. Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07696high.pdf
Government Sector :
27. July 24, Government Accountability Office — GAO-07-1024T: Homeland Security: DHS Privacy Office Has Made Progress but Faces Continuing Challenges (Testimony). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Privacy Office was established with the appointment of the first Chief Privacy Officer in April 2003, as required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Privacy Office’s major responsibilities include: (1) reviewing and approving privacy impact assessments (PIA)—analyses of how personal information is managed in a federal system, (2) integrating privacy considerations into DHS decision making and ensuring compliance with the Privacy Act of 1974, and (3) preparing and issuing annual reports and reports on key privacy concerns. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to testify on its recent report examining progress made by the DHS Privacy Office in carrying out its statutory responsibilities. GAO compared statutory requirements with Privacy Office processes, documents, and activities. In its report, GAO recommended that the Secretary of Homeland Security take several actions including appointing privacy officers in key DHS components, implementing a process for reviewing Privacy Act notices, and establishing a schedule for timely issuance of Privacy Office reports. DHS generally agreed with the report and described actions initiated to address GAO’s recommendations. Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071024thigh.pdf
Emergency Services Sector :
28. July 24, Associated Press — Poll: Residents would ignore evacuation. About one in three people living in Southern coastal areas said they would ignore hurricane evacuation orders if a storm threatened their community, up from about one in four last year, according to a new poll. The survey released early Tuesday, July 24, found the most common reasons for not evacuating were the same ones that topped last year's Harvard University poll: People believe their homes are safe and well-built, that roads would be too crowded and that fleeing would be dangerous. Slightly more than one in four also said they would be reluctant to leave behind a pet. Robert Blendon, the Harvard professor who directed the survey, said the mild 2006 Atlantic hurricane season probably put more coastal residents at ease. Residents were asked how worried they are about hurricanes, what supplies they have in their homes, how confident they are about being rescued and how else they had prepared for possible storms. Thirty-one percent of respondents said they would not evacuate. The telephone poll surveyed more than 5,000 people 18 or older in coastal areas of eight Southern states. All participants lived within 20 miles of the coast.
29. July 23, Federal Computer Week — DHS, DoD solving first responder ID card interoperability problem. Officials are hoping to minimize identification problems through the use of a First Responder Authentication Credentials (FRAC) identification card, which was a key component in the July 19 Summer Breeze Exercise. The FRAC card is encoded with critical data that lets commanders at the scene authenticate the responder’s credentials using a wireless handheld device. The Summer Breeze exercises demonstrated that use of the FRAC made for quicker ID checks than the traditional visual identification method, said Craig Wilson, a smartcard expert with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during a briefing on the exercise at the Government Smart Card Interagency Advisory Board meeting in Washington on July 20. At George Mason University, which served as one of the Summer Breeze sites, participants carried out an evacuation exercise appropriate for situation such as the shootings at Virginia Tech. There also was a large-scale relocation exercises, including one where pilots were given only 15 minutes notice to fly to a different staging area. Overall, Summer Breeze received accolades from officials, who are impressed with the role that smart cards can play in a crisis. This was the second interoperability exercise the Department of Defense (DoD) and DHS ran for first responders.
Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector
30. July 24, IDG News Service — China breaks into large piracy syndicate with FBI's help. A flurry of raids and arrests in China over the last two weeks have ended what is estimated to be the world's largest piracy syndicate in operation for more than six years. The group, in Guangdong province in southern China, produced fraudulent copies of software from Microsoft and Symantec, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In China, some 290,000 discs were seized, worth $500 million, as well as $7 million in other assets, the FBI said. In the U.S., the agency's Los Angeles office confiscated $2 million in counterfeit software, plus $700,000 in other assets. In one of the raids, an alleged counterfeiter named Ma Ke Pei was arrested along with 10 other people in connection with fake Symantec software, the FBI said. In 2003 Ma was indicted in the U.S. for copyright and trademark violations related to Microsoft software but fled to China. Other raids centered around Shenzhen, where some 70 percent of the counterfeit products are shipped to the U.S. to distributors and retail customers, the FBI said. Six manufacturing lines and retail facilities were dismantled, and 47,000 counterfeit Microsoft CDs were confiscated.
31. July 23, ComputerWorld — 'Dangling pointers' more dangerous than thought, says security vendor. An issue largely ignored because the security risk was deemed only theoretical might soon become a significant and dangerous security risk, according to Web application security vendor Watchfire Inc. The company has developed new proof-of-concept code that it says can use what’s generally seen as a relatively benign coding flaw -- it's known as a dangling pointer -- to launch remote-code execution attacks. A dangling pointer, like a buffer-overflow flaw, can exist in a large number of software products. Watchfire is set to demonstrate its attack code running against a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.’s IIS 5.1 server software at next week’s BlackHat conference in Las Vegas.
Commercial Facilities/Real Estate, Monument &Icons Sector :
Nothing to report.
General Sector
32. July 23, Federal Computer Week — Agencies see many benefits to managing physical and IT security together. Physical security and information technology security exist as separate worlds at most government agencies. The physical side employs guards and concerns itself with protecting facilities and people, while the IT side employs technical specialists and focuses on securing networks and computer systems. The two spheres involve distinct reporting hierarchies and maintain separate budgets. Their orbits have seldom intersected. However, that pattern of segregated security has begun to change. Spurred in part by recent technical developments, some agencies have concluded that physical and IT security missions have the same objective: Keep the bad guys out while letting the good guys in with minimal hindrance. “A physical threat to a building is not a whole lot different from a cyberthreat to our network,” said Elayne Starkey, Delaware’s chief security officer. That realization has led some government entities to combine their security efforts. Government and industry executives see a number of benefits to pulling security together, a strategy referred to as security convergence or enterprise risk management. In their view, a holistic take on security can eliminate gaps that might otherwise occur among different layers of security. Proponents also view converged security as more efficient and cost-effective.
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