Fourteen arrested in PayPal cyberattacks

photo courtesy of todayszaman.com

Published 21 July 2011

U.S. authorities have arrested fourteen people for allegedly hacking into PayPal's network; the attacks on website came as retaliatory move for corporate pressure against WikiLeaks; last year after WikiLeaks released thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, websites like PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard withdrew their services to WikiLeaks; hackers responded by taking the websites down; the fourteen hackers that were arrested were charged with conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer; the hackers could face as much as ten years in prison

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: Test for Classifying Force Used in Bottle Stabbings Developed

[Another form of weaponry, in an asymmetric way.  Be aware of those yielding beer and wine bottles!  Article is courtesy of HSNW and single slide is courtesy of University of Leicester.]

Published 22 July 2011 (Britain)

Stabbing is the most common method of committing murder in the United Kingdom; in approximately 10 percent of all assaults resulting in treatment in the U.K. emergency units, glasses and bottles are used as weapons; official UK estimates suggest that a form of glass is used as a weapon in between 3,400 and 5,400 offenses per year; engineers at the University of Leicester have for the first time created a way of measuring how much force is used during a stabbing using a broken bottle

'Glassings' and Stabbings - Bottles as Weapons: The Engineering Story

Engineers at the University of Leicester have for the first time created a way of measuring how much force is used during a stabbing using a broken bottle. The advance is expected to have significant implications for legal forensics.

A team from the University has conducted a systematic study of the force applied during a stabbing and come up with the first set of penetration force data for broken glass bottles. This work has been published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine.

A university of Leicester release reports that stabbing is the most common method of committing murder in the United Kingdom. Injuries and assaults related to alcohol consumption are also a growing concern in many countries. In such cases the impulsive use of weapons such as a glass bottle is not uncommon.

In approximately 10 percent of all assaults resulting in treatment in the U.K. emergency units, glasses and bottles are used as weapons.

TERRORISM: Home-grown Islamist Web Site Moderator Indicted

Fri, 2011-07-15 08:01 AM

By: Mark Rockwell

Begolly in Myspace photo

The moderator of an extremist Web site, who encouraged violent Jihad attacks inside the U.S. against law enforcement, military, public buildings and synagogues was indicted by a federal grand jury.

An indictment handed down in Alexandria, VA, on July 14 alleges Emerson Begolly, 22, is a homegrown terrorist who actively encouraged violence through a popular, internationally known Islamic extremist Web forum, the Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF). Begolly, from New Bethlehem, PA, is a moderator of the site, which distributes and promotes violent Islamist propaganda¸ said the FBI.

According to the indictment, it was through that Web forum, beginning in July 2010, that Begolly urged followers to use firearms, explosives and propane tanks to attack a wide-ranging list of targets inside the U.S. including police stations, post offices, synagogues, military facilities, train lines, cell phone towers, bridges and water plants. He also posted bomb-making instructions online, it said.  Read more

EXPLOSIVE DETECTION > Sensors printed on wetsuits detect explosives, other hazards

Published 12 July 2011

UC San Diego researcher has successfully printed thick-film electrochemical sensors directly on flexible wetsuit material, paving the way for nano devices to detect underwater explosives or ocean contamination; UCSD has a full U.S. patent pending on the technology, and has begun talks on licensing the system to a Fortune 500 company

Flexible sensors printed on neoprene wetsuit sleeve // Source: calit2.net

Breakthroughs in nanoengineering often involve building new materials or tiny circuits. A professor at the University of California, San Diego, however, is proving that he can make materials and circuits so flexible that they can be pulled, pushed, and contorted — even under water — and still keep functioning properly.

Joseph Wang has successfully printed thick-film electrochemical sensors directly on flexible wetsuit material, paving the way for nano devices to detect underwater explosives or ocean contamination.

“We have a long-term interest in on-body electrochemical monitoring for medical and security applications,” said Wang, a professor in the Department of NanoEngineering in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “In the past three years we’ve been working on flexible, printable sensors, and the capabilities of our group made it possible to extend these systems for use underwater.”

Wang notes that some members of his team — including electrical-engineering graduate student Joshua Windmiller — are surfers. Given the group’s continued funding from the U.S. Navy, and its location in La Jolla, it was a logical leap to see if it would be possible to print sensors on neoprene, the synthetic-rubber fabric typically used in wetsuits for divers and surfers    Read more

TSA > CBP arrests criminal with altered fingerprints at airport

Wed, 2011-07-06 08:31 AM

By: Mark Rockwell

Davila's altered prints

A Dominican man allegedly tried to get by Customs and Border Protection anti-terrorism officers in Boston by altering his fingerprints.

Freddy Davila was arrested on June 9, said Customs and Border Protection in a statement released on June 29, while he was trying to board a flight from Boston to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He was stopped and questioned by CBP officers who found his fingerprints had been intentionally altered to avoid law enforcement identification. Davila was arrested by CBP officers from the port of Boston Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team outbound division, said the agency.

CBP said it sometimes conducts departure/outbound examinations for compliance of documentary and other regulatory requirements, focusing on currency, weapons, export violations, and fugitives exiting the U.S. “In this case, CBP officers determined that Davila’s fingerprints appeared to have been altered and determined that further investigation was necessary,” it said.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO TERRORISM > JOB AID

Description: Edition 2.0. Identifies strategic and tactical considerations that should be assessed within the first hour of a terrorist incident.

Year/pages: 2003: 74 p. and 7 index dividers.

Price: $13.50

[To order]

FREE .pdf VERSION:  http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/ert-ja.pdf

FREE FOG > National Interoperability Field Operations Guide

New content:

• VTAC Repeater Channels
• U.S. Department of Justice 25 Cities Project
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regions - States and Territories
• U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Centers
• Cellular Telephone Emergency Response
• Text Messaging
• Line-of-sight Formulas

Updated content:

• VHF low-band interoperability repeaters and channel names
• All channel tables list frequencies in the same order as ICS-205 and ICS-217 forms
• An improved map showing where channel VTAC17 may be used, with county names
• 700 MHz Interoperability Channels – frequencies have been added to the table
• UHF MED channels – 12.5 and 6.25 channels added
• RJ-45 wiring – crossover wiring added
• VHF Marine Channel and Frequency tables
• Revised answer to the question "Don't I need a license for these channels before programming them into radios?"
• Revised "Ground to Air working channel" in the table "Federal/Non-Federal VHF SAR Operations Interoperability Plan"

DHS USCG > Drug smugglers in minisubs hunted by Seattle Coast Guard crews

Seattle-based Lauren Milici, assisted by fellow

Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Tenley Barna, peers into a

cocaine-packed minisub off Costa Rica.

Smugglers in a "narco sub" tried to sneak 6.6 tons of cocaine up the Central American coast in January, but a Seattle-based Coast Guard crew boarded the vessel, arrested the four-man crew and sank the sub and its cargo. It's an ongoing, multibillion-dollar game of cat-and-mouse that shows the Coast Guard is more than a search-and-rescue outfit. 

Read more

Security > Border Patrol uses wireless cameras originally intended to photograph wildlife

Thu, 2011-06-23 03:35 PM

By: Jacob Goodwin

Tree-mounted BuckEye Cam

The Spokane, WA, sector of the U.S. Border Patrol plans to purchase about 70 long-range wireless camera systems that were originally designed to photograph deer and other animals in the wild, but are now being used in a variety of security applications and as part of the war on terror.

The cameras will be supplied byAthens Technical Specialists, Inc., of Athens, OH, which markets individual cameras – as well as an integrated collection of as many as 30 cameras known as the BuckEye Cam CellBase – under the nameBuckEye Cam.

FREE Course > Surviving Field Stress for First Responders

[For those of you that do not want to take the course, I have attached the 60 page  > handbook  that is of the same title.  A must have for anyone who is a first responder...]

First responders to a traumatic event are tasked with applying their expertise under incredibly stressful conditions. This webcast deals with the physical, emotional, and mental stressors first responders face when called to a technological disaster. It gives practical coping strategies and resources for dealing with stress.

Goal   To help the responder or those they assist be prepared for the stressors of twenty-first century disasters.

Objectives   Upon successful completion of the program, participants will be able to: Describe psychological stress. Explain common causes of stress. Describe the mental and physical health effects of excessive stress. Describe the social, physical, and emotional causes of first responders stress. Identify methods to cope with field related stress. Identify strategies for assisting members of the public adults and children, with their disaster-related stress in your role as first responder.

Target Audience   Health-care providers, federal, state, and local public health and emergency management officials.

Nuclear > Interpol Stands Up Nuclear Counterterrorism Unit

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Interpol on Wednesday said it has a established a unit to take on terrorism threats involving nuclear, radiological and other unconventional materials (seeGSN, Sept. 28, 2010).

The Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Unit "crucially will expand the world police body’s antibioterrorism activities to take in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNe) threats by using an integrated approach that leverages international partnerships and expertise across all sectors," according to an Interpol release (see GSN, Feb. 24, 2010).

The update acknowledges the dangers that weapons of mass destruction pose to the 188 nations that participate in Interpol, organization Secretary General Ronald Noble said during a conference in Lyon, France, on preventing nuclear and radiological terrorism.

“Only one week after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States was struck once again with the ‘anthrax case’, in which a single individual with scientific knowledge and access to the right biological strain was able to murder five people, injure 17 and temporarily shut down the entire mail system of the United States for an estimated loss of $1 billion, while terrorizing other countries in the process,” he said.

The primary goal of the event and of the new unit, Noble said, is “to build police capacity globally, to prevent the next bioterrorist attack. This objective requires police to have at its side the public, private and scientific sectors together as one in order to successfully address the whole threat spectrum."

One database developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Interpol and other organizations lists in excess of 2,500 incidents linked to the illicit movement of nuclear and radiological materials, the Interpol release states.

The updated counter-WMD effort at Interpol "will combine intelligence analysis via global information sharing, capacity building and training, and will also provide operational supporrt through the deployment of specialized teams," the organization said (Interpol release, May 18).

Hazmat trucks stopped in downtown Dallas

Tankers carrying hazardous materials // Source: ehow.com

City of Dallas police are enforcing city laws prohibiting truckers from hauling hazardous materials through downtown Dallas; last week the police stopped twenty-seven trucks in downtown Dallas, carrying, among other things, cyanide, gasoline, and dynamite   Read more

Don't mess with these Orlando mall cops

This is a great article on 'reverse emerging threats' to criminals and the like...superb 'mall cops' in Florida.  

image courtesy of:   webtechpoint.com

Far from being a piecemeal operation, security at The Mall at Millennia, a luxury mall in Orlando, Florida, is a highly sophisticated operation that uses the latest law enforcement tools, techniques, and technology; 50 unarmed security officers maintain a conspicuous presence throughout the 1.2 million square foot mall; the mall also has a comprehensive network of surveillance cameras that are monitored in a twenty-four hour command center; to prepare security personnel for emergency scenarios, the department conducts tabletop exercises with local law enforcement officials every six months; the mall also works closely with local law enforcement officials to catch local thieves and participates in sting operations.   Read more

Terrorism Front > Counterfeiting and National Security

What does counterfeiting have to do with National Security?

image coutesy of:  store.iccbooksusa.net

Fri, 2011-05-06 03:10 PM

By: James Hayward, Ph.D, Sc.D.

“We Got Him!” was the headline. “What’s next?” is the question now asked by many Americans, days after Osama Bin Laden’s demise. There are a number of simple things that we can do to help protect against terrorism. Some, like “See Something, Say Something,” have become ingrained in our national psyche. Perhaps less obvious is the imperative to guard against counterfeit goods. The connection may not be immediately apparent, but it is real and serious. - Government Security News