-----Original Message----- From: NIPC Watch To: Daily Distribution Sent: 3/13/02 5:19 AM Subject: NIPC Daily Report 13 Mar 02 NIPC Daily Report 13 March 2002 The NIPC Watch and Warning Unit compiles this report to inform recipients of issues impacting the integrity and capability of the nation's critical infrastructures. Terror threat warning system unveiled. Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge said on 12 March that a new color-coded US threat advisory system will create "a national framework and a common vocabulary" so that government and the private sector can deal effectively and efficiently with threats of terrorist attack. The warning system will have five levels ranging from green, the lowest alert level, followed by blue, then yellow, orange and red, the highest state of alert. Each code will trigger specific actions by federal agencies and state and local governments. "The advisory system simply deals with our assessment of the risk," Ridge said. "And the second portion of the advisory system is something that we're working very closely with state and local governments and the private sector so that they come up with various measures of readiness and preparedness." (CNN.Com, 12 Mar) Virtual Private Networks protect securities. The events of September 11 and threats of additional attacks or potential calamities have put business continuity planning (BCP) into the forefront of operational strategy for virtually every node of infrastructure and industry in the United States. Securities firms are especially focused on the issues after last year's attacks caused systems outages that affected communication and trading operations in the capital markets. The importance of Wall Street's BCP has increased with the likelihood of government-sponsored cyber-terror directed at securities firms. Virtual private networks (VPN) are private networks configured within a public network, typically effecting security via access control mechanisms and encryption. (Securities Industry News, 11 Mar) State files suit against energy firms. The California attorney general's office sued four major energy companies for $150 million, alleging that they broke contracts to provide emergency power to the state's power grid operator, and instead sold the electricity on the lucrative spot market. State officials said the suits demonstrate that big energy companies began "gaming" the state's power grid operation within months of the 1996 law that deregulated wholesale energy markets and caused utilities to sell most of their generation facilities. (Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar) Police find cyanide stash in Chicago subway tunnel; suspects arrested. A Wisconsin computer worker who dubbed himself "Dr. Chaos" was charged Monday with possessing a chemical weapon after authorities found a cache of cyanide in a CTA Blue Line subway tunnel in the heart of the Loop. Authorities say they found a cyanide capsule on Joseph Daniel Konopka, 25, when he and a youth were arrested Saturday in a steam tunnel at the University of Illinois at Chicago. FBI agents and Chicago police officers combed the tunnels for chemical weapons and booby traps they believed might be set for them. Although they found no booby traps, they did find a box of chemicals, including about 1 1/4 pounds of cyanide compounds that potentially could be combined with other substances to create a toxic cloud. Konopka, wanted on several warrants from Wisconsin for allegedly staging attacks on several public utilities, admitted that he "re-keyed" a CTA storage area where he kept cyanide and other chemicals. He also kept a stolen laptop computer that he used for "war driving," accessing networks without permission using a wireless modem, the FBI said. (Chicago Tribune, 12 Mar) Air Force to protect phone lines. The Air Force plans to plug one of the most commonly overlooked gateways into networks - telephone lines - by deploying its Enterprise Telephony Management (ETM) Platform at Air Force bases worldwide. Service officials expect to begin deploying the system during the summer (Federal Computer Week, 12 Mar) Army securing wireless LAN. The Army has selected a security solution to protect the mission-critical business systems of the Combat Service Support Automated Information System Interface (CAISI) project, a wireless local-area network with about 85,000 users. Defense Department policy prohibits agencies from operating wireless LANs without certified security. (Federal Computer Weekly, 12 Mar) Kazakhstan shows interest in US-backed pipeline. Following a meeting with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Steven Mann, the special adviser to the US State Department on the Caspian Sea region, said the US and Kazakhstan have demonstrated a "unity of views" on a wide range of energy issues. In particular, Kazakh oil producers intend to get involved in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, and the US intends to assist Kazakhstan in finding future alternative export routes for its gas and oil products. (Interfax-Kazakhstan, 12 Mar) Canal Plus says News Corp. unit hacked digital TV smart cards. Canal Plus and two of its technology subsidiaries filed a lawsuit in US District Court for Northern California against NDS Group, claiming that the U.K.-based company spent large amounts of money and resources to break the security code behind Canal+'s digital TV smart card. When the smart card code was published on the Internet, criminal organizations flooded the market with counterfeit cards. Canal+ said in a written statement that the incident will cost the company an estimated $1 billion. NDS officials were not immediately available for comment. Canal+ has launched a special Web site to provide more information on the lawsuit: http://www.actiononecanalplus.com. (Newsbytes, 12 Mar) ..
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