-----Original Message----- From: NIPC Watch [mailto:nipc.watch@private] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 7:51 AM To: Daily Distribution Subject: 2 Apr NIPC Daily Report Below is the NIPC Daily Report for 2 Apr 02. Thanks, NIPC WWU dw NIPC Daily Report 02 April 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. Egyptian man carrying boxcutters arrested at Miami airport. An Egyptian man who was deported earlier this year was arrested on immigration charges after he arrived in Miami on a flight from Spain carrying boxcutters in his briefcase. Aly Sabra Galal Abdell, 29, was arrested 29 March as he arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberia Airlines Flight 6123 from Madrid, said Patricia Mancha, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami. The man was stopped by inspectors after they ran his name and found he had been deported in January by a New York immigration judge. He had arrived in the country just before the 11 September attacks. "We're in the process of reviewing the matter for criminal charges," said Aloyma Sanchez, spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office in Miami. (Associated Press, 01 Apr) WWU comment: Too often, news highlights feature the broken aspects of security, especially when suspicious persons squeeze through the system, as happened last week with four Pakistani men in Norfolk, Virginia. This article highlights an instance of cooperation among local and federal agencies where security measures meshed sufficiently to nab an unwarranted entrant into the country - perhaps even to thwart some type of nefarious act. Time will tell as the investigation unfolds. Troops to leave US airports. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has directed that uniformed police officers replace National Guard troops patrolling airports. According to a TSA security directive issued 1 April, local police officers will be stationed at airport screening stations and other checkpoints until TSA hires its own law enforcement officers. The federal government will reimburse the airports for the officers' salaries. There is no timetable for replacing local police with federal officers. Airports have until 30 April to make the change. (Washington Post, 02 Apr) A sea of missing water. New Jersey's water suppliers can't account for about 120 million gallons of pure water that is lost every day. That's enough to let every man, woman, and child in New Jersey flush a toilet, wash their hands, brush their teeth, and take a five-minute shower - every single day. The water disappears through leaky pipes, malfunctioning meters, open fire hydrants, and maintenance flushing. Although much of this loss is unavoidable, it represents a tremendous drain on New Jersey's fragile water resources during the worst drought in 20 years. Some water suppliers say they're working harder to find and fix leaks because of the drought, but others say it's business as usual. State water conservation officials have told New Jerseyans to take shorter showers and fix broken faucets, but apparently haven't told water companies to do something about their missing water. (North Jersey News, 31 Mar) Open air reservoirs vulnerable. Several open-air water reservoirs in Portland, Oregon are more vulnerable to terrorist attack than initially thought, according to security consultants who studied the city's water system. As a result, the Portland Water Bureau proposes capping the city's drinking water reservoirs within the next five years. The Bureau wants the city council to commit to a water rate increase during the next five years to fund both the capping project and a Water Bureau security force. Portland is one of about 40 US cities that store drinking water in open reservoirs. (Associated Press, 1 Apr) Enhancing port security. A proposal pending before the International Maritime Organization (IMO) - the UN agency that coordinates international shipping security policies - would require vessels to install by 2008 Automatic Identification Systems that would transmit a ship's identity, speed, position and course. US officials have asked the IMO to move the deadline up to 1 July, 2004. Cruise ships, chemical-carrying boats and tankers have to install tracking systems by next year. US officials also want background checks of foreign crewmembers and a better idea of what's inside the cargo containers. Officials envision a satellite-based maritime defense system that tracks US-bound ships as effectively as air defenses track incoming planes. Until the new measures are in place, experts say, US seaports will be far more vulnerable than airlines and airports, which have so far gotten much more attention. Last year, 7.8 million sealed cargo containers arrived at US ports. Only 2 percent were searched. If US representatives can't get the deadline moved up, they will press world leaders at the G-8 economic meetings in June, said Adm. Brian Peterman of the White House Office of Homeland Security. To get individual countries to agree to pre-screening of cargo containers, US officials want to start with the world's 10 busiest ports. Three of those top ports are in China, however, and China is unlikely to be obliging, said William Harris, a transportation expert on the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. (Philadelphia Enquirer, 1 Apr) Critical holes in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Microsoft released a patch for a pair of "critical" security holes in its Internet Explorer Web browser. The browser patch corrects two flaws. The first makes it possible for a malicious hacker to place code on a Web surfer's PC by way of a cookie. The flaw allows a script embedded in a cookie to be saved outside the secure area on the PC's hard disk. The code can then be triggered the next time the surfer visits the site. The second flaw allows a malicious programmer to include code on a Web site that automatically executes programs already present on a surfer's PC. Microsoft rated both flaws "critical" and advised PC users running version 5 through 6 of Internet Explorer to promptly download the new patch. Microsoft continues to investigate a recently publicized hole in the software-debugging component of Windows NT and Windows 2000. Malicious users could take advantage of the flaw in the debug tool to gain elevated privileges on a server running either of the operating systems. They could then access, modify and delete otherwise protected files. (CNET News.com, 1 Apr)
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