CRIME FW: NIPC DAILY REPORT: 25 APR, '02

From: George Heuston (GeorgeH@private)
Date: Thu Apr 25 2002 - 07:07:29 PDT

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    -----Original Message-----
    From: NIPC Watch
    To: Daily Distribution
    Sent: 4/25/02 5:38 AM
    Subject: NIPC DAILY REPORT:  25 APR, '02
    
    NIPC Daily Report 25 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.
    
    CIA warns of Chinese plans for cyber-attacks on US. According to a 
    classified CIA report, US intelligence officials believe the Chinese 
    military is working to launch wide-scale cyber-attacks on American and 
    Taiwanese computer networks, including Internet-linked military systems 
    considered vulnerable to sabotage. Analysts have become increasingly 
    concerned that authorities in Beijing are actively planning to damage 
    and disrupt US computer systems through the use of Internet hacking and 
    computer viruses. Although the assessment concludes that China has not 
    yet acquired the technical sophistication to do broad damage to US and 
    Taiwanese systems, it maintains that this is the "intended goal" of the 
    People's Liberation Army in China. "The mission of Chinese special 
    forces includes physical sabotage" of vulnerable systems, which some 
    analysts said is driven by China's hostility toward Taiwan. (LA Times, 
    25 Apr)
    
    Klez.H virus still strong. More than a week after it first started 
    spreading, the latest variant of the Klez worm continues to infect PC 
    users that haven't taken steps to protect themselves. While the number 
    of computers infected by the Klez.H variant falls short of such 
    epidemics as the LoveLetter worm, the virus has still shown surprising 
    resiliency, said Steve Trilling, director of antivirus software maker 
    Symantec's security response team. The Klez variant has generated nearly
    
    20,000 incident reports from Symantec customers in a little over a week,
    
    Trilling said. Included in that number, are 250 corporations that have 
    experienced multiple infections. In total, Klez reports make up 75 
    percent of all reports that the company receives, easily putting it at 
    the top spot for threats. (CNET News.com, 24 Apr)
    
    Federal airport workers to debut at BWI. Baltimore-Washington 
    International Airport will become the first in the country with an 
    all-federal security force by about mid-June, marking the national debut
    
    of the government's air travel security system. The first 225 
    government-trained baggage screeners are to arrive at BWI on 30 April, 
    checking passengers at two concourses. The baggage screeners are the 
    advance guard of a new federal workforce that officials acknowledged 
    will grow to as many as 65,000 people nationwide -- twice as many 
    workers as some in Congress expected when they authorized the federal 
    takeover of air security. In addition to sending screeners to BWI, a 
    team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. will train 32,000 screeners who will 
    scrutinize passengers at checkpoints and gates nationwide. The training 
    is to begin immediately. (Washington Post, 25 Apr)
    
    Vast oil stores put Caspian Sea on the political map. Recently officials
    
    from Turkmenistan, Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan met to 
    continue discussing the division of the oil and gas regions at the 
    bottom of the Caspian Sea. In December 2001, Secretary of State Colin 
    Powell described the oil reserves in Kazakhstan as being of "critical 
    importance" to Western energy consumers in the near future. The US 
    Department of Energy estimates that by 2020, the Caspian could produce 
    up to 6 million barrels of oil per day, which equates to six percent of 
    the world's forecasted daily demand. The challenge of moving Caspian oil
    
    to market is critical because the region is hundreds of miles from major
    
    shipping ports, thus necessitating the construction of expensive 
    pipelines. The US supports creating a pipeline to the west, from 
    Azerbaijan to a Turkish port city on the Mediterranean, and avoiding the
    
    pipelines through Russia and Iran currently in existence. (ABC News. 24
    Apr)
    
    WWU Comment: The US need to search for viable oil and gas alternatives 
    remains a major political and environmental issue. With continued 
    political instability in the Middle East and the recent defeat of the 
    bill to authorize oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife 
    Refuge, alternatives with the seeming potential of the Caspian Sea could
    
    prove to be an important opportunity in the not too distant future. The 
    capability of the US and other major energy consumers to avoid relying 
    on nations that have been recognized state sponsors of terrorism, such 
    as Iran, further confounds the ability of transporting mined oil and 
    gas, especially across landlocked nations.
    
    Nuclear waste routes to storage site reconsidered by federal officials. 
    Federal officials are re-examining their plan to ship nuclear waste 
    through major cities. A major concern of critics is that terrorists 
    could use the casks containing radioactive material as ready-made "dirty
    
    bombs." Among the problems is maintaining the secrecy of schedules and 
    routes. Truck shipments can be kept secret more easily than rail 
    shipments because of the many roads they can follow, but they carry 
    greater risk of accidents because of other vehicles on the roads. 
    Trains, however, must follow routes set by the alignment of tracks, 
    which include trips through large cities. Explosives planted along track
    
    beds or armor-piercing missiles could rupture the casks in populated 
    areas, spreading deadly radiation over a wide area. (Denver Post, 22
    Apr)
    
    Area's preparedness improving. Businesses in the Washington, DC area are
    
    far more ready to deal with a terrorist attack or other emergency than 
    they were on 11 September. They've bolstered security, drafted 
    contingency plans and improved communication with government officials. 
    There remain big holes, however, some of which could take years to fill 
    in, according to a private-sector task force on emergency preparedness 
    that will present its findings on 25 April at the Potomac Conference, an
    
    annual meeting of the region's business and government elite. Even those
    
    companies that are more directly involved with responding to threats 
    concede they have work left to do, though they say the region's 
    infrastructure is much more secure now than it was seven months ago. 
    (Washington Post, 25 Apr)
    



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