CRIME NIPC Daily Report for 14 May 2002

From: George Heuston (GeorgeH@private)
Date: Tue May 14 2002 - 08:30:18 PDT

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    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.
    
    Two Virginia Universities to join forces against cybercrime. George 
    Mason University's National Center for Technology and Law and 
    researchers and academicians at James Madison University formed the 
    Critical Infrastructure Protection Project, to be housed at the George 
    Mason School of Law in Arlington. The project is a collaborative effort 
    between the two schools costing $6.5 million. The project was formed to 
    help sort out the myriad legal, technical and policy challenges involved 
    in steeling the nation's most vital computer systems against 
    cyber-attack. The project will be lead by John A. McCarthy, a former 
    member of a Clinton administration team that facilitated government and 
    private-sector collaboration in preparing key computer systems for the 
    Y2K conversion. "The information-sharing plan has been on the table for 
    six years and we still haven't come up with a workable solutions because 
    of legal obstacles," McCarthy said. "We hope that by putting our 
    third-party hat on we'll be able to bring together the right 
    constituencies to broker lasting and useful solutions to long-term 
    problems. (Washington Post, 14 May)
    
    Islamic cyberterror - not a matter of if, but when. Bush administration 
    Officials worry Islamic hackers will sooner or later graduate from 
    pranks and vandalism to cyber-terrorism. Computer terrorists, experts 
    say, could cause widespread disruption, or even loss of life, by 
    interfering with essential services like telephone networks and power 
    grids. Some US officials think a serious cyber-attack by Islamic 
    militants is inevitable. "It's not a question of if," said an 
    intelligence source. "It's a question of when." (Newsweek, 20 May)
    
    DOT's Inspector General cites CDL fraud problem. Federal and State 
    officials are not doing enough "to defend against the alarming threat 
    posed by individuals who seek to fraudulently obtain" commercial driver 
    licenses, said a new report by the Department of Transportation's 
    inspector general. The Office of the Inspector General made the remarks 
    on 10 May, in an audit report on the Federal Motor Carrier 
    Administration's oversight of state CDL testing and licensing. The 
    report said CDL fraud is a significant problem and cited recent 
    licensing scandals in 16 states. The report recommends FMCSA strengthen 
    its oversight of state CDL testing programs and promptly correct the 
    problems it finds in those programs. (Transport Topics, 10 May)
    
    Treaty to slash nuclear arsenal. On 14 May, President Bush announced 
    that Russia and the USA have reached an agreement to each cut their 
    stockpiles of nuclear warheads from 6,000 to 1,700-2,200. GAZETA says 
    Russia has finally agreed to the US insistence of US stockpiling the 
    warheads it takes out of service, rather than actually destroying them. 
    (Caversham BBC, 14 May)
    
    US weighs July 4th threat. Islamic terrorists are planning an attack 
    against a nuclear power plant located in the US to coincide with the 
    July 4 celebrations, US intelligence sources say. US officials are 
    taking the threat seriously, though they say it is not necessarily 
    wholly reliable. The claims of a plot were obtained by US intelligence 
    agencies last week. It coincides with other recent reports indicating 
    that two al-Qaeda terrorists are planning an attack inside the US using 
    radioactive material in a conventional bomb. The nuclear plant threat 
    obtained last week indicated that an unidentified Islamic terrorist 
    group is planning to attack the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear facility 
    in Pennsylvania, or another nuclear facility in the State or elsewhere 
    in the Northeast. The intelligence on the nuclear plant targeting 
    followed earlier intelligence obtained from Abu Zubaydah, 31, who was 
    wounded in a shootout with Pakistani police on March 28. He is 
    considered a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden and the organizer of 
    terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan. The captured al-Qaeda 
    operations chief revealed that two of his terrorists were operating in a 
    secret cell within the US and were planning an attack. Zubaydah 
    disclosed that an American and an African national were planning to 
    construct a radiological bomb -- a conventional bomb fortified with 
    radioactive material to increase its lethality -- for the attack. 
    (Washington Times, 13 May)
    
    US crude oil prices lower as Mideast tension eases. On 13 May, Energy 
    analysts said prices were low because Israel decided not to pursue a 
    raid into the Gaza Strip in retaliation for recent suicide bombing 
    attacks. The 30-day Iraq oil export embargo was also taken into account. 
    The International Energy Agency (IEA), said producers had weathered the 
    steepest drop in demand in the industrialized world in 12 years during 
    the first quarter of the year, but demand was expected to recover 
    strongly. IEA said production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting 
    Countries (OPEC) in April was at its lowest since 1993 because of Iraq's 
    8 April to 8 May export halt. However, the IEA said that production from 
    the 10 other OPEC cartel members only dropped 20,000 barrels per day. 
    OPEC, which has cut output 20 percent since the start of 2001, has 
    virtually ruled out an increase in production when member oil ministers 
    meet in Vienna in June 2002 to decide policy issues. (Reuters, 13 May)
    
    km
    



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