South East Shipping News

Ports and terminals back to square one as Congress kills NPGP grant program

. House and Senate appropriators reject National Preparedness Grant Program proposal

By David Perera

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An Obama administration proposal to consolidate 16 state and local preparedness grant programs into one effort known as the National Preparedness Grant Program faces resistance from House and Senate appropriators. The House Appropriations Committee voted May 16 to reject the NPGP proposal, stating in a report (.pdf) accompanying its markup of the Homeland Security Department spending bill for the coming fiscal year that DHS first requires an implementing authorization law before it can move to consolidate grants. House lawmakers have been skeptical from the start of the NPGP proposal, while administration officials have argued that grant consolidation would result in better coordination of preparedness efforts. Local officials, too have criticized the consolidation proposal. The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security marked up May 15 its version of the fiscal 2013 DHS spending bill, also rejecting the consolidation proposal. In a statement, the Senate subcommittee said the president's February budget request failed to deliver "specific detail regarding how funds would be distributed" and also directed FEMA to attain an authorization statute. For more:

Save your money! Google to offer Global AIS tracking including military vessels

Deep Blue Sea to Give Up Its Secrets to Google

Posted by Robert K. Ackerman on 5/17/12 • Categorized as Event Coverage

 

The leading global search engine is turning its eye on two-thirds of the Earth’s surface and its underlying terrain, according to a leading official. Michael T. Jones, chief technology advocate for Google Ventures, told an audience at Joint Warfighting 2012 in Virginia Beach how two new endeavors will provide new information about the world’s oceans and their users.

Coming soon will be a Google Map function that tracks every ship in the world through their Automatic Identification System transponders. In a few weeks, two Google microsats will allow 1 billion users to follow ship passages around the world, including military vessels.

“I as a citizen can do this, but the entire Defense Department can’t do this,” Jones said of this low-cost situational awareness system.

Soon, the deepest parts of the ocean soon may be giving up their secrets. Google has built a small sonar buoy that is generating 5-centimeter imagery of the ocean floor in tests. As it passes over long-ignored parts of the world’s oceans, it will be imaging whatever lies on the bottom. This may include the wreckage of crashed reconnaissance satellites or disposed chemical warfare drums, for example.

This information would be available to anyone, and Google has opened a dialogue with the U.S. government about the sudden ubiquity of this kind of data. But that does not remove the threat of others taking the same approach. “If we were the Chinese government, we wouldn’t have that dialogue,” Jones points out. “If Google can do it, so can the Chinese, and they won’t have that dialogue.”

Tropical Storm Aletta first of the 2012 season - forms in the Pacific

Posted at 11:32 AM ET, 05/15/2012 TheWashingtonPost Aletta, eastern Pacific’s first tropical storm of 2012 forms; Atlantic activity to follow?By Greg Postel

Tropical storm Aletta (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies)

The Western Hemisphere’s first tropical storm of 2012, named Aletta, formed just yesterday from one of several well-organized thunderstorm clusters in the eastern Pacific. Aletta, a modest 40 mph storm, is not expected to intensify much more before it dissipates over the open ocean in the next couple of days.

Aletta’s development coincided perfectly with the official May 15 start of the hurricane season in the eastern Pacific. Is Aletta a harbinger of tropical development in the Atlantic?

The hurricane season in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico officially begins June 1. Given that we are now only half way through May, you might think it’s a bit early for weather forecasters to start anticipating tropical-cyclone formation in that part of the world. Well, think again.

During the last week or so, there has been more than a little expectation –presumably inspired by predictions from a few of the global weather models- that development will indeed occur in the Caribbean and/or Atlantic during the last third of the month. And though I find it tempting to completely ignore dire forecasts like these, some of the reasoning behind them does have merit.

For starters, the fact that the hurricane season hasn’t even begun doesn’t mean our shores are immune from tropical threats. There is, after all, nothing “magical” about the season’s start date. Though not common, it is not unprecedented to have a tropical storm or hurricane in spring. According to the Hurricane Research Division (HRD), 3% of the annual tropical activity occurs out of season.

The birth of Aletta in the eastern Pacific signals activity is picking up in tropical regions around the world. That’s after a record 41-day period (in at least 70 years) with no tropical storm formation anywhere globally according to the UK Met Office.

The agitated appearance of the cloud field in the eastern Pacific suggests there may be more development there in during the next few days.

Upper-level velocity potential (contoured) and high-level clouds, valid today. Yellow arrow shows expected movement of disturbed weather. (NOAA) In the bigger picture, this area of disturbed weather is associated with a region of slowly ascending air (outlined by the green contouring in the image to the right). By uncorking an otherwise capped atmosphere, this upward motion is encouraging the development of really big thunderstorms locally (shown by the clouds shaded in dark blue).

As long as this feature remains nearly stationary, widespread thunderstorm activity -and the chance for a tropical cyclone- will remain over the east Pacific. Yet during the next week or so, there are signs that this area of disturbed weather will propagate eastward over the Caribbean Sea (as shown by the yellow arrow above), where water temperatures (in the low 80s) remain warm enough to support tropical development.

With that said, it is not particularly surprising that some of the weather models have recently spun up tropical systems on the Atlantic side in their long range outlooks. And though it’s not hard to believe the atmosphere over the Caribbean will be stormier next week than it is now, it is nearly impossible to place confidence in the existence of any one of the tropical systems the global models have recently spit out. Even in peak season, under seemingly ideal circumstances, the development of a tropical cyclone is an uncommon event. It requires a special set of conditions unclearly seen by the global models as little as a day in advance, let alone a week.

A forecast of upper-level winds (blue arrow) and surface pressures (black contours) early next week from the GFS ensemble mean. White “L” marks an area of relatively low pressure. (NOAA) But in the unlikely event a relatively small, isolated area of low pressure does form, there will likely be a large and windy upper-level low nearby (blue arrow in the image to the right). The close proximity to high wind shear would surely deter significant tropical development.

A more likely scenario, as many of the models still seem to indicate, is that a broad, elongated area of low pressure may form in the Caribbean (marked by the white “L” in the image above). Its shape and proximity to relatively-high wind shear suggest that the development may not be strictly tropical. Rather, it may be largely driven by non-tropical processes tied to the upper low. This would mean that what some of the models are hinting at may be subtropical (or hybrid) development instead.

Whatever the case may be, whatever the models have in mind, it’s all expected to happen before the official start of the season. That means we have roughly 97% of the annual tropical activity still to look forward to.

Expect Tropical Storm before Memorial Day 2012 -southeastshippingnews.com reports

Early Storm in Atlantic/Caribbean a Possibility Early storm could jeopardize Haiti's new government Tropical storm forecast may kick-start the 2012 hurricane season The 2012 hurricane season might get an early start, with the possibility of a tropical depression or storm in the western Caribbean some time next week, according to a cutting-edge forecast Tuesday by federal scientists. Reporter: Kate Spinner, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

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The 2012 hurricane season might get an early start, with the possibility of a tropical depression or storm in the western Caribbean some time next week, according to a cutting-edge forecast Tuesday by federal scientists.

The Climate Prediction Center predicted moderate chances that a tropical depression or a storm will form in the Caribbean during the last week of May.

Even if no storm develops, the prediction signals that the Atlantic is becoming primed for tropical activity as June 1, the official start of the six-month hurricane season, nears.

"It's something to pay attention to. It might be a little earlier than normal," said Eric Blake, a specialist with the National Hurricane Center.

While the two-week tropical hazard forecasts by the Climate Prediction Center are not very accurate now, meteorologists there are working with the National Hurricane Center to improve them. Within a few years, the two agencies plan to start making a joint two-week forecast, with the hurricane center taking the lead on the first week and the climate center handling the second, said Blake, who gave a presentation about the project at the Governor's Hurricane Conference on Tuesday.

He said the hurricane center began working with the climate center on the two-week outlook shortly after the busy 2005 hurricane season.
"The challenge has really been eliminating the false alarms," Blake said.

The two-week outlook mostly relies on thunderstorm activity around the global tropics to predict where chances are increased for a tropical storm or depression to form. Clusters of thunderstorms occasionally move around the globe in a weather pattern called the Madden-Julian Oscillation or MJO. When the thunderstorms are over the Caribbean and Africa, the chances for tropical storms to develop in the Atlantic increase, Blake said.

But because weather is so variable, forecasts that extend beyond a week tend to have a large margin of error. The five-day forecast for tropical activity, however, is getting much better.

Blake said the hurricane center will experiment this year, in-house, with predicting the formation of tropical storms five days in advance. If the forecasts pan out, weather buffs, fishermen, shipping businesses, emergency planners and those in the oil and gas extraction industries could benefit from those forecasts beginning next year.

Latest on cyber attacks - even VeriSign certificates under assault

 

      

 

Information Technology Sector

29.

 

May 16, H Security – (International) Avira update fixes Service Pack bug. Avira said it resolved the problems caused by a Service Pack released for its Windows products earlier the week of May 14. Users are advised to trigger a manual update to download the fix. Once installed, the update should prevent the program from blocking legitimate Windows applications on systems running Avira. May 14, Avira released "Service Pack 0" for all of its Windows products. Once the update was installed, the "ProActiv" behavioral monitoring component in Avira Antivirus Premium 2012 and Avira Internet Security 2012 blocked the execution of essential programs and trusted system processes. Those affected by the problem need to update Avira manually; once the update is installed, the ProActiv module can be reactivated. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Avira-update-fixes-Service-Pack-bug-1576614.html 30. May 16, Computerworld – (International) Google releases Chrome 19, adds tab sync and patches 20 bugs. May 15, Google released Chrome 19, patching 20 vulnerabilities in the browser. Eight vulnerabilities were ranked "high," seven were marked "medium," and five were labeled "low." Seven of the vulnerabilities were described in Google’s brief advisory as "out-of-bounds" read or write flaws, a category of memory bugs where a function does not check that input does not exceed allocated buffers. Google paid bounties to six researchers for reporting nine vulnerabilities, including two not strictly within Chrome. The 11 remaining bugs were uncovered by Google’s own security team or were credited to Microsoft, or were not significant enough to rate a bounty. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227196/Google_releases_Chrome_19_adds_tab_sync_and_patches_20_bugs 31. May 16, H Security – (International) QuickTime for Windows update plugs security holes.

Version 7.7.2 of QuickTime for Windows was released to address 17 security vulnerabilities in the media player. According to Apple, these include integer, stack, and buffer overflows, as well as memory corruption issues, all of which could be could exploited by an attacker to crash the application or execute arbitrary code on a victim’s system. For an attack to be successful, a user must first open a malicious Web site or a specially crafted file. The company notes that, on Mac OS X, many of the holes were

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already fixed in Mac OS X 10.7.3 and 10.7.4 Lion, and Security Updates 2012-001 and 2012-002 for Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard systems. A majority of these vulnerabilities were discovered by members of TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/QuickTime-for-Windows-update-plugs-security-holes-1576777.html 32.

 

May 16, Softpedia – (International) High-ranked sites blacklisted by Google after being hijacked. Zscaler experts scanned the first 1 million Web sites found in Alexa’s top listings and found 621 of them are blacklisted by Google, even though some of them are legitimate Web sites visited by numerous users every day. How can a legitimate Web site get on the Google Safe Browsing list? For instance, subtitleseeker(dot)com, a Web site that offers subtitles for movies and TV shows, is ranked 6,239. The site is not malicious in any way, though Google still cataloged it as such once it detected abnormal activity on it. According to Zscaler, Subtitle Seeker was compromised and altered to host a malicious JavaScript. Other examples include sites that promote "work from home" scams, adult content, and fake antivirus software, but the majority of them were altered to push malicious PDF files, adware, and other types of malware. Some sites were blacklisted because they were found to contain iframes and JavaScripts with malicious intent. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/High-Ranked-Sites-Blacklisted-by-Google-After-Being-Hijacked-269879.shtml 33. May 15, The Register – (International) Scammers exploit wannabe demon-slayers hyped by Diablo III. Cybercriminals targeted the release of Diablo III, May 14, with scams themed around the widely anticipated video game. Blizzard’s games systems collapsed due to the higher than expected demand for the game, the London Guardian reported. The software company is attempting to stop pirates from stealing the new role-playing game by forcing users to log into its servers before they can start playing it. This created a bottleneck centered around log-in systems at Blizzard, which struggled to service demand. Technical glitches were an unexpected bonus for scammers, who launched scams featuring the promotion of bogus crack and key-gen sites. These fake sites might potentially be more attractive than they normally would be as gamers struggle to acquire legitimate content through regular channels. Some of the scam sites GFI Software identified included supposed online key purchasing sites that actually install malicious software. Other spam Diablo III-themed links collated by the security firm lead to unrelated flash games, spam linkdumps, and a "donation experiment" where installs of the software offered enter targets into a supposed prize draw giveaway. These various scams are being promoted through the Web at large and social media Web sites, including Facebook and Pinterest. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/15/diablo_3_scams/ 34. May 15, Help Net Security – (International) Pinterest scam toolkits widen the pool of potential scammers.

Pinterest scam toolkits are available for sale to inexperienced scammers, according to McAfee. Usually sold on underground forums, these toolkits contain many tools. All actions needed to scam users are included and automated: creating Pinterest invites and mass comments on posts, mass creation of bit.ly links, and scraping Amazon for products based on given keywords and then submitting them

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to Pinterest. Pinterest scams usually work by luring people in with offers of free gift cards, and the offered links land them either on sites hosting survey scams, on Amazon or other sites (which results in the scammers earning money by referral), or lead them to premium rate trojans (if the Pinterest visitor uses a mobile device to visit the site). Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=12931&utm 35.

 

May 15, IDG News Service – (International) Wikipedia warns users about malware injecting ads into its pages. Visitors to Wikipedia who see advertisements on the site have most likely fallen victim to a browser-based malware infection, Wikimedia Foundation, the organization operating the Web site, said May 14. "We never run ads on Wikipedia," said the director of community advocacy for the Wikimedia Foundation. "If you’re seeing advertisements for a for-profit industry ... or anything but our fundraiser, then your Web browser has likely been infected with malware." One example of such malware is a rogue Google Chrome extension called "I want this," the director said. However, similar malicious add-ons might also exist for Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and other browsers, he said. This type of malicious software is known as click fraud malware and can target multiple Web sites at once. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227179/Wikipedia_warns_users_about_malware_injecting_ads_into_its_pages 36. May 15, Threatpost – (International) Stolen certificates found in malware possibly targeting Tibetan groups. The recent trend of attackers using stolen digital certificates to make their malicious executables look legitimate is continuing unabated, with researchers now having come across a series of variants of the Etchfro trojan that are using certificates taken from several companies and issued by VeriSign, Thawte, and other certificate authorities. After looking at recent examples of malware signed with stolen certificates, researchers at Norman ASA, a security firm in Norway, noticed there was an aberrant string in one specific optional field included in the stolen certificates. It is unclear what, if any, purpose the string serves, but Norman researchers started searching the company’s malware database, looking for other samples with the same string. The search yielded more than 20 samples with the same atypical string, and each of them included a stolen digital certificate. All of the malware samples, except one, was some version of the Etchfro trojan. The other one is a version of the Gh0st RAT tool. Source: http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/stolen-certificates-found-malware-possibly-targeting-tibetan-groups-051512 For more stories, see items 23 and

37

Internet Alert Dashboard

To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US-CERT at

 

sos@us-cert.gov

or visit their Web site: http://www.us-cert.gov Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center) Web site: https://www.it-isac.org

Kiddie porn suspect who killed the new Pan Am Airlines, begins porn defense

Trial begins for Texas cargo airline founder

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

The Associated Press

Updated: 9:26 p.m. Monday, May 14, 2012

Published: 3:06 a.m. Monday, May 14, 2012

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A Texas businessman cruised the Internet looking for sexually explicit chats with teenage girls and collecting images depicting child pornography, federal prosecutors told a jury Monday as they outlined their case against Robert L. Hedrick.

But defense attorneys said Hedrick wasn't the person in those chats or sending and receiving the images, suggesting that the founder of Pan American Airways was framed and likely targeted by powerful enemies with the motivation and money to do so.

"Our evidence will develop why various people had reasons to set Mr. Hedrick up," defense attorney Ed Stapleton told jurors, adding that the conspiracy played out as part of a "high stakes game of money and power."

Hedrick is charged with five counts related to child pornography and sexual exploitation of children. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison on just one count of distributing child pornography.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Wirsing called Hedrick's attempts to get teenage girls to send nude photos of themselves "pervasive" and "unrelenting." She noted that many of the roughly 2,400 images found on three hard drives seized at Hendrick's home last summer depicted child pornography.

Prosecutors said police in Wisconsin and Louisiana posing as 13- and 14-year-old girls had sexually explicit online conversations and received graphic photos from someone registered at an Internet address traced to Hedrick's computer. Prosecutors also have video of a man masturbating that was sent to a police detective posing online as an underage girl and recorded phone conversations between the same female detective in Louisiana and a man they said is Hendrick.

Stapleton told jurors Monday that it was his client in the video, but said it was a video Hedrick made for his wife as part of his marriage counseling and not something he would ever send to anyone. He also acknowledged that jurors would hear Hedrick's voice on recorded calls, but noted that once a voice is digitally captured, it can be manipulated to say anything.

Also hanging over the trial: pornographic images that both sides concede will shock jurors and transcripts from online conversations that start barely innocent but within minutes turn explicitly sexual.

One of those transcripts shows that police detective Christopher Cybell in Menomenee Falls, Wis., was signed into a chat room in March 2010 with the screename "tinare2721" when, shortly after 9 p.m., he received an instant message. The message was from an account he said was traced to the 61-year-old Hedrick. The person sending the message identified himself as a 47-year-old man and asked if "tinare2721" wanted to chat.

Cybell quickly responded, identifying himself as a 13-year-old girl.

Within seconds the response came: "I have a daughter 18 I like chatting with teen girls. Do you have a pic of u?" Within 30 minutes, the conversation became explicitly sexual.

Other chats occurred throughout 2010, which is when Hedrick launched Pan American Airways based at the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport.

Stapleton told jurors that Hedrick had a 60 percent ownership stake in the airline. He argued that enemies who could be conspiring against him include other shareholders interested in wresting away control of the business or competitors angry at Hedrick for trying to keep them out of the market. He admitted he wouldn't be able to prove who framed his client.

Hedrick has been held without bond since his arrest in July.

Trade's Harmonized System updated today to accomodate Columbia free trade

CSMS# 12-000167 - Harmonized System Update 1205 - Changes to the 2012 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the US

05/16/2012 11:09 AM EDT

Sun Sentinel

Automated Broker Interface

Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1205 was created on May 15, 2012 and contains 104,645 ABI records and 20,681 harmonized tariff records.

Modifications were made as a result of the US-Columbia Trade Promotion Agreement, effective May 15, 2012. The full report can be found on the USITC’s website, by using the following link:

http://www.usitc.gov/publications/tariff_affairs/pub4320.pdf

Word and excel files most vulnerable - other cyber threats

 

    

 

Information Technology Sector

40.

 

May 15, Wired – (International) Popular surveillance cameras open to hackers, researcher says. Three of the most popular brands of closed-circuit surveillance cameras are sold with remote Internet access enabled by default, and with weak password security — a classic recipe for security failure that could allow hackers to remotely tap into the video feeds, according to new research. The cameras, used by banks, retailers, hotels, hospitals, and corporations, are often configured insecurely — thanks to these manufacturer default settings, said a senior security engineer at Gotham Digital Science. As a result, he says, attackers can seize control of systems to view live footage, archived footage, or control the direction and zoom of adjustable cameras. The researcher and his team were able to view footage as part of penetration tests they conducted for clients to uncover security vulnerabilities. Source: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/cctv-hack/ 41. May 15, The Register – (International) Apple scrubs old Leopards of Flashback trojan infections.

Apple released patches that defend users of its older Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system against security threats. The May 14 security fixes help defend Mac users on the 2-year-old operating system against assaults by the Flashback trojan. Users of the newer Snow Leopard (10.6) and Lion (10.7) operating systems

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received equivalent fixes in April. Apple’s Leopard Flashback Removal Security Update is designed to clean Macs running the legacy OS that are not yet running an anti-virus package. In addition, the security update disables Safari’s Java plugin by default. Leopard Security Update 2012-003 disables older versions of Adobe Flash Player, encouraging users to get the latest version directly from Adobe’s Web site. Both updates can be applied via the Software Update feature built into Mac OS X, but will only work if the latest version of that particular track of the operating system, Mac OS X Leopard version 10.5.8, has already been applied. Apple is acting to prevent users of legacy versions of its operating system from harboring the Flashback trojan. Such support is unlikely to continue indefinitely and is likely to disappear entirely once Apple updates Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/15/mac_leopard_security_update/ 42.

 

May 15, Softpedia – (International) ‘How to Earn Money’ apps hide fraud trojan. Cybercriminals are starting to focus their attention on scams that advertise methods and products that rely on applications. Experts from Bitdefender discovered a piece of software called "How to Earn Money," which can allegedly help users make cash without a hassle. In reality, the shady app hides malware, identified by Bitdefender as Trojan.Fraud.A. Once installed, the program places itself in the Program Files folder, it creates shortcuts, and starts pushing HTML pages that advertise a tool that can help users earn tens of thousands of dollars in just over a month. To gain possession of the tool, users must pay a fee of $37 or $47. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Earn-Money-Apps-Hide-Fraud-Trojan-269618.shtml 43. May 15, H Security – (International) Fraunhofer Institute finds security vulnerabilites in cloud storage services. The Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology tested seven cloud storage service providers and published its results in a report. The authors of the report found vulnerabilities affecting registration and login, encryption, and shared access to data for several services. The study looked at CloudMe, CrashPlan, Dropbox, Mozy, TeamDrive, Ubuntu One, and Wuala. The functions examined by Fraunhofer were copying, backup, synchronization, and sharing. Only TeamDrive and Wuala offer all four of these features. CrashPlan and Mozy only offer a backup service — a service not offered by CloudMe, Dropbox, or Ubuntu One. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Fraunhofer-Institute-finds-security-vulnerabilites-in-cloud-storage-services-1575935.html 44. May 15, H Security – (International) Avira AV update hangs systems.

A faulty update for Avira’s paid-for anti-virus software blocks harmless processes and may, in some cases, stop computers from booting. The update results in the ProActiv behavioral monitoring component becoming oversensitive in treatment of executable files. According to user reports, ProActiv blocks trusted system processes such as cmd.exe, rundll32.exe, taskeng.exe, wuauclt.exe, dllhost.exe, iexplore.exe, notepad.exe, and regedit.exe. In some cases, this results in Windows failing to boot properly. It also appears to be blocking non-OS applications such as Microsoft Office, the Opera Web browser, and Google’s Updater. All versions that include the ProActiv monitoring component are affected, including Avira Antivirus Premium 2012 and the enterprise

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version; only 32-bit systems are affected, as ProActiv does not currently support 64-bit operating system. Users who installed the update are advised to disable ProActiv. In a statement to the H’s associates at heise Security, Avira confirmed the problem and said developers are working on an automatic update to resolve the bug. The potential scale of the bug is huge — according to Avira, the faulty update was already downloaded more than 70 million times (this figure includes those running the free version of Avira which is not affected). The company stopped distributing the update. Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Avira-AV-update-hangs-systems-1575974.html 45.

 

May 14, SecurityWeek – (International) Trend Micro reveals top document attack vectors from April.

Trend Micro researchers recently revealed just how prevalent the use of certain document types is among attackers. By far, the two most popular document formats for hackers targeting Microsoft Office software are Word and Excel files, which were used in a combined 90 percent of attacks on Microsoft Office in April. The biggest reason for this is that the two most reliable exploits used by hackers targeted CVE-2010-3333 and CVE-2012-0158, which are both Word vulnerabilities. Source: http://www.securityweek.com/trend-micro-reveals-top-document-attack-vectors-april For more stories, see

Believe the AP or not: Miners finding gold and copper in mountains of Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Haitian government is drafting legislation for the newly emerging mining industry to help this impoverished Caribbean nation reap benefits, the new prime minister said Tuesday.

Laurent Lamothe, who saw his Cabinet and policy plan approved hours earlier, told The Associated Press during an interview that the legislation will be sent to Parliament soon. It will lay out rules apportioning royalties for the government and setting protections for the people and environment that could be affected by mines.

“The most important thing is to have the correct mining law,” he said. “It ensures that the right portion comes to the state. It ensures that the people living in the region where the mines are, that their rights are protected. It ensures environmental protection.”

The plans to draft the mining legislation come after the AP reported that two mining companies have begun drilling in Haiti’s northeastern mountains. The companies say testing indicates the precious metals such as gold, copper and silver is worth potentially $20 billion.

That would be a boon for Haiti, which is one of the world’s poorest countries. Most of its 10 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Until the story, few Haitians knew about the recent efforts to mine their country. Mining camps are unmarked, and the work is being done in remote villages on the opposite side of the country from the capital, Port-au-Prince.

U.S. and Canadian investors have spent more than $30 million in recent years on exploratory drilling along with camps for workers, new roads, offices and laboratory studies of samples.

Haiti’s mining potential has been known for several decades. In the 1970s, United Nations geologists documented significant pockets of gold and copper ore, but foreigners weren’t willing to take a risk in a country where corruption and political instability have long discouraged foreign investment.

Mining laws in Haiti haven’t been revised since 1976.

Lamothe said the legislation being drafted is meant to benefit Haiti while also making the country attractive to outside investors by allowing companies to profit from mining.

When asked how much he would like Haiti to receive, Lamothe said: “As much as possible without hampering also the revenue of the party, allowing them to do business.”

The interview came after Lamothe introduced the ministers of his Cabinet, which was approved by Parliament on Monday. The government includes two new posts, a minister to deal with poverty and another to support farmers.

In addition to the mining legislation, Lamothe said his government wants to introduce programs that will clean Port-au-Prince’s garbage-strewn streets by using firefighters and other workers, better maintain roads and help mothers living in the capital’s poorer neighborhoods.

Lamothe, a former telecommunications executive, officially became prime minister Monday night following the approval of his Cabinet and government plan. There had been a nearly three-month vacancy after President Michel Martelly’s first prime minister resigned after only four months on the job.

The absence of a prime minister and fully functioning government has hobbled efforts to rebuild after the 2010 earthquake.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FEMA offers corporate preparedness seminar

PS-Prep™ Program: AT&T’s Certification Experience Webinar

 

When: Thursday, May 31, 2012 / 1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT

Register for the Webinar 

What: On May 31, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security will host a 90-minute interactive Webinar about the Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep™); focusing on AT&T’s experience as the first private sector company to certify to a DHS-adopted preparedness standard. The presentation will include an update on the PS-Prep Program and AT&T’s firsthand knowledge about preparing for certification to a standard; how certification was achieved; and the value of certifying to a PS-Prep adopted standard.

The PS-Prep™ program is a voluntary program designed to enhance preparedness and give private sector entities the ability to safeguard their organizations against all-hazards. The program includes standards that will equip decision makers with key processes to improve their organizations abilities to maintain operations before and after an emergency or disaster.

Presenters:

Stephen J. Waken, Assistant Vice President, Business Continuity Planning, AT&T

Marcus Pollock, Standards and Technology Branch, National Integration Center, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security

Jim Caverly, Office of Infrastructure Protection, National Protection & Programs Directorate, Department of Homeland Security

# # #

 

This message is sent from the FEMA Private Sector Division. Visit fema.gov/private sector or e-mail fema-private-sector@dhs.gov 

Lead by Example:

Sign Up for the “Pledge to Be Prepared National Preparedness Coalition”

 

Stay Connected and Stay Informed:

Follow FEMA on Facebook  | Follow FEMA on Twitter | Download FEMA’s App | Download FEMA’s Mobile Website 

 

JetBlue hub in Puerto Rico links Palm Beach and a half dozen Caribbean capitals

.By Emily Roach Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

 

Updated: 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 15, 2012

 JetBlue launched its first direct flight to Puerto Rico from Palm Beach International Airport this morning with speeches and water cannons.

 With the airline opening a terminal in the Caribbean hub, it means a bigger gateway to the islands for Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast travelers, tourism and airline officials said.

 "It opens the whole region to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast," said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and a San Juan native.

JetBlue is one of the few airlines expanding flights at PBIA, Airport Director Bruce Pelly said.

 Once in San Juan, travelers can take another JetBlue flight to St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Martin or Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and more destinations are planned with the terminal expansion, JetBlue Vice President Dennis Corrigan said. More than a quarter of the airline's capacity is devoted to Latin America and the Caribbean, he said.

 And the Palm Beach County airport is an important location for the airline with more than 20 flights a day, Corrigan said.

 Shortly before 9 a.m., Flight 328 departed to San Juan. The daily flight will bring an estimated $7 million economic impact each year with 15,000 guests arriving from Puerto Rico, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau. The airline announced fares as low as $93 each way for sale through May 25 at www.jetblue.com/new. Fares are for flights between May 29 and June 21.

 The new service uses a 150-passenger Airbus A320 departing PBIA at 8:50 a.m. (arrival 12:20 p.m.) and departing San Juan at 12:10 p.m. with PBIA arrival at 2:54 p.m.

 Most of the passengers didn't realize they would board the inaugural flight until they arrived at the airport.

 Luz and Julio Moran of Loxahatchee travel to Puerto Rico two or three times of year to visit Julio Moran's family.

 "We used to travel through Fort Lauderdale," he said. "But now that we've got it here, why go through there?"

 Elizabeth Montilla of Port St. Lucie agreed. She used either Fort Lauderdale or Orlando airports to travel to Puerto Rico for family business every two or three months.

 "It makes it easier for me," she said of the PBIA direct flight.

 emily_roach@pbpost.com