NIPC Daily Report 9 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.
NRC opens centralized nuclear security office. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials created an office to centralize NRC security planning for the nation's 103 nuclear power plants. The NRC has issued orders requiring nuclear power plant operators to improve security, acting after FBI warnings that the al Qaeda terrorist organization has targeted nuclear facilities for possible attack. The director of the office will oversee security and emergency planning efforts and serve as the NRC's primary link to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. (Washington Post, 6 Apr) Surveillance cameras set to keep watch in airliners. Last week, JetBlue became the first airline to install tiny cameras in a passenger cabin. The other airlines are expected to follow in short order. The hidden cameras will allow pilots to watch passengers on two cockpit screens. Putting cameras on board aircraft was a recommendation of a committee of airline industry executives and government officials after the terrorist attack on 11 September. (New York Times, 6 Apr) WWU Comment: Security cameras certainly won't degrade airline safety, though pilots may have limited time to monitor passenger activities. The use of these cameras to monitor aircraft while being serviced is another potential use. Effective monitoring requires a skilled and vigilant staff and aircraft service personnel that pose no insider risk or threat. FMCSA plans safety audits for new entrants. New US trucking companies will face tougher certification procedures under new regulations planned by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The agency for the first time will require new US trucking firms, including some owner-operators, to undergo safety audits within 18 months of starting operations. Currently, would-be US carriers must fill out applications for authority to operate, and could be subject to FMCSA compliance reviews. (Transport Topics, 8 Apr) Crews clean up Louisiana oil spill. Environmental clean up crews worked to contain an 84,000-gallon oil spill that threatened a section of the Louisiana coast south of New Orleans. The black oil washed into marshland along a shallow body of water known as Little Lake, but was being held in place by 24,000 feet of containment booms. The oil spilled from a ruptured British Petroleum pipeline and the cause of the break remains unknown. The flow of oil into the line was halted when BP workers, monitoring the facility, noticed a drop in pressure. (Reuters, 7 Apr) Nigerian villagers free American. Villagers freed 10 oil workers who were held hostage two days after being captured while servicing an offshore drilling rig. The kidnappers demanded employment, oil contracts and other help from Shell Oil in return for the workers' safe release. Activists and criminals frequently attack oil installations and kidnap employees, saying they act in protest of the region's desperate poverty and of environmental damage caused by drilling. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter. Nigeria's Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government has full claim to the country's vast offshore oil and gas reserves. (Associated Press, 5 Apr) WWU Comment: This article illustrates the event's potential effect on the Oil and Gas Supply and Distribution infrastructure. A majority of US petroleum comes from foreign sources and political or economic instability in supplier countries could impact our production capability. Electronic 'tongue' to taste pollution. Researchers at Cardiff University, UK , attempting to develop a pollution detection device that may be mass-produced at low cost, have managed to miniaturize conventional detection technology to devise an electronic "tongue" capable of "tasting" pollution in rivers. The tongue uses a technique for separating mixtures known as chromatography, a process generally accomplished using detectors that require a large surface area. (BBC, 6 Apr) WWU Comment: The application for this technology could range from water quality monitoring to first response sensors to detect potential chemical, biological, or radiological contamination. Theft of data, viruses rank high in cyber security. Government agencies and US companies report losing more money from theft of proprietary information than any other type of attack on their computer system. Viruses remain the most common type of cyber attack. (Reuters, 7 Apr) Microsoft issues two patches. "Unchecked Buffer in the Multiple UNC Provider Could Enable Code Execution" affects Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP, and could allow local privilege elevation or run code of the attacker's choice. "Opening Group Policy Files for Exclusive Read Blocks Policy Application" affects Windows 2000 domain controllers and could allow an attacker to block the application of Group Policy, enabling system administrators to regulate user settings throughout the network. Microsoft recommends applying the patches to domain controllers. (Security Wire Digest, 8 Apr) ISS ranks Net vulnerabilities. According to Internet Security Systems, Inc., advanced worms or hybrid and blended threats like Nimda and Code Red continue to pose the greatest online risk. The company rates multiple vulnerabilities uncovered in the SNMP v.1 Simple Network Management Protocol as "the largest multi-vendor security flaw ever discovered to date." (ComputerWire, 8 Apr) IWS INFOCON Mailing List @ IWS - The Information Warfare Site http://www.iwar.org.uk
