National Infrastructure Protection Center
NIPC Daily Open Source Report for 4 December 2002
Daily Overview
. The Washington Post reports the nature of identity theft has
changed and today is more likely to come from insiders going after a
massive amount of information rather than a thief stealing an
individual's wallet. (See item 2)
. NEPA News reports that Carnegie Mellon University and the
University of Pittsburgh are freely providing software to health
organizations to assist in the early warning of a bioterrorist attack.
(See item 16)
. The Land Livestock Post reports that Texas AM University has
published an internet website to assist meat and poultry processors
quickly find information on food safety. (See item 7)
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General
NIPC Information
Power Sector
1. December 3, Platts Global Energy - Outage cuts UK-France flows
by 500MW until Dec 10. A problem with a transformer is likely to cut
capacity transfer on the UK-France power link by 500MW in both
directions until Dec 10 at the earliest, a spokesman for UK transmission
system operator National Grid said Tuesday. The problem with the
transformer at Sellindge converter station in Kent, on the UK side of
the link, occurred in the early hours of Monday morning, he said. The
best guess of link operators National Grid and French transmission
system operator RTE was that it will return to its full capacity
transfer level of 2,000MW on or around Dec 10, he said. The grid
operators were investigating the problem with the transformer, he said.
Source: www.platts.com/stories/electricpower3.html
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, Severe [Source: ISAC for the
Electricity Sector (ES-ISAC) - http://esisac.com]
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Banking and Finance Sector
2. December 3, Washington Post - Identity theft more often an
inside job. The nature of identity theft has changed and the threat
today is more likely than ever to come from insiders - employees with
access to large financial databases who can loot personal accounts -
than from a thief stealing a wallet or pilfering your mail. Banks,
companies that take credit cards and credit-rating bureaus themselves
don't do enough to protect consumers, critics say. Law enforcement
experts now estimate that half of all such cases come from thefts of
business databanks as more and more information is stored in computers
that aren't properly safeguarded. There is a shift by identity thieves
from going after single individuals to going after a mass amount of
information, said Joanna Crane, identity-fraud program manager at the
Federal Trade Commission. There's an awful lot of bribery of insiders
going on. Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1026-2002Dec2.html
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Transportation Sector
3. December 3, U.S. Customs Service - Customs announces CSI
deployment at Le Havre. U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner
announced Tuesday the deployment of four U.S. Customs officers to the
French port of Le Havre, marking the latest step in the agency's
Container Security Initiative (CSI). CSI is designed to prevent
terrorists from infiltrating the world's sea cargo environment by
improving security at key seaports worldwide. To date, nine countries
have agreed to participate with U.S. Customs under CSI. These
agreements cover 15 ports, all among the top 20 ports that handle
shipments bound for the United States. Source:
http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/hot-new/pressrel/2002/1203-00.htm
4. December 1, Dallas Morning News - International shipping
vehicles vulnerable to terrorist attacks. With al-Qaeda stepping up its
sporadic attacks on western targets, there is a consensus among
terrorism experts that international shipping is increasingly vulnerable
to extreme tactics. The risk extends beyond the big, obvious targets to
the thousands of ferryboats that move cars, cargo and commuters from
port to port, often with minimal security, in the United States and
Europe. Steven Flynn, a former U.S. Coast Guard commander who is now a
senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, contends that one
serious incident involving containers brought into the United States by
ship would prompt the public to demand the entire system be shut down,
crippling global commerce. The impact of a shipping shutdown would be
disastrous for the U.S. economy, Flynn said. While U.S.
counter-terrorism officials grapple with this potential hazard, their
European counterparts have imposed high security alerts in recent months
because of intelligence indicating that terrorists plan to target one of
