Stolen Medical Records? Hacker’s Demand $10 Million
May 6, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The FBI is investigating a $10 million ransom demand by a hacker or hackers who say they have stolen nearly 8.3 million patient records from a Virginia government Web site that tracks prescription drug abuse, an FBI official confirmed Wednesday.
The state police in Virginia are also investigating the possible breach of confidential records.
The FBI official said the Virginia Information Technologies Agency VITA referred the case to the FBI last week, asking for help.
Asked whether people’s personal information is secure, the official said he couldn’t say.
“I really can’t make a declarative statement as to whether anyone’s information is in jeopardy at this point,” the official said.
Asked whether people have been notified that their information may have been breached, the official said it would be up to VITA to do that.
Swine Flu News Updates
April 24, 2009 by national
Filed under Stories of Interest
Swine flu news updates will be posted here continually. Our original post on the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the US can be read here. Swine Flu – Outbreak in Mexico, U.S. Tied To New Unique Strain
Updates & Additional Swine Flu News Story Links
Friday May 1st, 2009
Thursday April 30th 2009
Wednesday April 29th 2009
Tuesday April 28th 2009
Monday April 27th 2009
- The WHO has raised the pandemic alert level to 4, the highest since the scale was developed in 2005.
Sunday April 26th 2009
Saturday April 25th 2009
Friday April 24th 2009
US medical authorities expressed strong concern Friday about an unprecedented multi-strain swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and infected seven people in the United States.
“It’s very obvious that we are very concerned. We’ve stood up emergency operation centers,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesman Dave Daigle told AFP.
One major source of concern was that the virus included strains from different types of flu.
“This is the first time that we’ve seen an avian strain, two swine strains and a human strain,” said Daigle, adding that the virus had influenza strains from European and Asian swine, but not from North American swine.
In 11 of 12 reported human cases of swine influenza (H1N1) virus infection in the United States from December 2005 to February 2009, the CDC has documented direct or indirect contact with swine.
But the seven known cases of the previously undetected strain in the United States — five from California and two from Texas — did not have contact with pigs. The seven people infected have all recovered from the flu.
“We have determined that this virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human,” the CDC said on its website. “However, at this time, we have not determined how easily the virus spreads between people.”
Local and state health officials were interviewing not just the people who were infected but the people with whom they had contact, Daigle noted.
CDC says too late to contain U.S. flu outbreak
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in the United States.
CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing it was likely too late to try to contain the outbreak, by vaccinating, treating or isolating people.
“There are things that we see that suggest that containment is not very likely,” he said.
He said the U.S. cases and Mexican cases are likely the same virus. “So far the genetic elements that we have looked at are the same.” But Besser said it was unclear why the virus was causing so many deaths in deaths in Mexico and such mild disease in the United States.
3rd Possible Swine Flu Outbreak In Mexico
Mexico has reported a third possible outbreak of swine flu in Mexicali, near the U.S. border, with four suspect cases and no deaths to date, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
Source
WHO calls emergency meeting on swine flu
The World Health Organization said on Friday that it was convening an emergency committee to advise whether outbreaks of swine flu in the United States and Mexico constituted an international public health threat.
“WHO will convene, sometime in the very near future, an emergency committee under the International Health Regulations, which will consider whether or not this event constitutes a public health event of international concern,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters in Geneva.
Somali Pirates Seize Italian-flagged Tugboat, 16 crew
April 11, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Pirates captured an Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew including 10 Italians on Saturday, in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden.
The tugboat, with enough fuel and food on board to last a month, was believed to be heading toward the Somali coast, the head of the Italian company that owns the boat told Reuters.
“I’ve entered into contact with the families (of the crew),” Claudio Bartolotti, head of Ravenna-based Micoperi Srl, said, adding there were also five Romanians and one Croatian on board.
Bartolotti denied reports the 75-metre-long tugboat was U.S.-owned, saying his company had recently purchased it.
NATO alliance officials on a warship in the region had previously described the boat as U.S.-owned, Italian-flagged.
Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said the tugboat’s crew were believed to be unharmed.
He said the tugboat was towing two barges at the time of capture but there were no details about their cargo.
“This incident shows the pirates are becoming more daring and violent,” Mwangura told Reuters by phone.
via Reuters AlertNet – Pirates seize Italian-flagged tugboat, 16 crew.
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Report: Chinese Develop Special “Kill Weapon” to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers
March 31, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.
After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a “kill weapon” developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.
The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.
The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.
Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.
Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.
ASBM is said to be a modified DF-21
The ASBM is said to be a modified DF-21
While the ASBM has been a topic of discussion within national defense circles for quite some time, the fact that information is now coming from Chinese sources indicates that the weapon system is operational. The Chinese rarely mention weapons projects unless they are well beyond the test stages.
If operational as is believed, the system marks the first time a ballistic missile has been successfully developed to attack vessels at sea. Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack.
Terror Threat In London Severe – Highest Level Since 9/11
December 30, 2008 by national
Filed under World Report
Security chiefs in London are extremely concerned that Israel’s actions in Palestine will provoke a furious response by Islamic extremists based in the UK, with 4,000 active terrorists identified by a former head of the Met.
With the death toll in Gaza reaching 340 London has been put on a “high state of alert” following the violent clashes outside of the Israeli Embassy in Kensington and the worrying statistic that 4,000 terrorism suspects are active in the UK.
Lord Stevens the head of the Met disclosed the figure that up to 4,000 terrorism suspects are active in the UK, and stated that police and MI5 were “still too under funded and undermanned to cope with the task they face in the decades to come. And that’s how long this will last.”
Security chiefs in London are concerned that the escalation of violence in Gaza with the prospects of a ground offensive by the IDF could provoke a violent response by Arab and Muslim Londoners with minority elements influenced by Al-Qaeda plotting reprisal attacks in London.
MI5 have outlined the possible security threats posed by Al Qaeda:
Explosive devices
These can be delivered to their targets in vehicles, by post or by a person. Currently an explosive device within a vehicle is the most prevalent means of attack. Unlike the Provisional IRA, who also used this method, Al Qaida networks often seek to ensure that their target is hit by employing a suicide operative within the vehicle to detonate the device at the required moment.
Suicide bombers are also deployed to carry an explosive device into the vicinity of a target individual or location. On some occasions the terrorists decide, as they did in the Madrid commuter train attacks in March 2004, to detonate their devices remotely, so that they can go on to perpetrate further attacks.”
Shootings
Al Qaida have orchestrated a campaign of shootings and close quarter attacks targeted against Westerners in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Most recently, on 6 December 2004, gunmen mounted an assault on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah, in which five of the consulate staff and four of the attackers were killed. Al Qaida claimed responsibility for this attack. In Europe, an extremist shot dead the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in November 2004.
Kidnappings
There has been an increase in the number of kidnappings taking place, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. The kidnapping of UK citizen Kenneth Bigley in Iraq in September 2004 resulted in his murder.
Surface to air missiles
An unsuccessful missile attack was attempted on an Israeli charter plane departing from Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002. Similar attacks have been carried out in recent months against coalition aircraft in Iraq.
Chemical, biological and radiological CBR devices
To date, no such attacks have taken place in the UK. Alternative methods of attack, such as explosive devices, are more reliable, safer and easier for terrorists to acquire or use. Nevertheless, it is possible that Al Qaida and some other associated networks may seek to use chemical, biological or radiological material against the West. Usama bin Laden has referred to such devices on several occasions. In November 2001, he said that “if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as a deterrent”.
In a June 2002 article, Al Qaida spokesman Sulaiman Abu Gaith also said “it is our right to fight [the Americans] with chemical and biological weapons”.
In April 2005, Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian with known links to Al Qaida, was convicted of plotting to manufacture and spread poisons, including ricin, in the UK.
via Read More Thelondondailynews.com.
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Al-Qaeda Increases Efforts To Obtain Dirty Bomb
November 24, 2008 by national
Filed under World Report
MI6 has issued a global priority warning to all security services that Islamic terrorists are now closer to obtaining material to create a “dirty bomb” to launch against Western targets.
Osama bin Laden has long made this a priority and reinforced it with regular messages from his mountain redoubt in the north-west province of Pakistan. He has repeatedly said every “true Muslim must make it his duty to assist in all ways possible to find the next powerful weapon to destroy our enemies”.
After the election of the new Pakistani president, the controversial Asif Ali Zardari, who has served a nine-year jail term on corruption charges he has strongly denied, MI6 fear there will be little ability to provide strong leadership against the new wave of Islamic extremism that al-Qaeda has launched across the country.
Groups such as the newly formed Pakistan Taliban have proclaimed it is focussing on creating a “dirty bomb”.
MI6 agents based in Islamabad fear the mounting instability in Pakistan will make it easier for them to do so.
While Pakistan is the only Muslim country with a nuclear arsenal, it has in the past provided its expertise to Iran.
Pakistan’s Islam bomb was developed in the 1990s by the rogue scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. He sold them to pariah states like North Korea and Libya. He was placed under house arrest by Pervez Musharraf.
But since Musharraf was forced to resign, restrictions on Khan’s detention have been virtually lifted–a decision that has alarmed Western diplomats in Pakistan.
While Musharraf readily agreed for the US to place stringent security around Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, there are serious concern that President Zardari will not be able to resist the rampant pressure al-Qaeda is mounting from its terrorist infrastructure base in Waziristan province in the north-west of the country.
A senior U.S. security official in Islamabad said: “Our concern is the sudden rise in intelligence which strongly indicates that al-Qaeda has renewed plans to gain access to nuclear material that could form a primitive nuclear device, one perhaps that a suicide truck bomber could use”.
In a “dirty bomb”, conventional explosives are surrounded with radioactive material.
The MI6 priority alert says such a device, while having a limited effect as a nuclear weapon, would create widespread panic.
An indication of how the threat has increased has been the number of terrorist-related websites which contain details of how to create a “dirty bomb”. As soon as the sites are discovered, they are e
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Active Islamist Extremists In UK May Number In The Thousands
November 10, 2008 by national
Filed under World Report
More Islamist extremists are active in the UK than previously thought, a secret intelligence report seen by the Sunday Telegraph has suggested.
There are “some thousands” of militants in Britain, with extremist cells concentrated in London, Birmingham and Luton, the quoted report says.
The document also states the UK will remain “a high-priority target” for al-Qaeda for the foreseeable future.
The Home Office said resources had been invested to tackle the complex threat.
The paper says the document – marked “restricted” – was drawn up by the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special Branch.
Although the report states judging the number of militants is “difficult”, it cites estimates from the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) which claim there are “some thousands of extremists in the UK committed to supporting jihadi activities, either in the UK or abroad”.
The document continues: “For the foreseeable future the UK will continue to be a high-priority target for international terrorists aligned with al-Qaeda.
“It will face a threat from British nationals, including Muslim converts, and UK-based foreign terrorists, as well as terrorists planning attacks from abroad.”
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Ethiopia Warns of Imminent Terror Attack
November 4, 2008 by national
Filed under World Report
“There is proven evidence that a plot to undertake a terrorist attack in Ethiopia exists at this very moment,” the National Anti-terrorism Taskforce warned in a statement received by AFP here.
“We urge the public to remain vigilant and cooperate with security officials in foiling this imminent attack,” it added. Read more
