Obscure news unearthed for May 28, 2009

My daily jaunt on May 28 brings these interesting articles:

Chinese gov’t offers 120 bln yuan in tax cuts in Q1 — China’s tax payers have enjoyed tax reductions of 120 billion yuan (17.65 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, as the country offered cuts to stimulate the slowing economy …read it here

RED ALERT: Did anti-Obama campaign contributions dictate which Chrysler dealers were shuttered? — The 789 Chrysler dealerships that were terminated, while still being investigated by the public, seem to have a common link. Because a list of the affected dealerships was not issued, the public created the list, one dealership at a time. As the list grows, the common denominator seems to be that each dealership donated money to Obama’s competition. Apparently, Chrysler didn’t make the decision to close the dealerships, but rather, was pressured from the Obama’s automotive task force. See list of dealerships here. …read it here

Fast-track screening for illegal immigrants launched – The San Diego Sheriff’s Dept. will be the first California law agency to streamline identification and deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. Instead of checking fingerprints solely in the Justice Departments database the fingerprints will be simultaneously run in the Justice Department and Homeland Security databases. The program is currently being used in seven other states. …read it here

US National Regulatory Commission contemplates the next step on imported waste — Federal regulators want to know if the time is right to think about allowing a Utah company to import radioactive waste from Italy. A ruling by the US District Court indicated a regional radioactive waste organization has no authority over where waste may come from. A Utah company is now open to receive waste from multiple states and foreign nations …read it here

No more smiling for your driver’s license picture –Nevada is one of about thirty states using a facial recognition system and one of four not allowing folks to smile … read it here

Merrick Bank Seeks $16M for Hacking – The bank claims it lost $16 million after hackers compromised as many as 40 million credit card accounts. Claims that Savvis, an information technology firm, erroneously assured it that the bank’s processor, CardSystems Solutions, complied with Visa and Mastercard’s security regulations. …read it here

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) threat as scientists develop edible tag for pills –American scientists at an Hawaii-based company (CBI) have revealed an affordable (one cent) edible tag (TruTag) using silica that can be used to track and trace and authenticate individual pills without effecting the efficacy. The tag can be used to track many other products as well …read it here

Eitel Withdraws Nomination to Head National Service Agency — President Obama’s choice for CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service Agency has declined the nomination. The withdrawal of the 46 year old president of the Nike Foundation, Maria Eitel has left the White house surprised and “very disappointed.” With questionable management skills, Eitel would have been in charge of a federal budget of about $6 billion which funds Obama’s major project, AmeriCorps …read it here

IRS lax in destroying sensitive tax papers …read it here

California’s new budget proposal slashes welfare, releases inmates …read it here

Hundreds of aircraft mechanics may have been improperly licensed …read it here

Ongoing worldwide statistics for swine flu reported on this site …read it here

American Airlines pilot fails breath test …read it here

Obama Administration sparks battery gold rush …read it here

Defense Dept., industry join to protect data …read it here

Mobile phone location technology fights card fraud …read it here

Report: New twists on credit scams …read it here

Three Calif. men charged in $200 million scam …read it here

A/H1N1 confirmed cases continue to rise across world …read it here

Korean man caught selling U.S. weaponry …read it here

Viral epidemics poised to go mobile …read it here

Cell phone recall …read it here

Defense contractor pleads guilty to wire fraud in connection with the procurement of a bullet-proof vest contract in Iraq …read it here

U.S. Expected to Own 70% of Restructured G.M. …read it here

RFID tagging: Chips with everything — Building an ‘internet of things’ could be the next crucial step in the march towards a truly digital age …read it here

From Willnevergiveup archives Constitutional change for marriage

View archived news on this site

CBP Advises of ‘Phishing’ E-Mails Being Distributed

(04/24/2009) The US Customs and Border Protection Agency has been notified that malicious e-mails have been circulating which claim to be from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and reference a package or other items which have been intercepted by CBP. These e-mails are not authentic and have not been sent from the Department of Homeland Security or any CBP authorized system or individual.

CBP will not initiate contact to citizens by e-mail for customs declarations issues.

The e-mails which may have a subject line similar to “Parcel requires declaration” or “Your Consignment,” indicate that a parcel or other “inheritance” destined for you is being held by CBP and urges you to respond to the sender with your contact information. Other variants of these messages may include an attached file which contains a damaging computer virus. In general, the objective of this scam is to convince a victim to send some amount of money to the sender so that the supposed inheritance will be released from consignment.

If you have received a similar e-mail message do not respond to the sender or open any attachments that might be contained in the email.

Please report the occurrence to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) on the Report Phishing page. ( US-CERT – Report Phishing )

If you believe you are the victim of this scam or other Internet crime, or if you are aware of an attempted crime, you can file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. ( Internet Crime Complaint Center )

For more information about email security and social engineering refer to the US-CERT security publication Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks. ( US-CERT – National Cyber Alert System )