Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

The Latest from National Terror
Alert Response Center

Al-Qaeda Terrorist Prisoners Plotted To Escape In Hijacked Helicopter - UK

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 10:36 PM PDT

Al-Qaeda terrorists in a British jail were caught planning to escape in a hijacked helicopter.

Accomplices on the outside were to hire the helicopter for “business” then force the pilot to land in prison at gunpoint.

Nine Muslim inmates plotted to kidnap the jail imam during prayers with weapons hidden in the prison mosque.

According to the plan they would then move to a sports field using the imam as a

shield and be picked up by the helicopter.

Wardens at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, acting on a tip-off, went to the

plotters’ cells hours before the escape attempt was due to start.

The nine, including convicted terrorists, will now be transferred to other jails.

A source told the Sun: “This would have been one of the most damaging escapes

ever. The intelligence was very strong and from a good source. It had to be acted on
immediately.

“It involved some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists in jail, all of whom

are a massive threat. It had been planned for months and the use of a helicopter

shows it was
sophisticated.”

Source

This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National
Terror Alert.

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Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and
information.

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Report: Chinese Develop Special “Kill Weapon” to Destroy U.S. Aircraft
Carriers

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 11:12 AM PDT

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.

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.

Source

This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National
Terror Alert.

National Terror
Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and
information.

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Taliban Leader Vows To Attack D.C. Says “Will Amaze The World”

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 07:59 AM PDT

UPDATE:Taliban Leader’s Washington Threat
Is Credible, Analysts Say

Terrorism experts call Mehsud a “rising young star” who is linked both to the
December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the

bombing last September that killed 54 people in the Marriott hotel in Islamabad
— and they say his threat to carry out an attack in Washington should not
be discounted.

“It should be taken seriously because [Mehsud] has ordered the deaths of

many Pakistanis and Afghans and has a close alliance with Al Qaeda,” said

James Phillips, a terrorism expert and senior research fellow for Middle

Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

“It’s not too much of a stretch to think he might be involved in an attack on

the U.S. if he’s able to get his followers inside the United States. He’s a

militant extremist whose threats cannot be ignored.

———–
Pakistan’s most wanted militant on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a

deadly police academy assault and threatened to attack the US
capital in retaliation for a series of air strikes.

Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah
Mehsud, for whom the United States has posted a five-million-dollar
reward, said there would be more attacks after Monday’s raid on the Lahore police training school which left 12 people dead.

“We claim responsibility for the attack,” Mehsud, blamed for the 2007

assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, told AFP by
telephone from an undisclosed location.

“This was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas.

There will be more such attacks.”

“Very soon we will take revenge from America, not in Afghanistan but in

Washington, which will amaze the entire world,”

Mehsud warned.

The U.S. recently announced a $5 million bounty on Mehsud’s
head. Asked about it, he stated he would be happy

to “embrace martyrdom.”

Mehsud has made voluminous threats against the West for years,
as he rose to his current stature as the head of the Taliban in
Pakistan, and he gave no apparent specifics in his threat on the U.S.
capital on Tuesday.

Source

This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National
Terror Alert.

National Terror
Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and
information.

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Conficker
Downadup Virus April 1 - DHS Releases Computer Worm Detection Tool

Posted: 31 Mar 2009 07:19 AM PDT

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today
the release of a DHS-developed detection tool that can be
used by the federal government, commercial vendors, state and local
governments, and critical infrastructure owners and operators to scan their

networks for the Conficker/Downadup computer worm.

The department’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness
Team (US-CERT) developed the tool that assists mission-critical partners

in detecting if their networks are infected. The tool has been made available

to federal and state partners via the Government Forum of Incident Response

and Security Teams (GFIRST) Portal, and to private sector partners through

the IT and Communications sector Information Sharing and Analysis Centers
(ISACs). Additional outreach to partners will continue in the coming
days.

Department cyber experts briefed federal Chief Information Officers and

Chief Information Security Officers today, as well as their equivalents in the

private sector and state/local government via the ISACs and the

National Infrastructure Protection Plan framework.

“While tools have existed for individual users, this is the only free tool –

and the most comprehensive one – available for enterprises like federal

and state government and private sector networks to determine the

extent to which their systems are infected by this worm,” said US-CERT

Director Mischel Kwon. ”Our experts at US-CERT are working around the

clock to increase our capabilities to address the cyber risk to our nation’s
critical networks and systems, both from this threat and all others.”

In addition to the development of this tool, DHS is working
closely with private sector and government partners to minimize any

impact from the Conficker/Downadup computer worm. This worm
can infect Microsoft Windows systems from thumb drives, network

share drives, or directly across a corporate network if network
servers are not protected by Microsoft’s MS08-067 patch.

US-CERT recommends that Windows Operating Systems users apply
Microsoft security patch MS08-067

(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx)
as quickly as possible to help protect themselves from the worm. This security

patch, released in October 2008, is designed to protect against a vulnerability

that, if exploited, could enable an attacker to remotely take control of an
infected system and install additional malicious software.

Home users can apply a simple test for the presence of a Conficker/

Downadup infection on their home computers. The presence of an

infection may be detected if users are unable to connect to their

security solution Web site or if they are unable to download free

detection/removal tools.

If an infection is suspected, the system or computer should be
removed from the network. In the case of home users, the
computer should be unplugged from the Internet.

Instructions, support and more information on how to manually
remove a Conficker/Downadup infection from a system have been

published by major security vendors. Each of these vendors

offers free tools that can verify the presence of a Conficker/Downadup

infection and remove the worm:

Symantec:

http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99

Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962007

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

Home users may also call Microsoft PC Safety hotline at
1-866-PCSAFETY, for assistance.

McAfee:

http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat_center/default.asp

US-CERT encourages users to prevent a Conficker/Downadup
infection by ensuring all systems have the MS08-067 patch,
disabling AutoRun functionality

(see http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-020A.html),
and maintaining up-to-date anti-virus software.

In addition, US-CERT recommends that computer users and
administrators implement the following preparedness measures to protect

themselves against this vulnerability, and also from future vulnerabilities:

Keep up-to-date on security patches and fixes for your operating
system. The easiest way to do this is to set your system to receive automatic updates, which will ensure you automatically receive security updates issued by Microsoft. If your system does not allow automatic updates, we recommend that you manually install the Microsoft security
patch today through
Microsoft Update at http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate
Install anti-virus and anti-spyware software and keep them
up-to-date
Enable a firewall which will help block attacks before they can get
into your computer