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NORTH DAKOTA

Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources

(CI/KR) Ticker

The North Dakota Open Source (CI/KR) Ticker a product of the North Dakota State and Local

Intelligence Center (NDSLIC). It provides open source news articles and information on

terrorism, crime, and potential destructive or damaging acts of nature or unintentional acts.

Articles are placed in the (CI/KR) Ticker to provide situational awareness for local law

enforcement, first responders, government officials, and private/public infrastructure

owners.

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NDSLIC Disclaimer

The (CI/KR) Ticker is a non-commercial publication intended to educate and

inform. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright

restrictions. NDSLIC provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or

accuracy with respect to the original source material.

Table of Contents

North Dakota .................................................................................................................................. 3

Regional ............................................................................................................................................ 4

National ............................................................................................................................................. 4

International ................................................................................................................................... 5

Banking and Finance Industry ................................................................................................ 6

Chemical and Hazardous Materials Sector ........................................................................ 7

Commercial Facilities .................................................................................................................. 7

Communications Sector ............................................................................................................. 8

Critical Manufacturing ................................................................................................................ 8

Defense/ Industry Base Sector ............................................................................................... 9

Emergency Services ..................................................................................................................... 9

Energy ............................................................................................................................................. 10

Food and Agriculture ............................................................................................................... 11

Government Sector (including Schools and Universities)........................................ 11

Information Technology and Telecommunications .................................................... 11

Public Health ................................................................................................................................ 12

Transportation ............................................................................................................................ 13

Water and Dams ......................................................................................................................... 14

North Dakota Homeland Security Contacts .................................................................... 15

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North Dakota

(North Dakota) Fargo man charged with threatening to shoot Sen. Heitkamp. A Fargo man is accused in federal court of sending an email to the office of U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in which he threatened to shoot her in the head, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, Jan. 9, charges Olson with mailing threatening communications. http://www.inforum.com/news/4195950-us-capitol-police-execute-search-warrant-fargo-threats-made-against-sen-heitkamp (North Dakota) Motorist liability introduced in response to pipeline protests. A bill introduced by an oil patch lawmaker would provide an exemption for the driver of a motor vehicle if they unintentionally injured or killed a pedestrian obstructing traffic on a public road or highway. http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/motorist-liability-introduced-in-response-to-pipeline-protests/article_27bfbbe1-40b3-53ab-a620-3b6e0225fb59.html (North Dakota) Protesters arrested after cutting fence near pipeline drilling site. At 3:30 pm Monday, about 200 protesters made their to a fence along the shoreline of the Missouri River, approximately 700 feet from the Dakota Access Pipeline horizontal drill pad. Protesters were also on the Backwater Bridge on the state highway that runs through the area starting at 3:30 pm and as of 8:30 pm, about 40-50 protesters remained. During this time they cut the security wire, removed fencing material and dismantled the lights illuminating the bridge. No arrests were made at this location. http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/protesters-arrested-after-cutting-fence-near-pipeline-drilling-site/article_76a5e835-804a-5bc8-b405-aa5d8c51d91e.html (North Dakota) Proposed bill would delay medicinal cannabis implementation in N.D. Lawmakers say implementing a law like this takes time, so they're proposing a bill which would suspend parts of the law until July 31. The Department of Health is tasked with not only monitoring potency, but also distributors and growers. A bill to help finalize some of those rules is expected in the upcoming weeks. http://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Proposed-bill-would-delay-medicinal-cannabis-implementation-in-ND-410866535.html

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(North Dakota) Tribes threaten to pull out of oil tax agreement with North Dakota. A Native American tribe whose land accounts for about a fifth of North Dakota's oil production has renewed threats to pull out of a revenue-sharing agreement with the state, saying a reduction in taxes on the industry violates the accord. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/01/10/tribes-threaten-to-pull-out-of-oil-tax-agreement-with-state

Regional

(Minnesota) 4 McNeilus Truck and Manufacturing employees seriously hurt in explosion. The McNeilus Truck and Manufacturing, Inc. plant in Dodge Center, Minnesota, was closed January 11 after an explosion severely injured four employees. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. http://www.kttc.com/story/34236526/2017/01/11/emergency-crews-respondto-incident-at-mcneilus-in-dodge-center

National

(National) 'Ferguson effect': 72% of U.S. cops reluctant to make stops. More than three-quarters of U.S. law enforcement officers say they are reluctant to use force when necessary, and nearly as many — 72% — say they or their colleagues are more reluctant to stop and question people who seem suspicious as a result of increased scrutiny of police. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/11/ferguson-effect-study-72-us-cops-reluctant-make-stops/96446504/ (National) US agrees to pay billions to Marines affected by toxic water. The U.S. Government agreed January 12 to provide $2.2 billion in disability benefits to as many as 900,000 U.S. Marine Corps service members who were potentially exposed to contaminated drinking water while stationed at Camp - 7 - Lejeune in North Carolina for at least 30 cumulative days between August 1953 and December 1987. The payouts are scheduled to begin in March 2017 and veterans are required to submit evidence of their diagnoses and service information in order to receive the benefits. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-agrees-pay-billions-marinesaffected-toxic-water-44743897

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(National) Build an effective cyberattack recovery playbook by following this NIST guide. Preventing cybersecurity disasters—large or small—rather than having to recover from them is preferable, for obvious reasons. However, experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are concerned that overreliance on prevention is as bad as being underprepared. http://www.techrepublic.com/article/build-an-effective-cyberattack-recovery-playbook-by-following-this-nist-guide/ (National) Statement by Secretary Jeh Johnson on the Designation of Election Infrastructure as a Critical Infrastructure Subsector. DHS Secretary Johnson has designated Election Infrastructure as a sub-sector of the Government Facilities sector. The designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure subsector means that election infrastructure becomes a priority within the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. It also enables DHS to prioritize cybersecurity assistance to state and local election officials. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2017/01/06/statement-secretary-johnson-designation-election-infrastructure-critical

International

(International) Terror and the Mexico border: How big a threat? The debate over security along the US-Mexico border isn’t just about the millions of unauthorized migrants who have crossed the international boundary seeking work and better lives. And it isn’t just about the drug smugglers and assorted other criminals who routinely use the border as an easy back door into America. From November 2013 to July 2014, officials apprehended 143 individuals listed on the US terror watch list trying to cross the Mexico border and enter the US illegally. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2017/0115/Terror-and-the-Mexico-border-How-big-a-threat (International) The looming national security threat everyone keeps ignoring. America’s Global Positioning System is a technological miracle and our gift to the world. Highly precise and free for use anywhere one can see the sky, the system’s timing and location signals have been incorporated into numerous essential technologies. The combination of overwhelming dependence and vulnerability is why Department of Homeland Security officials have called GPS a “single point of failure for critical infrastructure.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-looming-national-security-threat-everyone-keeps-ignoring/2017/01/12/1c69df44-c79c-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.6fdfcecb1d1f (International) Obama Ends Exemption for Cubans Who Arrive Without Visas. President Obama said Thursday that he was terminating the 22-year-old policy that has allowed Cubans who arrived on United States soil without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency, an unexpected move long sought by the Cuban government. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/world/americas/cuba-obama-wet-foot-dry-foot-policy.html?_r=1 (International) Taiwan Responds After China Sends Carrier to Taiwan Strait. Taiwan scrambled F-16 fighter jets and dispatched a frigate to the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday after China sent its sole aircraft carrier into the waterway, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported. The transit of the aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, came amid rising tensions between Taiwan and China after President-elect Donald J. Trump. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/world/asia/china-taiwan-strait-aircraft-carrier-trump.html?_r=0

Banking and Finance Industry

(National) Bank of America sued for $542 million over FDIC risk rule. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) filed a $542 million lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. January 9 for reportedly failing to pay the FDIC for deposit insurance protection from 2013 – 2014 after the bank ignored FDIC instructions and improperly calculated exposure faced by its parent-level firms, thereby causing the bank to understate how much it owed in insurance protection for its 20 largest counterparties. The FDIC claims the bank owes a total of more than $1 billion in underpayments made since 2011. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-09/bank-of-america-suedby-fdic-over-542-million-of-insurance (International) Operator of unlawful Bitcoin exchange pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar money laundering and fraud scheme. The former operator of Coin.mx, an Internet-based Bitcoin exchange, pleaded guilty January 9 to violating

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Federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations by processing over $10 million in illegal Bitcoin transactions from 2013 – July 2015 via a sham front company, Collectables Club that the operator and co-conspirators created in order to avoid detection. To further avoid scrutiny from financial institutions about the nature of Coin.mx’s business, the group gained control of New Jersey-based Helping Other People Excel Federal Credit Union in 2014 after making more than $150,000 in illegal bribes. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/operator-unlawful-bitcoin-exchangepleads-guilty-multimillion-dollar-money-laundering (International) New Ploutus ATM malware variant at large. Security researchers from FireEye reported that a new variant of the Ploutus ATM malware targeting machines from Diebold, dubbed Ploutus-D is capable of significantly expanding its list of targets with minor code changes, as it is capable of interacting with KAL’s Kalignite multivendor ATM platform which runs on 40 different ATM vendors in 80 countries. The new variant requires an attacker or money mule to open the top portion of the ATM, connect a keyboard to the machine, and use an activation code that is provided by the actor in charge of the operation in order to dispense the money from the machine. http://www.securityweek.com/new-ploutus-atm-malware-variant-large

Chemical and Hazardous Materials Sector

Nothing Significant to Report

Commercial Facilities

(Maryland) Jewish Community Center in Baltimore evacuated after threat. A Jewish Community Center in Baltimore was evacuated for over 2 hours January 9 after receiving a bomb threat. Authorities cleared the building and the incident remains under investigation. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-jccevacuated-20170109-story.html (International) Jewish centers in at least 9 States receive bomb threats. Authorities are investigating after Jewish community centers in at least 9 States and the United Kingdom received bomb threats January 9 that forced evacuations

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in more than 15 locations across the U.S. All of the threats were determined to be hoaxes. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/01/09/bomb-threatsjewish-centers/96351704/

Communications Sector

(National) Straight Path settles with FCC over licenses. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Straight Path Communications, Inc. reached a $15 million settlement January 12 to resolve an investigation into Straight Path’s former parent company IDT Corp. and its spectrum licenses following claims of fraud made against the company by an anonymous shortseller. As part of the settlement, Straight Path will also give the FCC a 20 percent cut of any spectrum licenses sale and is subject to an $85 million fine if it does not announce the sale of its spectrum licenses within the next 12 months. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-straight-path-fcc-settlementidUSKBN14W1JW

Critical Manufacturing

(International) Chrysler Aspen, Dodge Durango, Ram 2500 and 3500 recalled to fix Takata airbags. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall January 9 for 86,403 of its model years 2005 – 2010 vehicles in select makes sold in the U.S. to replace Takata airbag inflators on the driver’s or passenger’s side of the vehicles. The recall also includes roughly 14,000 vehicles sold in Canada, Mexico, and outside of North America. http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1108255_chrysler-aspen-dodgedurango-ram-2500-3500-recalled-to-fix-takata-airbags (National) F.B.I. arrests Volkswagen executive on conspiracy charge in emissions scandal. The former top emissions compliance manager for Volkswagen in the U.S. was charged January 7 in Florida for allegedly conspiring to defraud the U.S. after playing a central role in the carmaker’s efforts to conceal its emissions cheating from U.S. regulators with a so-called defeat device. The arrest came as Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice neared a deal to pay over $2 billion to settle the criminal investigation into the emissions cheating. http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/business/volkswagen-diesel-emissionsinvestigation-settlement.html?src=busln&_r=2

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(National) Arctic Cat recalls snowmobiles due to fire hazard. Arctic Cat issued a recall January 11 for around 20,700 of its model years 2007 – 2009 snowmobiles in select models due to an - 3 - issue with the fuel tank, which can crack and cause fuel to leak into the engine compartment, posing a fire hazard. No injuries have been reported and Arctic Cat has received reports of 918 incidents including 6 reports of fires. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2017/arctic-cat-recalls-snowmobiles (National) EPA notifies Fiat Chrysler of Clean Air Act violations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and its U.S. subsidiary FCA U.S. LLC January 12 for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act after the firm installed and failed to disclose engine management software that increased emissions of nitrogen oxides from around 104,000 of its model years 2014 –2016 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Ram 1500 trucks equipped with 3.0 liter diesel engines sold in the U.S. The EPA and the California Air Resources Board have initiated investigations based on the company’s alleged actions. https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-notifies-fiat-chrysler-clean-air-actviolations

Defense/ Industry Base Sector

Nothing Significant to Report

Emergency Services

(Illinois) Weapons made from inhalers recovered after Cook County Jail fight. Five inmates housed in the super-maximum security division of the Cook County Jail in Illinois were hospitalized January 6 following a brawl. Prison officials recovered several homemade weapons and the incident remains under investigation. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-several-ambulancessent-to-cook-county-jail-20170106-story.html (Arizona) Good Samaritan shoots, kills man who wounded Arizona DPS trooper in struggle. Interstate 10 near Tonopah, Arizona, was closed for about 13 hours January 12 while authorities investigated after a man ambushed and shot a police

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officer responding to the scene of an overturned vehicle. Another man passing by the scene shot and killed the assailant when he refused to step away from the police officer. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/southwest-valleybreaking/2017/01/12/police-activity-shuts-interstate-10-westbound-neartonopah/96481168/

Energy

(Wisconsin) A Chippewa tribe in Wisconsin is calling for the removal of a pipeline from its reservation after 64 years of operation. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's tribal council voted Wednesday to refuse to renew several easement rights of way for Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline that expired in 2013. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/01/06/wisconsin-tribe-wants-pipeline-removed-reservation (Tennessee) Colonial Pipeline shuts stubline to Nashville on suspected leak. Colonial Pipeline Co.’s Line 19 between Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, remained shut down January 9 after it was closed January 8 due to a possible gasoline spill near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The company has restarted Line 20, a distillates line, which was also closed down as a precaution. http://www.reuters.com/article/colonialpipeline-leak-idUSL4N1EZ3QV (Pennsylvania) Gasoline gushes from ruptured tanker truck in Salem Twp. Roughly 3,500 gallons of gasoline were spilled January 8 after a tanker truck overturned while exiting the Sunoco Logistics Partners LP fuel terminal in Salem Township, Pennsylvania. The gasoline spilled into a small creek that leads to a tributary of Beaver Run Reservoir and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is monitoring the water quality in the creek. http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/01/08/report-gasoline-gushes-fromruptured-tanker-truck-in-salem-twp/ (Ohio) 6 injured in explosion at Adams County plant; plant closed for ‘thorough investigation.’ The J.M. Stuart Generating Station in Aberdeen, Ohio, was closed until further notice January 10 while authorities investigated a large explosion in Unit 1 of the Dayton Power and Light Company plant. Up to 300 people were evacuated and 6 people were injured in the explosion.

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http://www.wlwt.com/article/explosion-with-injuries-reported-adams-countyplant/8582576

Food and Agriculture

(Michigan) USDA declares crop disaster designation for Midland, other counties. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared January 10 crop disaster designations for all 15 counties in Michigan’s Fourth Congressional District after the USDA determined there were significant production losses in 2016. Farm operators in these counties may be eligible for emergency loans and other assistance from the Farm Service Agency and have 8 months from the date of the disaster designation to apply for assistance. http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/USDA-declares-crop-disasterdesignation-for-10847363.php

Government Sector (including Schools and

Universities)

(Oregon) Roof collapse aftermath: Sisters schools join Friday closure. The gymnasium roof at Highland Magnet School at Kenwood Elementary in Bend, Oregon, collapsed January 12, prompting the closure of all schools in the Bend-La Pine School District until January 17 while officials conduct roof assessments. The Redmond School District and Sisters School District also closed its schools to complete structural assessment and snow removal. http://www.ktvz.com/news/kenwood-school-gym-roof-collapses-bend-la-pinecloses-all-schools/265063695

Information Technology and Telecommunications

(International) Man pleads guilty to hacking accounts of - 6 - U.S. officials. A North Carolina resident pleaded guilty the week of January 2 for his role in the “Crackas With Attitude” hacking group’s conspiracy to gain access to the online accounts of Federal Government officials and their families, as well as government computer systems from October 2015 and February 2016. The group published the officials’ personal details on the Internet and harassed them over

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the phone. http://www.securityweek.com/man-pleads-guilty-hacking-accounts-us-officials (International) Powerful “Spora” ransomware lets victims pay for immunity. Security researchers from Emsisoft warned that a newly observed ransomware, dubbed Spora is distributed via spam emails masked as invoices and leverages Windows CyrptoAPI for encryption, using a mix of RSA and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) that allows the ransomware to encrypt files without a command and control (C&C) server connection, as well as ensuring that a decryption tool developed for one victim will not work for another victim. The researchers also found that Spora is able to determine how much ransom a victim should pay by creating creates statistics of the targets to encrypt and saving them to a .KEY file as a set of six numbers. http://www.securityweek.com/powerful-spora-ransomware-lets-victims-payimmunity (International) RIG grabs 35% of exploit kit market in December. Symantec researchers reported that the RIG exploit kit (EK) was responsible for nearly 35 percent of the total EK activity during December 2016, with Fiesta at roughly 4 percent, and the Magnitude EK at about 3 percent. The number of Web attacks blocked by Symantec increased by about 33 percent in December 2016 after the company blocked 388,000 attacks per day in comparison to the 291,000 attacks blocked per day in November 2016. http://www.securityweek.com/rig-grabs-35-exploit-kit-market-december (National) National Guard expects expanded role in cybersecurity. “The Guard represents a talent pool that can be regularly trained, equipped, and called on to protect and defend against attacks on information assets or computer systems and networks,” according to the White House’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. “The Guard could also be deployed after a cybersecurity incident to help recover or restore systems and services to normal operations.” https://gcn.com/articles/2017/01/06/national-guard-cybersecurity.aspx

Public Health

(National) Former union official, broker charged in $6.6 million fraud. The former president of United Auto Workers Local 2326 and an insurance broker were charged January 9 for allegedly defrauding Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of

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New Jersey out of roughly $6.6 million after the broker created two shell companies to market insurance to hundreds of people across the country not employed by them, and allowed some of those people to stay on the union’s plan even after the health care program discovered they did not meet eligibility requirements. http://www.kansas.com/news/business/article125580634.html (National) St. Jude Medical patches vulnerable cardiac devices. St. Jude Medical, Inc. and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced January 9 the release of a software update for St. Jude’s Merlin at home Transmitter medical device after MedSec Holdings and Muddy Waters discovered in 2016 that the - 5 - remote transmitting devices used to communicate with St. Jude’s implantable cardiac devices were plagued with vulnerabilities that exposed pacemakers and defibrillators to attacks, putting patients’ physical safety at risk. https://threatpost.com/st-jude-medical-patches-vulnerable-cardiacdevices/122955/ (Pennsylvania) Abington hospital to pay $510K fine after pharmacist’s drug theft. The U.S. Department of Justice announced January 9 that Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania agreed to pay $510,000 in fines after discovering in July 2013 that one of its pharmacists stole more than 35,000 units of a controlled substance on more than 85 occasions by exploiting a flaw in the software used to track prescription medications. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Abington-Hospital-to-pay-finefor-system-failure-after-drug-theft-by-pharmacist.html

Transportation

(Florida) 5 dead, 6 wounded in shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Five people were killed and six others were injured after a man opened fire at the baggage claim in Terminal 2 of the Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport in Florida January 6. The suspect surrendered to authorities and was indicted on Federal charges. http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Shooting-Reported-Inside-FortLauderdale--Hollywood-International-Airport-409905825.htm

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Water and Dams

(California) Carmel Valley homes flooded by river water after nearby levee breaks. The Monterey County Office of Emergency Services in California reported that heavy precipitation caused the Carmel River to breach “by several feet” and a nearby levee to break January 8, flooding several Carmel Valley residences and prompting officials to issue a flash flood warning for northwestern Monterey County through January 9. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-live-winter-weather-california- 10-homes-experience-flooding-1483953275-htmlstory.html

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North Dakota Homeland Security Contacts

To report a homeland security incident, please contact your local law

enforcement agency or one of these agencies: North Dakota State and Local

Intelligence Center: 866-885-8295(IN ND ONLY); Email: ndslic@nd.gov; Fax: 701-

328-8175 State Radio: 800-472-2121; Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI):

701-328-5500; North Dakota Highway Patrol: 701-328-2455; US Attorney's

Office Intel Analyst: 701-297-7400; Bismarck FBI: 701-223-4875; Fargo FBI: 701-

232-7241.

To contribute to this summary or if you have questions or comments, please

contact:

Darin Hanson, ND Division of Homeland Security dthanson@nd.gov, 701-328-

8165