Flooding of Green River In Washington May Cause Disaster

As we are nearing the rainy season on the Northwest Coast officials are warning that flooding of the Green River located in King County, Seattle, Washington could leave about 800,000 residents without sewage treatment for months. 

County officials fear the river may flood because the Howard Hanson Dam upstream has been weakened, which according to the report may be due to over-development in the area.

China's Cyber warfare Capabilities Highlighted in Report to Congressional Commission

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report which was produced under contract by Northrop Grumman's Information Systems Sector highlights the Cyber warfare capabilities of China.

The report also includes basic information on China's capabilities to conduct other Unconventional Warfare such as EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attacks, using kinetic energy weapons against satellites, and its use of Laser dazzling to disable U.S. satellites.

Though the report focuses largely on China's cyber warfare capabilities, it does make the point of how the country plans to use the other means mentioned to dominate information warfare arena.

The report also mentions the collaboration between China's military and the private black-hat hacker community. This is not the first time this relationship has been written about as other reports have made mention of this relationship, and have spoken about how the Chinese hacking community feels that it is their duty to help wage this unconditional warfare.

According to the report here are some of the actual attacks through cyber warfare that have been conducted in recent years:

• In May 1998, anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia sparked a series of Chinese hacker attacks on multiple Indonesian Websites.
• Following the accidental bombing of the PRC embassy in Serbia in May 1999,
  Chinese hackers mounted their first large scale attack on the White House led
  by the group Javaphile according to one of its founding members, who uses
  the “screen name” CoolSwallow.
• The 1999 comments by then Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui that Taiwan
  deserved to be treated as an equal state by the PRC catalyzed massive PRC
  hacker attacks on the Taiwan National Assembly, Presidential Executive Office
  and many additional government Websites, according to Western press
  reports of the exchange.
• In May 2001, the Honker Union of China claimed that it had attacked over
  1,000 US Websites—approximately the same number that US hackers
  claimed they attacked in the PRC—following the collision between a US EP-3
  surveillance aircraft and a Chinese fighter.
• In 2001, following a large scale denial of service attack against the White
  House, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party,
  issued an editorial in its online edition that decried the Chinese attacks as
  “Web terrorism,” and said that the attacks by the Honker Union of China on US
  Websites were “unforgivable acts violating the law," effectively withdrawing
  Beijing’s tacit and explicit support from the hacker groups’ campaigns.

The Loss of a Key Employee Can Be Devastating To a Business

Many businesses have Key Employees who are the only people responsible for specific duties, and often these are critical, core functions to the business. Often these employees will also have the only access to certain information that may be needed to perform some of these critical functions and operations.

The impact on the business after the loss of a key employee can be severe and can include but are not limited to the following:

• The distraction of other employees, resulting in missed opportunities and deadlines, deteriorating morale, and internal conflicts

•  The loss of confidence from employees, managers and financial backers of the business and can include both suppliers and customers

•  The business may suffer a weakening of their credit rating.

•  The financial cost (in time and dollars) to find, hire and train a replacement.

•  A need for immediate cash to fulfill promises made to the deceased employee's spouse or family, such as salary continuation or deferred compensation or other incentives promised.

• The business might also fail to capitalize on important business opportunities because cash reserves are being used to recruit and train the new employee(s) or pay out compensation.

Fortunately there are a number of things you can do to mitigate these issues the first of which is consider key employee insurance. Documenting the processes acurately that the Key Employee is responsible for is another.

Shopping Mall May Have Been Intended Target of Terror Attack

In the latest plot to be foiled on U.S. soil the intended target may have been a shopping mall as well as the emergency responders who would have responded to the scene.

According to reports Mehanna who was already out on bail in another case allgedly plotted and planned the logistics of carrying out the attack.

He was also allegedly plotting to carry out attacks against two as now unnamed members of the executive branch of government, but it was stated that they are no longer in office.

The report also states that Mehanna could not obtain the weapons needed to carry out the attack.

Turkey Warns of Possible Hezbollah Attacks against American and Israeli Targets

According to Turkish intelligence reports hezbollah is planning attacks on American and Israeli targets inside Turkey.

The report states that hezbollah is looking to attack Israeli tourists, Israeli vessels and airplanes, as well as synagogues in Turkey, no specific information on American targets were released but citizens are urged to take precautions.

Three cities were mentioned in the report and they are, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Turkish police warned their units in those cities and further stated that hezbollah may have already already scouted the area for attack.