SM Online November 2016

​RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS 

Investigators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) established three bogus firms with fake offices to learn how easily they could procure radioactive materials. They obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that allowed them to purchase radioactive materials. Results of this sting operation are described in a recent GAO report, NRC Has Enhanced the Controls of Dangerous Radioactive Materials, but Vulnerabilities Remain. The GAO podcast, Watchdog Report, features an interview with one of the investigators, who explains how the operation worked. Read the report and listen to the podcast via SM Online.

BREACH DETECTION

Globally, the average time it takes a company to detect a cyber intrusion is somewhere between 100 and 200 days, according to the Cisco 2016 Midyear Cybersecurity Report​. This delay allows malicious actors to pull off sophisticated cyberattacks in corporate networks.​

HOSPITAL CRIME 

Hospitals in the United States and Canada were surveyed about the rate and types of crime occurring in their healthcare environments, including assault, burglary, and vandalism. Read the full report from the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety Foundation. ​

BOMB THREAT CHECKLIST 

How do you handle a bomb threat? A downloadable list issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Bomb Prevention offers suggested procedures, a list of questions to ask the person calling in the threat, and a checklist to help characterize the caller’s voice, background sounds, threat language, and other circumstances of the call.

DATA WARRANTS 

The Stored Communications Act, which allows data held in the United States to be handed over to the U.S. government, does not apply outside of the United States, a federal appeals court ruled ​in a case involving Microsoft. 

EU TERRORISM

The EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report​ was produced by Europol analysts and experts, drawing on contributions from EU member states and external partners. It looks at numbers and types of terrorism, arrests, convictions, and more.

CORRUPTION

Chilean commercial airline company LATAM Airlines Group will pay a criminal penalty ​of $12.75 million for its connection to a scheme to pay bribes to Argentine union officials in violation of the provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

HACKING

A federal judge sentenced former St. Louis Cardinals scouting director Christopher Correa to 46 months in prison for hacking into the computers and emails of Houston Astros employees.