A “sophisticated” Internet scam stole users’ identities using Craigslist and made more than $66,000 in seven weeks, the SEC said. One or more “unknown traders” ran a bogus job ad for “AWE Trading,” ostensibly a brokerage in Latvia, the commission said. Supposedly to check respondents’ backgrounds, the crooks requested personal information that they used to open stock-trading accounts at Interactive Brokers LLC. The thieves also gained unauthorized online access to accounts of customers of various retail brokerage firms and purchased and sold at least 18 securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, the SEC said. In other agency news, a new SEC Web page offers interactive data on mutual funds. The Mutual Fund Reader site posts material from funds on cost, risk, investment aims and strategies and historical performance. Information is in XBRL, a language that labels companies’ financial and other data for search, comparison and analysis.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a Truck Manifest and Automated Broker Interface CSMS message stating that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Certification Environment will be available for trade testing on April 15, 2008 and cancelling its previous message which stated that it would not be available for trade testing on April 15, 2008 from 7:00 a.m. EDT until 11:00 p.m. EDT. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/31/08 news, 08033145 1, for BP summary of CBP's previous CSMS message.) (CSMS 08-000047, dated 04/07/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17054&page=&srch_argv=08-000047&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby.)
The Journal of Commerce reports that critics in the trade community have stated that U.S. Customs and Border Protection grossly underestimated the cost of compliance with 102, particularly for medium-sized and small importers, and Congressional homeland security committees question whether CBP has been thorough in its charge to work with the trade. (JoC, dated 03/17/08, www.joc.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ACE Reports CSMS message announcing that the Authorized Data Extract (ADE), is now available to all Importer and Broker Automated Commercial Environment Portal Accounts.
At an April 2, 2008 hearing of a House Subcommittee on Homeland Security1, Deputy Commissioner Jayson Ahern testified on cargo and border security issues, including the Global Trade Exchange (GTX) pilot for which U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to eligible vendors in December 2007.
In early March 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Truck Manifest CSMS message on the Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest update that is currently scheduled to be implemented on April 5, 2008.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a revised version of its informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Caviar.
Discount retailer TJX and data brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint settled FTC charges of not providing “reasonable and appropriate” security for consumer data, in unrelated cases. The companies must impose comprehensive information security programs and be audited by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years. The commission said that TJX, with more than 2,500 stores worldwide, didn’t use “reasonable and appropriate” security measures to prevent unauthorized access to personal information on its computer networks. A cyberattacker exploited the failures, obtaining tens of millions of credit and debit payment card numbers that consumers used at TJX stores, along with personal information of approximately 455,000 consumers who returned merchandise to the stores (WID Jan 19 p3), the agency said. Reed Elsevier (REI), via its LexisNexis data broker business, and Seisint, acquired by LexisNexis in 2004, collect and store data on millions of consumers, including names, current and prior addresses, dates of birth, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers. The companies relied on user IDs and passwords (or “user credentials") to control customer access to material in their databases. The FTC alleged that, among other failures, the companies let customers use “easy-to-guess passwords” to access Seisint “Accurint” databases holding sensitive consumer data. Identity thieves exploited these lapses, obtaining in multiple breaches access to sensitive data on at least 316,000 consumers, the FTC said. Thieves used the data to activate credit cards and open accounts, making fraudulent purchases. The breaches went on for at least nine months after REI acquired Seisint in late 2004, the commission said.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Mexico's government is preparing to open bidding on the largest infrastructure project in its history, a $4-billion seaport on Mexico's Baja peninsula, that would link the Pacific Ocean to the U.S. heartland. Vessels bearing shipping containers from Asia would offload them at the new port where they would be taken over newly constructed rail lines to the U.S. (Los Angeles Times, dated 03/25/08, available at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mexport25mar25,1,5870690.story)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a new informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Classification of Coated and Water Resistant Apparel.