C ALIFORNIA S TATE T HREAT A SSESSMENT C ENTER

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
C ALIFORNIA S TATE T HREAT A SSESSMENT C ENTER
24-H OUR R EPORT
22 M ARCH 2017
(U) CALIFORNIA
(U) Banning – Two Teens Arrested in Alleged Shooting Plot at Riverside County High School
(U) Two students at a Riverside County high school were arrested this week after officials learned they
were allegedly planning to carry out an on-campus shooting. Police were notified Monday afternoon of
the plot at Banning High School, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. After witnesses overheard an
unnamed student making threats to open fire Tuesday, investigators mobilized and recovered evidence
that allegedly shows two teenage students had planned an active shooter-type incident, according to
police. The police searched the two students’ homes and did not find any weapons. Both suspects were
arrested and booked on suspicion of criminal threats.
SOURCE: 21 March 2017, Los Angeles Times
(U) Carlsbad – Hackers Hit Carlsbad Dental Company
(U) Zezt Dental Solutions of Carlsbad was hit by hackers who may have obtained credit-card information
from an undisclosed number of customers. They recently learned that an unauthorized entity had
compromised their e-commerce system, potentially affecting customer payment card information,
according to a company statement. Information compromised by the attack may have included
customers’ names, billing addresses, phone numbers, payment card numbers, expiration dates, and CVV
numbers from payment cards for online transactions. The company has notified the California Attorney
General’s Office regarding the breach.
SOURCE: 21 March 2017, San Diego Union-Tribune
(U) San Francisco – Twitter Shuts Down 377,000 More ‘Terrorism’ Accounts
(U) Twitter has shut down more than 377,000 accounts for promoting terrorism in the second half of
last year. It represents a 60% increase on the last numbers provided by the company, which covered the
period from February to August 2016. Nearly 74% of the accounts that have been suspended were
discovered by internal, proprietary spam-fighting tools, according to a Twitter report. It also said that it
had shut down a total of 636,248 accounts for promoting terrorism since August 2015, when it first
began tracking numbers.
SOURCE: 22 March 2017, BBC
(U) NATIONAL
(U) District of Columbia – AQAP Trying to Hide Explosives in Laptop Batteries
(U) Washington – Intelligence obtained in recent weeks found that an al-Qa’ida affiliate was perfecting
techniques for hiding explosives in batteries and battery compartments of electronic devices, according
to a US official. The discovery that al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula was looking to exploit batteries and
their compartments in laptops and other commercial electronic devices led the United States and
United Kingdom to ban devices larger than a cellphone from certain flights. The new security restriction
requires airlines based out of the Middle East and Africa to prevent people from eight countries from
bringing any device bigger than a smartphone aboard the aircraft.
SOURCE: 22 March 2017, CNN
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(U) INTERNATIONAL
(U) Greece – Eight Parcel Bombs Found in Greece
(U) Athens – Greek counterterrorism officers have uncovered eight parcel bombs resembling several
sent last week to the German finance minister in Berlin and the Paris offices of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the police. The packages were discovered during a search of the
Hellenic Post’s sorting office, north of Athens. The parcel bombs were addressed to European Union
officials and to multinational companies. The packages were similar to ones sent to the German finance
minister and to the IMF, according to the police. A Greek anarchist extremist group called Conspiracy of
the Cells of Fire claimed responsibility for the parcel addressed to the German finance minister, but the
group has not claimed the most recent parcels discovered.
SOURCE: 21 March 2017, New York Times
(U) North Korea – North Korean Missile Explodes Seconds After Launch
(U) Pyongyang – North Korea fired a missile Wednesday morning that exploded seconds after launching,
according to South Korean and US militaries. The attempted missile launch comes at a time of
heightened tensions in the region, with the United States and South Korea conducting joint military
exercises aimed at countering the North Korean threat. The missile was launched from North Korea’s
east coast near the Wonsan Air Base but is presumed to have failed, according to South Korea’s defense
ministry.
SOURCE: 22 March 2017, Washington Post
(U) Philippines – Maute Terrorist Group Has Established Presence in Manila
(U) Manila – The militant group Maute, formed in the southern Philippines and allied with ISIS, has
established its presence in metropolitan Manila, according to the Philippine National Police. The group
was mentioned during a press conference with the Director General of the National Police, where he
also spoke about the arrest of Nasip Ibrahim, the fifth suspect in a failed November 2016 attack near the
US Embassy in the capital. The police seized methamphetamine, a pistol, and an improvised explosive
device during the raids on the home and office of Ibrahim. He is suspected of having direct links with
Maute in Quezon City, north of Manila.
SOURCE: 22 March 2017, Latin American Herald Tribune
(U) United Kingdom – ‘Cufflink’ Terrorist Samata Ullah Admits Terrorism Related Charges
(U) Cardiff – A man who used a USB cufflink to store extremist data has admitted five charges of
terrorism. Samata Ullah, 34, of Cardiff, pleaded guilty to being involved with ISIS, terrorist training. Ullah
is suspected of preparing terrorist acts and possessing articles for terrorism related activities. When he
was arrested on 22 September, he had a USB cufflink with an operating system loaded onto it to conceal
extremist data, including a blog. A UK court heard that between December 2015 and his arrest, Ullah
had provided instructional videos on how to secure sensitive data and remain anonymous online with
the use of encryption programs.
SOURCE: 20 March 2017, BBC
(U) PREPARED BY THE CALIFORNIA STATE THREAT ASSESSMENT CENTER.
(U) FOR QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE EMAIL [email protected], OR CALL 916-874-1100.
Warning: This document is the exclusive property of the State Threat Assessment Center (STAC) and is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
(U//FOUO). It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the California Public Records Act (Govt. Code Sec. 6250-6270).
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It is to be controlled, stored, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with STAC policy relating to U//FOUO information
and is not to be released to the public, the media, or other personnel who do not have a valid "need-to-know" without prior approval of an
authorized STAC official. No portion of this report should be furnished to the media, either in written or verbal form.
This document contains excerpts of suspicious activities and incidents of interest to the STAC as obtained from open and unclassified sources.
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