The ACN Morning Report -- Thursday, April 4, 2013

North Korea Moves Missiles Towards U.S. -- Carnival Cruise Lines, The US Military, and Senator Jay Rockefeller -- Disney Shutters Lucas Arts -- Anonymous Threatens North Korea -- The IRS Could Do Your Taxes -- Triumph In Trouble -- Obama To Give 5% For Sequester -- U.S. Sends Missile Defenses To Guam -- Fort Knox Temporarily Locked Down

NORTH KOREA SEEN MOVING MID-RANGE MISSILE TO EAST COAST

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has moved what appears to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Thursday, quoting multiple government sources privy to intelligence from U.S. and South Korean authorities.

It was not clear if the missile was mounted with a warhead or whether the North was planning to fire it or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.

CARNIVAL RESPONDS TO SENATOR: NO WAY WE'RE PAYING FOR TRIUMPH

Carnival Corp. indicated in a couple of letters to Senator Jay Rockefeller that it has no intent to reimburse the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy for assistance in the recent Carnival Triumphaccident, the 2010 Carnival Splendor incidents, or any future problem where they require help from the U.S. government to aid a distressed vessel.

The senator from West Virginia penned a letter March 14 to Carnival CEO Micky Arison alleging that the U.S. Coast Guard responded to 90 “serious events” involving Carnival ships over five years, and that the Coast Guard and Navy had shelled out $4.2 million to cover the Carnival Triumph and Carnival Splendorincidents. The senator asked whether Carnival, since it pays “little or nothing in federal taxes,” will reimburse the Coast Guard and Navy.

DISNEY SHUTS DOWN LUCAS ARTS, CANCELS STAR WARS 1313 AND STAR WARS: FIRST ASSAULT 

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio's current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that's unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for "one or both games," but nothing happened. "With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever," our source said.

ANONYMOUS  THREATENS CYBERWAR ON NORTH KOREA, STEALS 15,000 PASSWORDS

Notorious hacking group Anonymous has targeted pedophiles, corrupt governmentsand financial institutions, however its latest target may be its most audacious yet. The group says that it has begun a new initiative called “Operation Free Korea” and is demanding controversial leader Kim Jong-un resign and install free democracy in the Asian country. Other demands include having North Korea abandon its nuclear ambitions and for the government to give universal and uncensored Internet access to its citizens. Anonymous hackers claim to have access to the country’s local intranets, mail servers and Web servers and are threatening to wage war if their demands are not met.

“We got all over 15k membership records of Uriminzokkiri.com and many more,” the group wrote. “First we gonna wipe your data, then we gonna wipe your badass dictatorship ‘government.’”

FILING TAXES: IT SHOULDN'T BE SO HARD

IN 2010 a panel created by the White House estimated that American taxpayers spend 7.6 billion hours and some $140 billion a year keeping the IRS off their backs. According to theWashington Post over 80% of taxpayers use software or pay someone to file their taxes. The national taxpayer advocate, a sort-of in-house IRS watchdog, once said, "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States." But of course, it is an industry.

It is an industry made up of accountants and companies like H&R Block and Intuit, which makes the TurboTax software used by many Americans. And it is an industry that,according to ProPublica, has worked hard to keep the IRS from preparing your tax returns for you for free. Intuit, for example, has spent millions lobbying the federal government, opposing bills that would allow the IRS to send you pre-filled-in returns (the agency already has most of your relevant information) and supporting bills that would ban the practice.

CARNIVAL TRIUMPH BREAKS FROM DOCK

(CNN) -- The Coast Guard is searching for a man knocked into the Mobile River after high winds hit the area Wednesday, blowing the man's security guard hut into the water and causing the Carnival Triumph cruise ship to break loose from its repair dock.

The call to the Coast Guard came in at 1:45 p.m. CT as near hurricane-force winds smacked the Gulf Coast city of Mobile, Alabama.

OBAMA WILL RETURN 5% OF SALARY FOR BUDGET

President Obama plans to return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury in solidarity with federal workers who are going to be furloughed as part of the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester, an administration official said Wednesday.

The voluntary move would be retroactive to March 1, the official said, and apply through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September. The White House came up with the 5 percent figure to approximate the level of spending cuts to nondefense federal agencies that took effect that day.

U.S. TO SEND MISSILE DEFENSES TO GUAM OVER NORTH KOREA THREATS

(Reuters) - The United States said it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it fromNorth Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang.

Hours later, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast. It was not clear if the North planned to fire the rocket or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.

ARMY EMPLOYEE SHOT, KILLED AT FORT KNOX IN KY

Army officials are investigating a fatal shooting that caused a temporary lockdown at Fort Knox on Wednesday evening.

A male victim was shot in a parking lot on the base about 5:40 p.m. The victim was transported to the Ireland Army Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Anonymous Strikes At Westboro Baptist Church

The increasingly well known hacker group Anonymous has struck again. This time at the equally if not better known Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) Facebook page. The WBC has become somewhat of a rallying point for both conservatives and democrats for their derogatory and demeaning statements, rallies, and protests given at funerals, weddings, and other public/private events. They often target those groups that hold beliefs differing than theirs and use biblical reasoning as justification for the sometimes outrageous demonstrations. The group is most well-known perhaps for it's recent successes in testing the bounds of first amendment rights granted by the United States Constitution.

While it's not confirmed as of yet at what time Anonymous took over the WBC page already
changes can be seen. The "cover photo" that appears when you first go to their page now shows an Anonymous catchphrase and logo reading: "We are legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us!" Beneath that, as the new profile picture for the page, there is a rainbow colored fist underneath the words "Defend Equality Love Unites"

No word yet on if/when the WBC will take note and how long the hack will go on.

Anonymous posts over 4000 U.S. bank executive credentials

Following attacks on U.S. government websites last weekend, Anonymous seems to have made a new "Operation Last Resort" .gov website strike Sunday night.

Anonymous appears to have published login and private information from over 4,000 American bank executive accounts in the name of its new Operation Last Resort campaign, demanding U.S. computer crime law reform.

A spreadsheet has been published on a .gov website allegedly containing login information and credentials, IP addresses, and contact information of American bank executives.

If true, it could be that Anonymous has released banker information that could be connected to Federal Reserve computers, including contact information and cell phone numbers for U.S. bank Presidents, Vice Presidents, COO's Branch Managers, VP's and more.

The website used in this attack belongs to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC). The page extension URL is titled, "oops-we-did-it-again."

Read more from ZDNet.com: http://www.zdnet.com/anonymous-posts-over-4000-u-s-bank-executive-credentials-7000010740/

Anonymous hits US government site, threatens release of secrets

IDG News Service - Hackers working under the name of the Anonymous hacktivist collective hit a U.S. government website on Saturday, replacing its home page with a 1,340 word text detailing its frustrations with the way the American legal system works and a threat to release "secrets" gathered from U.S. government websites.

The website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which establishes sentencing policies for the federal court system, was offline for much of Saturday as a result of the attack.

The site and timing of the attack was not random, according to the message that replaced the home page before it was taken offline.

"Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed," the message read. "Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win -- a twisted and distorted perversion of justice -- a game where the only winning move was not to play."

Swartz committed suicide in New York on Jan. 11, apparently over an upcoming trial on computer intrusion, wire fraud and data theft charges that carried a maximum penalty of 35 years in jail. The charges stem from allegations that Swartz stole millions of scholarly articles and documents from the JSTOR database with the intention of making them available online at no charge.

His suicide sparked outrage among the hacktivist community, much of which blamed the prosecution of the case and potential penalties he faced as directly contributing to his death.

"This website was chosen due to the symbolic nature of its purpose -- the federal sentencing guidelines which enable prosecutors to cheat citizens of their constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair trial, by a jury of their peers -- the federal sentencing guidelines which are in clear violation of the 8th amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishments," the message on the hacked website read.

The message went on to say that the group had infiltrated numerous U.S. government websites and gathered material it judged would be embarrassing if released.

"We have enough fissile material for multiple warheads. Today we are launching the first of these. Operation Last Resort has begun..."

The message didn't reveal the nature of the "secrets," but the hackers made available on the site a multi-part encrypted file that was said to contain them. It's impossible to determine what's actually in the files, which were named for judges on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The message went on to demand a number of reforms to the U.S. legal system.