Home PSEPC Daily Brief DOB06-032

Daily Brief

The PSEPC Daily Brief is a compilation of summaries of publicly available and PSEPC information concerning critical infrastructure protection and emergency management.

DOB06-032 - 15 February 2006

News

CCIRC releases Advisory AV06-006: Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS06-004, MS06-005, MS06-006, MS06-007, MS06-008, MS06-009, MS06-010)
On February 14, the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) released Advisory AV06-006 to draw attention to vulnerabilities in some Microsoft products. There are two “Critical” vulnerabilities and five “Important” vulnerabilities.
(Source: Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, 14 February 2006)
Source article

CCIRC provides recent alerts and advisories on their website under Recent analytical releases.

Alberta government issues river freezeup advisory
On February 13, the Alberta Environment sent out a river freezeup advisory for the Peace River at the town of Peace River, Alberta.

The freezeup is expected to occur over the weekend of February 18-19, or early the following week. No problems are anticipated but monitoring of ice movement on the river and water levels will continue.
(Source: Alberta Environment, 13 February, 2006)
Source article

PSEPC Geomatics provides a map (203 kb) of the affected areas.

River freezeup refers to the formation of an ice cover, which results in a gradual increase in water levels.

Iran and Austria confirm cases of H5N1 virus in swans
On February 14, the Iranian veterinary organisation confirmed the first case of the H5N1 avian influenza virus found in wild swans tested earlier.

Iran is a wintering location for wild fowl, and experts believed that it was only a matter of time before the H5N1 virus was detected in the country.

On February 14, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety announced that two swans found dead in southern Austria were infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. Samples of the dead birds were forwarded to the European Union's reference lab in Weybridge, Great Britain, for confirmation.
(Source: Reuters AlertNet, 14 February 2006)
Source article
Source article

In brief

Wind chill warnings continued for northern prairies
Further to PSEPC Daily Brief DOB06-031, Environment Canada (EC) continues to maintain wind chill warnings for northern Manitoba and northeastern Saskatchewan. Extreme winds are forecast for the morning of February 15. EC indicates that temperatures of -35°C, combined with winds of 15 km/h, will generate wind chills of -45° to -50°C.
(Source: Environment Canada, 15 February 2006)
Source article
Source article

As a guideline, the average person's skin begins to freeze at a wind chill of -25°C, and freezes in minutes at -35°C.

Environment Canada issues public weather warnings.

Cyber risk assessment

Over the course of the past 24 hours, the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) has not detected any significant new threats or vulnerabilities. No significant incidents with the potential to affect critical infrastructure have been reported. Accordingly, based on the information available to CCIRC, the cyber risk facing Canadian critical infrastructure is assessed as low. Personnel responsible for information, systems and network security should continue to apply appropriate security precautions and monitor their systems.

CCIRC has released Advisory AV06-006 to advise of several Microsoft Security Bulletins: MS06-004, MS06-05, MS06-006, MS06-007, MS06-008, MS06-009, MS06-010.

Recent cyber alerts and advisories issued by CCIRC can be viewed under “Recent analytical releases” at www.psepc.gc.ca/ccirc.

See also...

• The Weather Office
• FAC - Travel Updates

Note to readers

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada (PSEPC) collects information related to cyber and physical threats to, and incidents involving, Canadian critical infrastructure. This allows us to monitor and analyze threats and to issue alerts, advisories and other information products.

Any suspected criminal activity should be reported to local law enforcement organizations. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) National Operations Centre (NOC) provides a 24/7 service to receive such reports or to redirect callers to local law enforcement organizations. The NOC can be reached at (613) 993-4460. National security concerns should be reported to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) at (613) 993-9620.

Links to sites not under the control of the Government of Canada (GoC) are provided solely for the convenience of users. The GoC is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content. The GoC does not offer any guarantee in that regard and is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites and their content.

Some hyperlinks in the PSEPC Daily Brief direct users to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act. Users should be aware that these sources are only available in the language in which they are written.