FBI Make Arrest Outside Lando Bleichen Plant

Eyewitnesses report that three carloads of agents from the Federal Bureau of Inquiry converged this morning at a power pole outside of the fence at the Bleichen Chemical Company facility near Lando, CA. They took into custody one person who was on the pole when the agents arrived. No confirmation of the arrest has been made by the local FBI office.

One witness said that the individual had been on the pole for about five minutes and appeared to be installing a box on the pole. FBI agents have removed the box and took it from the scene.

A local wrecking company was later seen taking a white van from the scene of the incident. A company spokesman refused to comment on where the van had been taken. Lando police are on the scene but are refusing to answer questions.

The Lando facility is nearly identical to the Bleichen Chemical Company facility in Delano, GA that was attacked by hackers a week ago. Students for Immediate Neutralization of Chlorine Technology and Energy Reversion (SFINCTER) has claimed responsibility for that attack that killed 12 people and put a number of others in the hospital.

Johnathan Quest was asked about this arrest at the joint House-Senate Homeland Security hearing this morning, but he had no information about the incident. He did confirm that the FBI was taking the possibility seriously of further attacks by SFINCTER on Bleichen facilities. He noted that the Bleichen facilities were nearly identical, and all of them used the same safety system that was attacked last week.

Robotron’s Erich Mielke confirmed this morning at the hearing that his company had not yet come up with a fix for the vulnerability in the Wi-Fi system that made last week’s attack possible. Robotron is still working with their Chinese supplier, Ānquán Xìngchà, to mitigate the vulnerability.

Immanuel C. Securitage from ECS-CERT testified that an official from the CN-CERT had confirmed that Wi-Fi systems sold within China were required to have a system that would allow legitimate law enforcement personnel surreptitious access to those system for authorized investigative purposes. No such government requirement existed for Wi-Fi equipment sold out-side of the country.

House Committee staffers confirmed that there would be no vote today on Rep. Watts’ bill to regulate electronic lockout-tagout (eLOTO) systems at today’s hearing. They noted that in addition to disagreements about encryption provisions in the bill, other committees may have primary oversight responsibilities because of the health and safety aspects of the bill. The House leadership was still deciding on how those issues would be resolved. This is being further complicated by the change in leadership that will take place in January.