InformationWeek has a useful slideshow on Operation Ababil, the Islamist hacktivist campaign against US banks. While complete Iranian innocence is implausible, independent groups with common goals but no central direction may be involved. (This in addition to opportunistic criminal bank fraud running in parallel with the hacktivism.) US officials discuss retaliation and preemption amid concerns of an Iranian cyber threat to the Gulf oil sector.
Spam attacks exploiting a US Government url shortener have stopped. To yesterday's reports on the black market in hacked machines and hacking tools, add crimeware-as-a-service: the Sopelka botnet quietly infects European systems. Facebook emails continue to spread the Blackhole exploit, and Yahoo Messenger suffers a malvertising infestation.
A major report outlines widespread vulnerabilities in Canada's cyber security posture. Verizon's latest Data Base Intrusion Report contains sobering news about opportunistic attacks and insider threats. Ponemon finds US Government civilian agencies risk-management laggards. (US military and Intelligence Community do better.) Gartner predicts $3.7T in IT spending during 2013.
President Obama promises budget sequestration won't happen, but companies continue to prepare various survival strategies: layoffs, cyber and C4ISR acquisitions, and pursuit of emerging markets. Palantir and K2 collaborate to bring advanced intelligence analytics to the legal profession.
The US Government Printing Office decides to go digital (even becoming a certificate authority). The UK government pushes Agile Development. The UN sides with law enforcement on data retention. Huawei continues to hit back at US espionage allegations and warns Australia not to get in the middle of a "trade war."