The brief digital ceasefire in Gaza is over, as Israeli and Palestinian hackers again go after one another. The International Atomic Energy Agency breach is now attributed to Iran, or at least its sympathizers. Anonymous threatens Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, whom it regards as harboring pharaonic ambitions.
A major DNS hack in Romania affecting large companies suggests a security breach in the .ro registry. New financial malware—"Shylock"—avoids reverse engineering by detecting virtual desktops used by researchers.
Two familiar issues—incautious use of email and failure to encrypt data—continue to account for most business cyber vulnerabilities.
Researchers demonstrate anonymous use of cloud-based browsers for big computing tasks (thereby showing a new method of launching large-scale cyber attacks).
The US worries about power grid vulnerability to cyber attack. IEEE wonders if a dumb grid wouldn't be tougher than the smart one wonks aspire to.
US cyber policy makers increasingly consider offensive operations essential to security. A former GCHQ and CESG head says the UK's cyber strategy is failing. US officials try to reassure defense contractors about the "fiscal cliff" and budget cuts, but financial markets look to cyber as a hedge against austerity.
Short uncontacted rain-forest cultures, an anthropologist lives with San Francisco hackers for three years and reports on their tribal ways. US President Obama issues insider-threat policy (details remain secret). China prepares for a trade war with the US as its media charge Cisco with the security issues the US Congress has found in Huawei and ZTE.