Iran-linked (and probably directed) hacktivists of the "Islamic Cyber Resistance" claim to have penetrated Israeli and Saudi defense organizations.
US retailer Target works to contain damage from the very large data breach it suffered between Thanksgiving and this week. Analysts speculate about possible methods of attack. CSO publishes a guide to the crime, and the Better Business Bureau offers tips on how consumers can protect themselves. Krebs notes that card data stolen from Target is "flooding" underground markets. As bad as this pay card breach is, CNN Money points out that it doesn't even crack the top five.
A relatively new banking Trojan, "Qadars," makes a nuisance of itself in the Netherlands. A zero–day vulnerability in the OpenX Source adserver is being exploited in the wild. Kaspersky reports on five destructive (and currently active) wipers.
Bitcoin exploits retain their popularity—one of them is a Zeus variant affecting mainly Chinese users of the virtual currency.
US business continues to worry about surveillance fears drying up international markets, but one apparent hit to trade (Boeing fighter sales to Brazil) now appears a false alarm (Saab won for other reasons).
Internet companies give the draft NIST cyber standards mixed reviews. Sophos publishes a timely guide to using parental controls.
The UN adopts a largely symbolic resolution in favor of privacy. The EU's deliberations over surveillance advance toward policy. In the US, skepticism over the effectiveness (and intent) of surveillance mounts amid close reading of the Presidential panel's report (and commentary by some panelists).