Microsoft and Symantec have taken down the Bamital botnet. Bamital had been a notorious enabler of click-fraud and identity-theft. More good news may be seen in the indictment of the Gozi Trojan's creators, which seems likely to put paid to Gozi. (Other botnets and Trojans will rise to take Bamital's and Gozi's place.)

The cyber attack on the US grocery chain Basha's, reported earlier this week, appears to have been an unusually capable assault on internal payment systems. It's prompted an international criminal investigation extending not only to Mexico and Canada, but to Europe as well.

The Nap Trojan's "sleep" calls are nothing new, but they help malware evade automated analysis.

A banking Trojan pretending to be Avast anti-virus software has appeared in Brazil. Social media are increasingly used by Jihadists (and so will attract increasing attention from intelligence services concerned about Jihad).

Anonymous claims both the "Wall Street data dump" and intrusion into the Federal Reserve. The latter points up problems with patching: updating software can become overwhelming, and patches are inevitably prioritized. At the Fed a lower-priority vulnerability was attacked.

The US administration's assertion of a right to preemptive cyber attack is seen as a shot across China's bow. The Chinese government is widely suspected in attacks on media organizations and drone technology manufacturers.

Barring Congressional action, US budget sequestration will arrive in little more than two weeks.

Valentine's Day approaches, and security specialists—hostile as always to trust—urge you to regard your significant other as...a threat.