The retail point-of-sale cyber criminal campaign (Target was patient zero, but Neiman Marcus and others were also affected) has a new name, and it's Russian: "Kaptoxa." Stolen data were quietly exfiltrated to servers in Russia. The US Secret Service continues to investigate, and the Department of Homeland Security quietly circulates advice on attack detection and mitigation to retailers. Speculation that Kaptoxa represents an attempt to "bring down the US economy" is surely preposterous (ordinary criminal motives are sufficient explanation) but does suggest the breach's seriousness and scope.

The other publicly known target, Neiman Marcus, was compromised in July 2013. The New York Times reports this breach was only fully contained last Sunday.

Wired notes that Target sustained a similar attack in 2005, and argues that relatively small financial damage led to a cost-benefit decision against security upgrades.

The long-predicted hack involving the Internet of things has come about: a refrigerator has been implicated in a spam campaign that ran between December 23 and January 6.

The Economist interviews Adi Shamir on the threat of acoustic cryptanalysis.

The BANLOAD banking Trojan, most active in Brazil, is found to employ some innovative techniques to evade detection and blocking.

In industry news, CipherCloud buys CloudUp Networks. Wall Street's crush on FireEye's Mandiant acquisition continues. Retail breaches fuel the market for cyber insurance, and Allianz teams with Thales to offer protection and policies.

US President Obama will speak on the NSA later today. Observers expect a change in meta-data storage, but not much else.