ISIS has gathered much attention for its information operations in Syria and Iraq (and the Levant generally) with its use of social media drawing particular admiration. Researchers at King's College London looked closely at last Friday's "ISIS Twitter Storm" and found more astroturf than grassroots: insight into how a small, focused group can punch far above its weight in social media.

Among ISIS's successful tactics was hijacking World Cup Twitter hashtags. In general, however, the World Cup seems to have weathered its cyber threats as well as could be reasonably expected (but the white-board-in-the-photo-background opsec issue surfaced in some widely circulated images of the Cup's security center).

Hacktivists continue cyber vandalism in Pakistan (protesting police brutality) and Arizona (pro-Palestinian Turkish hackers resuming their baffling selection of American targets).

Kaspersky Lab finds a cyberfraud campaign affecting a large European bank. They're calling it "Luuuk," and report that it stole half a million Euros in less than a week — remarkably swift theft that bodes ill for the legacy cyber defense cycle.

New York City taxicab logs afford researchers an opportunity to demonstrate how porous poorly executed anonymization can be.

Several malware infestations arise in Google Play and other trusted app stores. Beware in particular Flappy Birds — accept no knock-offs.

CryptoLocker evolves into a standalone version. Many security firms say, again, that the best defense against ransomware is sound, systematic backup. They also deprecate paying the ransom.

US Cyber Command gives AFCEA symposiasts its industry wish list: visualization, automation, and work-force development.