ISIS continues its influential, brutalizing, information operations in social media.
Lizard Squad (either ISIS's cyber arm or a pasty parental basement dweller, depending on whom you believe) claims to have taken down Vatican websites in a "jihad" promising the death of "all kuffar," which at least represents a gesture toward ISIS-like rhetoric, but ample grounds for skepticism remain. Among those grounds: hacker "FamedGod" says s/he, not Lizard Squad, hit Sony over the weekend. Observers agree, however, that the bomb threat against American Airlines Flight 362 was indeed Lizard Squad's work.
The FBI and DHS warn that ISIS is expected to retaliate against the US for airstrikes. Physical retaliation is the principal concern, but cyber operations (or at least cyber rioting) may also be expected.
Russian-speakers are victimized by self-propagating ransomware. They're also enticed into criminal botnets by patriotic phishing.
Blue Coat points out the threat of "one-day wonders" — they've found 470 million sites that existed for less than twenty-four hours, and 22% of these facilitated attacks.
Krebs sees signs that Dairy Queen may be the latest large retailer to succumb to cyber attack.
Researchers report new malware evasion techniques that involve using lists of known malware researchers to cue quiescence.
Facebook works on a patch for its iOS Messenger flaw that permitted unauthorized phone calls. Google makes fifty fixes to Chrome.
The US Department of Homeland Security's "Enhanced Cybersecurity Services" have fewer users than hoped. Prospective customers find them either too costly to implement or too difficult to find.