IS (a.k.a. ISIS or ISIL — we begin using its most common name) continues to concentrate on information operations, which the US State Department begins to take on with its own IO campaign. State and IS seem to use much of the same content, expecting a different effect on (perhaps) different audiences.

Pro-Palestinian hacktivists count coup against Israel's Ministry of Education and McDonald's Indonesian sub-domain. Pakistan's discontents continue to fuel low-level cyber-rioting.

"Sources close to the investigation" say that Home Depot was infected by a variant of the BlackPOS malware that was responsible for last year's Target breach. Inspection of the code, and of Rescator's online carding black market, indicates conventional criminality, but oddly tinged with nostalgia for Soviet power and Libya's deposed Gaddafi regime as the criminals involved don a hacktivist fig leaf.

GREF's reappearance through a new OS X backdoor prompts retrospectives of the group's espionage campaign against the US defense industrial base.

New Zealand's Spark was the unwilling vehicle of a denial-of-service effort directed toward Eastern European targets last week.

Carnegie Mellon's SEI reports a list of Android apps vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.

A self-described "genious" (sic) reveals a malicious Flappy Birds knock-off.

VPN passwords (and Google and Facebook authentication codes) have been found in an Android malware C2 server.

Commodification of malware in an efficient black market facilitates Chinese gangs' cybercrime.

The Healthcare.gov hack continues to occupy researchers' (and politicians') attention.

One critical patch is expected from Microsoft tomorrow.

NATO and Russia harden their respective cyber stances.