Opsec discipline seems to be paying off for ISIS: credit Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's continued survival to ISIS C2's evasion of communications surveillance.
Australia braces for a wave of hacktivism (and cyber espionage masked thereby) as the G20 convene in Brisbane this weekend. (Anonymous promises to "hijack" the expropriators' hashtags and show the world what for. The threat's unusually puerile (and puellile) even for Anonymous — propaganda of the deed on the level of Spanky and Our Gang's cry, "Let's put on a show!") In any case, Anonymous aside, there are serious threats, and the Australian Signals Directorate is offering tips on how to parry them.
Presidential handshakes have small positive effect on cyber relations between the US and China. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) attributes its recent hack to China, and an apparent Chinese patriotic hacker defaces US Department of Transportation sites. Policy wonks talk a lot of Clausewitz as they look at Sino-American relations in cyberspace. Drawing a line between cyber warfare and espionage seems particularly difficult.
UK-based bank HSBC suffers a data breach originating in Turkey that affects 2.7M customers. Other threats to the financial sector circulate: the Dridex Trojan is still out there, and low-tech crooks show how easy it is to milk an ATM.
In industry news, Microsoft asks more cooperation of AV vendors, suggesting they "remember who the enemy is." Shared threat intelligence and collaborative response to attacks are seen as particularly valuable.
Retailers and banks swap shots in their regulatory lobbying war.