Russia's military incursion into Ukraine's Crimean district prompts Ukrainian counter-mobilization, widespread diplomatic odium, harsh consequences for Russia in financial markets, and hacktivist protest. So far the hacktivism has been of limited effect, little beyond threats and site defacements, but, especially since there's little appetite internationally for kinetic warfare, cyber fallout of the invasion bears watching. ZDNet has a useful rundown of the cyber implications of Putin's current adventure.

State-sponsored cyber espionage returns to the news. G Data Security announces discovery of a spying tool they've called "Uroburos" and tentatively attributed to Russia. FireEye reports new signs that China has resumed (or simply continued) its cyber espionage programs. (Huawei demurs, and faults FireEye's research.) In the West, German officials now regard a "no-spy" deal with the US as unlikely, and Yahoo expresses outrage over allegations of GCHQ webcam hijacking.

Reports that US retailer Sears has suffered a data breach are dismissed as premature by Sears, which says its investigations have turned up no evidence of a compromise. The US Secret Service is said to be investigating.

A large number of email addresses (1.25B) and credentials (360M) have appeared on the black market. Their source is unclear, as is the identity of the criminals selling them.

Credentials stolen in the Target breach continue to be offered for sale, with the criminal vendors typically taking payment in Bitcoin.

In industry news, privacy and countersurveillance products, services and tools continue to appear. Others are under development: Intel is working on a private collaboration environment.