The links among cyber criminals, hacktivists, cyber vandals, and state security services have long been complex and close. Iran's "Ajax Security Team" provides a case study of the transition from hobbyist to agent, with a thriving criminal sideline. Plausible deniability has long been a principle of clandestine operations, and it's firmly in place in cyberspace as well.

Russian and Chinese territorial ambitions, whether one considers them aggression or mere rectification, continue to alarm their neighbors. Expect state-inspired hacktivism and cyber rioting to affect regional targets, including Latvia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Glen Greenwald's most recent Snowden transmissions include an allegation of US-government backdoors in American tech exports.

Phishing continues to evolve in sophistication and diversity of technique. Bitdefender reports that Google account passwords are being stolen with crude-looking attempts that nonetheless appear successful in evading heuristic detection. Trend Micro finds more phishing sites asking for (and getting) multiple email addresses from their victims.

University researchers demonstrate malware cloaking that successfully bypasses several leading dynamic analysis platforms, including Google's Bouncer.

It is, of course, Patch Tuesday. Expect the word from Redmond later today.

The growing cyber insurance market is expected to push companies toward more comprehensive security measures. Whether this will prove merely a further accretion of compliance or more effective security will depend largely on how rigorously insurers and their clients deal with risk management.

Enterprises see fresh calls for threat information sharing in Australia and the US.

MI6's former head calls for a new approach to UK espionage oversight.