An attempt by "Darkshadow — an Arab Security Team" to bring travel in the Western world to a standstill fizzled last week, but it did succeed in disrupting a bus timetable in Bristol (that's Bristol, England, not Bristol, Rhode Island).

That white-hat security-testing tool LizardSquad released last week? Lizard Stresser? It's now shown up in a black-hat denial-of-service attack: 4Chan was the victim.

Friday the US imposed sanctions on North Korea, citing (in an allusive, orotund way) the Sony hack. Three North Korean business and agencies, and ten named individuals, are now prohibited from dealing with US financial institutions. US authorities are sticking to their attribution of the attack to North Korea, and say they have the intelligence to support it (but won't release such intelligence due to its sensitivity). The Feds do say they've been tracking the DPRK group responsible for years, and CrowdStrike says (in effect) us too — we call them "Silent Chollima."

On the sanctions themselves, some wonder how the Sony hack could merit additional sanctions on top of those already imposed on the DPRK, and imposed in response to what would appear to be considerably more depraved and outrageous activity. Other observers discuss the prospects of cyber deterrence and find them generally dim.

MWR InfoSecurity warns of hidden dangers of third-party apps.

UAE authorities caution against using free email accounts for financial transactions.

Microsoft tells users to beware malicious macros.

Slovenian Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp suspends operations after an apparent hack.

Two banks in Finland sustain denial-of-service attacks.