Security companies watching the criminal ecosystem (and it is one — with both predators and prey) and see the marked resilience and persistence of crimeware. Zeus, to take one example, has received an upgraded control panel and impressive new evasion capabilities. The ZeroAccess click-fraud botnet returns after six months' absence, diminished but looking much as it did of old.

Prototypical CryptoLocker ransomware has been copied into a number of new versions as this particular form of cybercrime continues to grow in popularity. (Topface, the Russian dating site that recently lost some 20M email addresses to a hack, has "bought them back," paying what it insists isn't ransom, but rather a bug-finder's fee. This isn't really a ransomware case, but it surely looks a lot like extortion. How, by the way, do you "buy back" stolen data?)

The criminal underground may be enduring and dangerous, but it's a mistake to too readily credit cybercriminals with Moriarity-like genius. Forbes runs a derisive account of Hacker's List, excoriating it for "amateurism." And the Anonymous squabble with Lizard Squad is similarly unedifying. Many cybercriminals show no more genius than the average street punk — one of our stringers is reminded of the cage-full of goons the Baltimore PD can be seen rounding up daily around York and Woodbourne.

A very large malvertising campaign is found in a popular "adult" site.

Researchers demonstrate how "correlation attacks" can de-anonymize data, showing how much groundwork remains in preparing for effective information sharing.

France launches an anti-jihad information operations campaign.