In apparent support of their military objectives in the Syrian Civil War, Iran deploys AndroRAT and DroidJack against regional Android users. Recorded Future has details.
Passcode reflects on the career of late ISIS operative Junaid Hussain. While widely called a "hacker," his coding skills were, Passcode notes, "mediocre." And that didn't matter at all — he was by all accounts a successful information operator, making a strong contribution to ISIS success at inspiring followers.
Those Americans who contrast ISIS's evident success with their own disappointing national record at information operations (surprising enough, given that the field's basically marketing in battledress) may take some comfort by seeing them done badly elsewhere. See, for example, a campaign out of China designed to drum up international approval of the PRC's new Five Year Plan: it's Woody Guthrie refracted through Scooby Doo. Complete with a hootenanny atop a VW van.
Aljazeera asks whether it's possible to disrupt the Internet by cutting undersea cables. The short answer is "yes," especially given that techniques for doing so have been well understood for a century. Russian naval vessels appear to be taking an interest in cables that many in the West find disquieting. Disruption isn't the only threat here — the US NSA notes the possibility of interception, data manipulation, and infrastructure attack.
British police arrest a 15-year-old for the TalkTalk hack as TalkTalk struggles to recover.
Dridex is definitely back, and active in France.
The US and EU move closer to restoration of some version of Safe Harbor.