Marketers look at why people join ISIS/Daesh, and their findings aren't too surprising: recruits want status, identity, revenge, redemption, responsibility, thrills, ideological triumph, justice, or death (roughly in that order). And those motives shape Daesh information operations.

An unusual DDoS amplification attack last week on the thirteen Internet root name servers, now disclosed and under discussion, puzzles observers. How it was carried out isn't too mysterious (probably through a large botnet), but why it was undertaken remains unknown. Few users would have noticed the attack, but Root Server Operations certainly did.

Bugsec and Cynet describe a vulnerability (they're calling it "FireStorm") in next-generation firewalls. It appears to enable an attacker to extract data through the firewall with only a TCP handshake.

Several companies, mostly in the travel or tourism business, are "scrambling" to encrypt the mobile apps their customers used for payment. Reports suggest that as many as half-a-million people a day have been losing their credit card information.

Singapore banks warn that a bogus WhatsApp update is stealing paycard information.

British universities are still working to mitigate the DDoS attack that's been interfering with their Janet network.

Chinese authorities defend censorship as international talks on Internet governance approach.

Passcode looks at Iran's cyber operational capabilities and sees long-term preparation for asymmetric warfare. Politico looks at corresponding American capabilities, thinks they're really good, and wonders when the Americans are going to start really using them.

Governments in Europe and North America show uneasy tension between aspirations for security and surveillance.