CrowdStrike reports on the DNC hack and links it to Russian hybrid warfare going on in eastern Ukraine. First, it notes that an Android app, Попр-Д30 (Popr-D30), designed by a Ukrainian officer to simplify operation of D-30 122mm howitzers, was Trojanized by Fancy Bear (the GRU) with a variant of X-Agent malware. Data from Popr-D30 (it's unclear whether Popr-D-30 is a survey or a fire direction tool) were used to locate, target, and destroy Ukrainian D-30 batteries. The connection with US election hacking is this: Fancy Bear used earlier versions of X-Agent implants against the DNC; X-Agent is one of Fancy's signature tools.

Some observers claim to discern a silver lining in the clouded Russo-American cyber relations: intolerable tensions could lead to détente. Maybe.

Suspicion rises in Ukraine that last Saturday's power outage around Kiev was the result of a cyberattack. It resembles last December's attack on that country's grid in that it involved disruption of an electrical substation's operation.

Seeking to heighten mistrust and hate in the Dar-al-Harb, ISIS online media urge Christmas attacks on Christian churches.

A wave of dictionary attacks on WordPress sites, earlier attributed to unknown criminals operating from a Ukrainian ISP, has been further localized: the attackers appear to be working from Alchevsk, a city in the Donetsk Oblast which is heavily disputed in the ongoing hybrid war. Bleeping Computer notes that Ukraine's government has only tenuous control over the city, and that it seems likely the ISP is a bulletproof host catering to criminals.