The Ukrainian rolling blackout, now by general consensus regarded as the work of Russian security organs, prompts electrical utilities worldwide (and especially in the United States) to take stock of their cyber defenses. Such taking stock results in an evergreen discovery: much of the information attackers would need to stage their attacks is freely available in open sources.

And while squirrels doubtless have a much larger track record in power disruption (as Tenable points out in a Passcode op-ed) observers look for an increase in cyber attacks on infrastructure in 2016.

A report surfaces, attributed to US Coast Guard sources, that a cyber attack on a US port was attempted and thwarted late in 2015.

Cyber-rioting resumes in the Subcontinent, as Indian hacktivists deface Pakistani sites as a memorial tribute to a slain border control officer.

Criminals are using compromised certificates to help spread malware infections. Trend Micro warns that Let's Encrypt certificates are being used to facilitate distribution of Angler. Zscaler reports some interesting findings on the information-stealing Trojan Spymel, whose .net executable is "signed with a legitimate DigiCert-issued certificate."

If you've wondered about how criminals monetize identity theft, here's one trending approach discussed by Brian Krebs: they use stolen identities in warranty fraud.

Time Warner Cable is notifying some 320,000 customers that their accounts may have been compromised.

WordPress issues an update that fixes some security holes. SilentCircle patches an issue in its designed-for-privacy Blackphone.

In industry news, speaker manufacturer Harmon International buys automotive cyber security company TowerSec.