Last week's WikiLeaks dump from "Vault 8" (successor to Vault 7, and still concerned with the US CIA) purports to show that the US intelligence agency was engaged in false flag operations in which its activities could be plausibly attributed to Kaspersky Lab. This hasn't served to clear Kaspersky of the suspicion it's under: the UK's GCHQ is the latest Western intelligence agency to sound a warning.

NSA and its partners in counterintelligence continue to struggle through its investigation of leaks that wound up in the Shadow Brokers' hands. Three people have been taken up by the investigation, two of whom, Hal Martin and Reality Winner, are awaiting trial. The third individual was the first one fingered, back in 2015 and shortly before the Shadow Brokers began their damaging publication of alleged NSA documents. That person has yet to be publicly identified.

The US Intelligence Community reiterates its conclusion (pace denials by President Putin) that Russian agencies indeed sought to influence US elections. 

ISIS shows itself capable of defacing poorly defended school websites with slogans, but little more. Such puerile vandalism has had little effect in the past. A more serious campaign of inspiration appears to be in progress from ISIS rival al Qaeda, where Osama Bin Laden's son seeks to continue his late father's work.

Sputnik sheds crocodile tears over the largish number of senior information security positions remaining unfilled in the US Federal Government.

South Korean investigation of alleged political meddling by intelligence services takes a sharper turn.