As sanctions reimposed in response to its nuclear program begin to bite, Iran seems poised to follow the trail North Korea blazed in cyberspace: state-directed hacking that aims at direct theft to redress economic pain. Accenture researchers have been tracking ransomware strains, many of them requiring payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, and they've concluded that they represent an incipient Iranian campaign against targets of opportunity that offer the prospect of quick financial gain. Tehran's state-directed hackers have a reputation as being relatively less sophisticated than those run by Russia and China (and indeed those run by major Western powers, the Five Eyes and their closest friends) but they also have a reputation as determined fast-learners.

Palo Alto's Unit 42 describes a phishing campaign by unattributed threat actor DarkHydrus that's prospecting Middle Eastern governments.

In a move widely applauded in the UK, the US has announced imposition of very heavy sanctions against Russia over Moscow's nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England. Other sanctions for Russian misbehavior in cyberspace have also been imposed. The Washington Post sniffs that these cyber attack sanctions are "toothless," but the measures the US is taking in response to the Novichok attack appear to be severe, and have been recognized as such by the Russian government. The Kremlin swiftly denounced the Novichok sanctions as not only "illegal," but "unfriendly." 

Reality Winner, the ex-US Air Force, ex-NSA, ex-contractor who pled guilty to charges connected with leaking classified information to the Intercept, will be sentenced on August 23rd.