News alleging that the US implanted malware in Russia's power grid in an apparent move toward deterring Russian cyberattacks against the US remains where it was when the New York Times broke its story at the beginning of the week. Observers tend to regard the alleged activity as problematic, but nonetheless arguably legitimate as a deterrent or reprisal.

Argentina's blackout remains under investigation, but the likelihood that it was caused by a cyberattack seems increasingly remote. IEEE Spectrum's account of preliminary findings suggests that the outage was caused by disconnection of two 500-kilowatt transmission lines. One seems to have failed in a short circuit, the other to have been disconnected by an automated system. Automatic load-shedding mechanisms that ought to have contained the outage failed for reasons still unknown.

In the wake of stories about catphishing on social media, ZDNet summarizes FBI warnings of the ways in which foreign intelligence services use social media to recruit sources. The Bureau says foreign intelligence services operate booths of front organizations at trade shows. At least some of the people approached at the shows gave personal information because they apparently wanted to stop the booth people's pestering them. The personal information was minimal--usually just a business card--but useful nonetheless. The foreign intelligence services followed up with requests to connect over social media. Clearance holders are prized targets.

Facebook will soon launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra (complete with its own wallet, Calibra). The announcement prompts concerns over antitrust, privacy, banking, and sovereign currency policy.