EU
EU to vote on harsher penalties for hackers
Illegal hackers will face at least two years in prison, botnet creators and herders are looking at three years, and those who go after critical infrastructure will be jailed for at least five - and the proposed directive takes pains to protect pen testers and whistleblowers.
Spanish Linux group runs to teacher, complains about Microsoft's Secure Boot
Spanish open source association Hispalinux, reports Reuters, has officially complained to the European Commission about the Windows 8 Secure Boot system.
Paul Ducklin gets quizzical about what happens next...
Infosec pros give verdict on EU’s new cybersecurity strategy: "Nice try"
The European Commission on Wednesday launched a proposal for a new cybersecurity strategy with good intentions and great fuzziness, as some dissatisfied infosec professionals see it.
Monday review - the hot 22 stories of the week
Here you go.
All the stories we wrote in the past seven days, in case you missed anything (or just want to read them again).
Abuse of .EU domains by malware gangs continues despite Registrar notification
What do you do when attackers are abusing legitimate domain Registration services?
How do you stop or at least disrupt the malicious attacks?
Reporting the incident to the appropriate Registrar is the correct course of action, but as you can read, doing so does not necessarily guarantee results.
EU domain abuse, courtesy of the Blackhole exploit kit
Numerous .eu domains have been registered this month for the purposes of infecting computers with malware, via the Blackhole exploit kit.
Security expert Fraser Howard takes a closer look.
EU tells Google to make its new privacy policy clearer and to give users easier opt-out
EU regulators have asked Google to shape up its new privacy policy - a policy that most regulators found too vague and too tough for users to opt out of. But neither clarity nor easy user opt-out work in Google's favor, and many of us are too addicted to cut the cord to free services such as Gmail, YouTube and Google+.
EU considers uniform data breach law and mandatory 'cyber' insurance
As the EU ponders changes to its data protection laws, ENISA advises that it might help to require "cyber insurance" policies to encourage organizations to shore up their online security.
The EU parliament computer network is under attack
The European Parliament's computer network is under attack, and reports suggest it is similar to the cyber attack the EU Commission faced last week. An EU parliamentary spokesperson confirmed that the attack was still underway as of this morning.
Major cyber attack hits EU Commission and EEAS days before Brussels summit meeting
A "serious cyber attack", similar to those we saw against France's finance ministry earlier this month, has hit the EU Commission and European External Action Service (EEAS).
Crowd sourcing the fight against cybercrime?
Europol considers using crowd sourcing in the fight against cybercrime.
Hunting for evidence of cybercrime might be a fun amateur pastime, but could it expose you and your computer to more serious dangers?
European Internet Explorer users invited to choose another browser
Starting next week, European users of Internet Explorer may expect to see an invitation to choose an alternative browser for surfing the worldwide web. As part of a settlement of a long-running anti-competition dispute with the European Union, Microsoft has Read more…
