►Microsoft has decided to join its digital crimes and piracy investigation teams to form a single Cyber Crime Center. According to Dow Jones Business News, "The new center will consolidate [1] Microsoft's digital crimes and Internet piracy units into one advanced operations center on its Redmond, Wash., campus. It will give the company one center to coordinate investigations with governments and law enforcement agencies. A staff of 30 there will work with 70 other Microsoft investigators world-wide to focus on malicious software crime, technology-facilitated child exploitation and piracy."
 
►Bloomberg reports that sources in the U.S. Defense Department say that the day will soon be here when U.S. military leaders can order crack teams of cybersecurity specialists [2] "to carry out defensive and offensive computer operatons." The teams would be analogous to batallions and could carry out missions such as protecting the power grid and shutting down foreign hostile computer networks.
 
►Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that Japanese nuclear plants need to step up antiterrorism measures [3]. Abe said that security measures around Japanese nuclear plants were thin and limited to reactor areas. "Until recently, Japanese nuclear power plants were guarded by unarmed private security guards, who had to call police in case of a security threat," the article noted.
 
►Also in the news, The New Haven Register ponders whether Apple Mackintosh computers are growing more vulnerable to malware [4]. "While the vast majority of malware is aimed at Windows operating systems, the growing market share of MacBooks and iMacs is making Apple computers a bigger target. In recent years, Macintosh computers have garnered about 20 percent of the U.S. consumer market," notes the article. "Macs going mainstream may be great for Apple's bottom line, but it also makes the Macintosh operating system a bigger target for hackers, experts say." It's a question the media raises from time to time. There's no question that all systems are vulnerable to attacks, and that users need to take protective measures whatever system they use.