• The Justice Department has unsealed indictments against seven Iranians - allegedly working on behalf of the Iranian government, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran's armed forces - who are suspected of conducting distributed denial-of-service attacks against dozens of American banks as well as attempting to seize control of Bowman Dam outside New York City, reports GovInfoSecurity.

The DoJ also brought criminal charges against three alleged members of the Syrian Electronic Army - a hacking group that supports embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - for a years-long campaign of digital attacks, The Washington Post reports. "The charges against 22-year-old Ahmad Umar Agha, also known as 'The Pro' online; 27-year-old Firas Dardar, whose online name is 'The Shadow'; and 36-year-old Peter Romar, known by the alias Pierre Romar, were unsealed Tuesday," wrote Ellen Nakashima and Andrea Peterson. "Agha and Dardar were charged with a criminal conspiracy in relation to a string of attacks targeting media companies, as well as various government agencies.

• The Federal Trade Commission has issued warnings to 12 Android app developers that use audio beacons to track consumers across their devices and monitor TV viewing habits, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). "The smartphone apps contain Silverpush software that constantly listens for inaudible signals emitted by TV commercials and secretly collects and transmits viewing data," EPIC notes. The organization says the announcement appears to be a response to two earlier complaints filed by EPIC with the Commission. EPIC previously urged the FTC to limit cross-device tracking technology that links consumers' smartphone activity with what they see on their laptop or television.

• Verizon's latest Data Breach Digest includes an interesting anecdote about an unnamed water utility that experienced a cyber attack that reportedly altered the chemical settings on a water treatment plant. Softpedia reports that the water utility "noticed that, for a couple of weeks, its water treatment center was behaving erratically, with chemical values being modified out of the blue." Read more here. The Verizon Breach Digest is downloadable here.

Ironically, while the Verizon unit that published that breach digest is responsible for helping organizations respond to and clean up the mess from cybersecurity breaches, Verizon was forced to acknowledge its own breach last week. Investigative reporter Brian Krebs contacted Verizon Enterprise after reportedly encountering someone on a cybercrime forum selling the entire customer contact database for 1.5 million Verizon Enterprise customers. Verizon confirmed that intruders had used a vulnerability in the Verizon Enterprise portal to steal the customer data. Read Krebs's full story here.

The Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute (CSPRI) is a center for GW and the Washington area to promote technical research and policy analysis of problems that have a significant computer security and information assurance component. More information is available at our website, http://www.cspri.seas.gwu.edu.