AP - Google is focusing on the importance of protecting personal information in an unusual marketing campaign for a company that has been blasted for its own online privacy lapses and practices.

Reuters - Hackers disrupted online access to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Airlines and three banks on Monday in what the government described as a cyber-offensive against Israel.

Reuters - A hacker who goes by the name of "Yama Tough" threatened Saturday to release next week the full source code for Symantec Corp's flagship Norton Antivirus software.

Mashable - As hacks go, Zappos's attack over the past weekend could have been a lot worse. If you're one of the estimated 24 million affected Zappos or 6PM.com (an affiliate site) customers, you can take solace in the fact that only the last four digits of your credit card number have been compromised. Likewise, as Zappos CEO Tony Hseih explained in an email to customers on Sunday, hackers stole a cryptographically scrambled version of users' passwords, not the actual password.

Digital Trends - Yesterday brought some good news for opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and other in-process legislation intended for use as a weapon against cyber-criminals. The official online voice of the White House ran a lengthy blog post detailing “what the Administration will support—and what we will not support” if/when bills like SOPA and PIPA pass through Congress and land on President Barack Obama’s Oval Office desk.

AP - The computer networks of a San Francisco community college have been infected with software viruses that illegally transmitted personal data from students and employees overseas, school officials said Friday.

Digital Trends - A new variant in the long-standing Sykipot malware family appears to have a new trick up its sleeve. According to AlienVault, instead of just launching spear-phishing email messages, the new Sykipot variant now appears to be targeting credentials of the PC/SC x509 smart cards used by the U.S. Department of Defense and a wide range of corporations and enterprises, including defense contractors.

AP - The loose-knit hacking movement "Anonymous" claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor. One hacker said the goal was to pilfer funds from individuals' accounts to give away as Christmas donations, and some victims confirmed unauthorized transactions linked to their credit cards.