Cyberwar against ISIS could bring into play tools and tactics that corporate security pros face every day, only this time they will be used as part of a larger objective than criminal profit.

The goals of the offensive are to disrupt communications within ISIS and between the group and potential recruits, according to a story in the New York Times.

To meet those goals, U.S. Cyber Command could use such means as DDoS and man-in-the-middle attacks, banking Trojans and even ransomware-type attacks that irreversibly encrypt machines (but skip the ransom), experts say.

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The potential of connected devices to create damage, injury and mayhem is an ongoing security concern. But so far, the Internet of Things is not being linked, in a significant way, to security problems, says a new study.

Verizon, in its just-released annual report of report of cyber incidents, identifies phishing as the major problem. Of the over 65,200 incidents it gathered data about, about 2,250 resulted in a breach, or confirmed disclosure of data to a third party. (In Verizon’s parlance, a security ‘incident’ falls short of a breach.)

A major problem remains phishing, where typically an email with a malicious attachment or link is used to entrap a victim. There were about 9,500 reported incidents, with just over 900 reports of confirmed data disclosure. The main perpetrators of these attacks are organized crime syndicates (89%) and state-affiliated actors (9%), it said.

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An international group of investors announced today that Sirin Labs, a startup with $72 million in venture funding, is planning to create a smartphone that combines premium performance and functionality with strong privacy protection.

Sirin’s announcement gave few details about the device, internally dubbed the SP1, but the company says that interested parties won’t have long to wait for additional information, as it should go on sale within the next two months. The SP1’s design, according to Sirin, will attempt to graft high-end flagship features onto a far greater emphasis on security than most modern smartphones.

+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Top U.S. universities failing at cybersecurity education + Malvertising attack silently infects old Android devices with ransomware

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The U.S. no longer requires Apple’s assistance to unlock an iPhone 5s phone running iOS 7 used by the accused in a drug investigation, stating that an “individual provided the passcode to the iPhone at issue in this case.”

The Department of Justice has withdrawn its application in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

DOJ  had earlier appealed to District Judge Margo K. Brodie an order from Magistrate Judge James Orenstein, ruling that Apple could not be forced to provide assistance to the government to extract data from the iPhone 5s.

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