Last month the U.S. Justice department announced the takedown of the Darkode (get it? DarkCode – Dark Code?) international cybercrime ring, which the DOJ called one of the “gravest threats” to the security of online data. But what exactly does that mean to you, the average user sitting at home behind your computer?

For those of you hearing about the Ashley Madison hack and wondering who the heck Ashley Madison is, well, first of all, it’s not a who, it’s a what, or, if you like, a where. Ashely Madison is ashleymadison.com, and it’s a ‘dating’ site for married people. Yes, it’s a hookup site for married people who want to play around or have an affair.

Hyatt Hotels, owners of among others the Hyatt Regency brand, has quietly announced that their Hyatt Gold Passport system has been hacked.

With massive security data breaches happening more and more frequently, there is almost no way to avoid your own personal data being compromised. But what is the likelihood that your compromised data will actually be used for identity theft, fraud, or financial theft? Here’s how it breaks down.

With the increase in wifi in automobiles, coupled with onboard computing and tracki.. er, diagnostic capabilities, there has been a lot in the news lately about hackers wirelessly hacking cars. But how likely is it that your vehicle could be hacked?

Back in May of 2011, the Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) was hacked, compromising as many as all user accounts, as well as those of Qriocity and Sony Online Entertainment. A class-action lawsuit was filed, and now there is a settlement, in which all subscribers at or before that time stand to share.

Sony Pictures, for reasons known only to them, has done a 180 and will now allow a “limited theatrical release” of the movie The Interview, according to Sony CEO Michael Lynton. So what theaters are showing The Interview? At least two theater chains are known to be airing The Interview, with, almost certainly, more theatres to follow. There have also been hints of The Interview streaming via video on demand (“VOD”), and while the outlet has not been announced, there are rumours that it will be on Crackle, which Sony owns.

Here is what is going on around the Sony hack tied to Sony’s ‘The Interview’ movie, and the The Interview threat from the Sony hackers. The Interview, with a Christmas release date, sees Seth Rogen and James Franco’s characters going to North Korea to interview North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and convinced by the CIA to take the opportunity to kill Kim Jong Un. Ahead of its release, hackers hacked into Sony, grabbed all sorts of private employee and corporate data, including copies of the movie and other unreleased movies including Annie, Mr. Turner, Fury, and Still Alice, and then issued the following threat, including allusions to 9/11.

4.5 million patient records at hospitals across the United States have been hacked, and their personal data stolen. Community Health System (also known as CHS and CHS.net) is a network of 206 hospitals across the U.S., operating under different names, in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

If you have a StubHub account you will be concerned about the news that least StubHug 1000 accounts were hacked, and used to buy tickets.

The FBI and Department of Justice have jointly announced that over 90 people around the world have been arrested in a gigantic global takedown of those responsible for the Blackshades RAT (Remote Acccess Tool) malware – also known as “creepware”. In addition to arresting the Blackshades creator Alex Yucel (“Yücel” in his native Sweden), Yücel’s employees, including his marketing person, were arrested, as were customers who had purchased Blackshades and then used it against their own victims. Yücel’s partner and Blackshade co-creator Michael Hogue was arrested in a sting known as “Operation Cardshop” in 2012; Hogue’s arrest lead to the arrest of Yücel.

China and the United States have been hacking each other for years. But the U.S. distinguishes between military espionage and “economic espionage”, the official U.S. position being that military espionage (which the U.S. does) is acceptable, while economic espionage (which China does along with military espionage) is not acceptable. Now the U.S. has indicted 5 Chinese military officials – members of the People’s Liberation Army elusive “Unit 61398” – with economic espionage for hacking into Westinghouse, Alcoa, U.S. Steel, SolarWorld, United Steel Workers Union, and Allegheny Technologies. (Full text of first 20 pages of indictment below.)

Woo Themes has alerted their customers that credit cards used to purchase a WooTheme product from WooThemes.com between 11/27/13 and 5/8/14 have been compromised. n an email sent out today, Woo Themes advised that “sophisticated criminal hackers had intercepted some credit card details between checkout and our off site credit card processor.”

More than 4 Million SnapChat phone numbers, locations, and passwords have been stolen and leaked and made public. The database was put up on a site, SnapChatDB.info, where anybody could download the file. And while the site has been taken down, people who grabbed that file are already putting it to use.

The Pony Botnet Controller virus – which may be on your computer – has stolen millions of Facebook passwords, Google passwords, Twitter passwords and Yahoo passwords, along with log-in credentials from email accounts and even FTP accounts. All told more than 2 million account usernames and passwords were stolen.