Never start with an apology, but I’ll have to: no, I haven’t discovered a spectacular new type of cybercrime that catches many out at once, but given this news story somebody had to come up with this particular headline …

Unlike me, my colleagues did get seriously into banks and cybercrime this week. David Chadwick featured in a solid BBC South East news story (iplayer version now expired) on an internet banking theft. Banks are moving away fast from covering all losses incurred through internet banking related cyber crime. Watch this space as David and Julio Hernandez-Castro have not just been talking to this one journalist.

My comment piece this week is once again scarily close to politics. When the Cabinet Office published its update on the Cyber Security Strategy this week, I noticed that it didn’t refer to the effects of the Snowden revelations at all. In my piece at The Conversation I explain why that is silly. Some of my sneers at the Tories concentrating on irrelevancies like FedEx Terms and Conditions and outing gay GCHQ members (and attacking the Guardian in general) didn’t make it into the final edit. (The magical 1000 words!) There are also more petitions calling for less surveillance than I had space to list – the writers and big tech companies are mentioned, but there’s also an Academics Against Surveillance petition ongoing (no website yet – email Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius), one by Index on Censorship addressed to the EU, and I particularly support the one by privacy and human rights organisations.