Cyber attacks are damaging the world economy, a former White House official has warned, and leading economies need to put aside political differences to deal with the threat.

Medical devices including heart defibrillators, patient monitors and anaesthesia devices include a dangerous password vulnerability which could be exploited by cyber attackers, according to the FDA.

Google claims to have spotted and disrupted several phishing campaigns in Iran – attempts to compromise tens of thousands of email accounts in the run-up to the country’s presidential elections this Friday.

A new era of secure passwords could be upon us with a facial password system that can unlock phones using facial expressions – with users required to stick tongues out or frown at the camera instead of typing a password.

Banks should look to spam emails and their own server errors as a source of information, says Nicholas Scott of National Australia Bank (NAB), speaking at the RSA Conference Asia-Pacific in Singapore.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has been warned that telecoms equipment made by Chinse firm Huawei should be tested by security services to protect against cyber attacks.

Microsoft and the FBI have broken up a large portion of the Citadel botnet – a network which had stolen $500 million from bank accounts in 90 countries around the world by installing keylogger software on five million machines.

A top internet security official in China has said that his organization has “mountains of data” on U.S. cyber attacks against the country. Huang Chengqing, the director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China (CNCERT), made the comments in the state-run China Daily newspaper, calling for greater cooperation between the two states on hacking.

The upcoming 8.1 update to Windows 8 will offer improved fingerprint security – including the option to secure folders using a fingertip, as well as signing into Microsoft accounts and authenticating online payments.

Silicon Valley technology firms should take the lead in defending the private sector against cyber attacks, says Paul Rosenzweig, a former Department of Homeland Security official, now founder of Red Branch Consulting.