Even the smallest web based business in the world will attract criminal hackers interested in stealing financially valuable data.

Reports from Asia say that Singapore is to open a new Cyber Security Lab in a bid to combat criminal hacking by training law enforcement officers in the latest anti-cyber crime techniques.

The business-focused social network has seen a lawsuit related to the June 2012 hacking of its web site overturned in a San Jose federal court. The criminal hacking resulted in the release of 6.5 million passwords causing the Mountain View based company to instruct some of its members to reset their passwords, in a speedy response to the incident.

The Financial Times reported that the UK and India will improve co-operation in a bid to combat the growing threat from international cyber crime and cyber warfare in a new agreement between the two countries. The announcement was made during British Premier David Cameron’s trade trip to the emerging economic power.

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to release a long-awaited executive order aimed at improving cyber security were realised Tuesday.

The order is designed to better protect the country’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks that are a growing concern to the economy and national security, according to Reuters.

According the UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) the Cyber Strategy outlined in November 2011 has started to deliver benefits but more must be done. According to the NAO the cost of cyber crime to the UK is estimated to be between £18 billion and £27 billion. Business, government and the public must therefore be constantly

The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cyber security force which will result in a five-fold resource increase.

The EU’s cyber security agency ENISA has published its Cyber Threat Landscape analysis of 2012 which puts drive-by-exploits as the top web threat.

As part of an EU drive to combat the growth of cybercrime across member states a new European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) based at Europol headquarters in The Hague opens Friday 11th January.

In a story that could be lifted direct from a Hollywood script, a Japanese hacker placed a memory card on the collar of a stray cat found wandering on an island near Tokyo.