Cybersecurity experts on Wednesday warned members of a House subcommittee against racing to legislation that would establish an overly burdensome regulatory framework for safeguarding digital systems against attacks, instead urging a more limited approach that would clear away legal impediments such as the prohibitions against sharing critical threat information.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice teamed up for a coast-to-coast crackdown on identity thieves this week.

Angered by the move by federal authorities to shut down the popular website Megaupload on charges it illegally shared movies, TV shows and e-books, hackers said to be working on behalf of the hactivist group Anonymous late yesterday launched denial-of-service attacks against a number of websites, including that of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

After more than two years of protracted negotiations and numerous legislative rewrites, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is preparing to schedule a floor debate for a bill that would overhaul the country's cybersecurity framework, a senior aide to the Nevada Democrat said on Tuesday.

Will 2012 be the year when US retailers, banks and content providers finally bolster their DNS systems with an add-on security measure that prevents Web site spoofing? That's what advocates of the security measure - dubbed DNSSEC for DNS Security Extensions - are hoping will occur.

The moment is a profound one.