NetworkWorld writes that “

[t]he figures from the latest Web Hacking Incidents Database Annual Report suggest that stealing money and data is not always the overriding motivation for hackers, although it has been a rising trend in recent years.  ‘While financial gain is certainly a big driver for Web hacking, ideological hacking cannot be ignored," the report said, which was sponsored by vendor Breach Security with support from the Web Application Security Consortium.  […]  Web site vandalism may carry a lower risk for organizations than a financial attack, but still highlights insecure Web pages.”

In more cyber security news, eWeek.com reveals that “[t]he National Security Agency may receive more responsibility for cyber-security under the new Obama administration. […]  Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair said the National Security Agency, which is responsible for codebreaking and electronic spying, should assume a greater role in cybersecurity because of its technological prowess and current role in detecting attacks.  ‘There are some wizards out there … who can do stuff. I think that capability should be harnessed and built on,’ Blair said in testimony to the House of Representatives intelligence committee.”

eWeek.com also reports that “Internet firm Yahoo is ‘not opposed’ to doing a deal that would potentially sell its search business, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said on Wednesday.  But he said the search business is deeply intertwined with Yahoo's other online products and properties, and so any deal, whether a partnership or a sale, would be done for the right reasons and the right economics.  ‘It's extremely difficult to draw a line down the middle of the organization and split it into two pieces,’ Jorgensen told the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference.”

According to Internetnews.com, “[a] new forecast from research group IDC is projecting that in the first quarter of 2009, online ad spending will see its first real decline since the dotcom implosion in 2001.  After running the numbers for the fourth quarter of last year, IDC analyst Karsten Weide found that the estimates of his own firm and many others were overly optimistic. He's now expecting online ad spending to drop as much as 5 percent this quarter.  ‘The latest numbers are not pretty,’ Weide wrote.  ‘While worldwide Internet ad spend continued to grow, if at a muted pace, fourth-quarter U.S. Internet advertising sales have been much worse than anticipated.’”

BBC News reports that “[UK] [b]roadband thinktank PointTopic has produced a regional breakdown of areas that currently do not have much net speed.  It shows that Northern Ireland is most poorly placed, with more than 30% of households out of reach of 2Mbps.  In Wales, 26.9% of homes are unable to get speeds of 2Mbps or above.  While London only has 1.2% of its population out of range of 2Mbps, places relatively near to the capital are not so lucky.  ‘Towns such as Basingstoke and Milton Keynes which people might expect to be well connected have notspots,’ said Tim Johnson, chief analyst with Point Topic.”