As far as I am concerned, security concerns dominated the high-tech world in 2011. The past year has seen the first documented attacks on American utilities, a probably act of cyber-war against an Iranian nuclear-processing target, fearless (and effective) attacks by the hacker collective known as Anonymous, and the emergence of cellular phones as malware targets.

There is no reason to believe these concerns will be any less urgent in 2012.

As snow falls over much of the U.S. and partiers around the globe prepare to celebrate New Year's Eve, security stories continue to dominate the headlines.

• Under the headline “A cyber-remedy for poison,” the Economist took a break from its in-depth coverage of political and economic policy to bring its stodgy readers up-to-speed on the vulnerability of DNS servers to “poison” redirection. The Economist's article is basically a sales pitch for OpenDNS and its DNSCrypt privacy tool.
• Another general-interest news organization, the Huffington Post, has published a report about the vulnerability of train systems to DDoS attacks. “Hackers could shut down train lines with DDoS attack: expert” is an in-depth evaluation of the vulnerability of train control systems that are increasingly interconnected via the Internet. The report is a bit breathless, but it brings a serious vulnerability to the attention of HuffPo readers.
• Reuters has published a summary of research to be published by Karsten Nohl, head of Germany's Security Research Labs. “GSM phones vulnerable to hijack scams: researcher” is a preview of findings that Nohl will present at an upcoming hacking convention in Berlin. Nohn says virtually any of the world's billions of GSM phones could be subverted by hackers and instructed to send text messages or make calls to expensive premium services.
• Identity Finder LLC has released details of its analysis of the recent Anonymous attack on Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor. The summary shows that activist hackers raided Stratfor's servers and emerged with more than 50,000 unique credit-card numbers, 86,000 e-mail addresses, 27,000 phone numbers, 44,000 passwords, and more. Hackers behind the break-in claim to have downloaded 2.7 million e-mail messages. The hackers have already used stolen credit-card numbers to make donations to charity.

Best wishes for a happy – and secure – 2012.

Web recommendation: Hey, this is fun: Odd technology job interview questions revealed. J.D. says check it out.

J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. He thinks most cheesecake is too sweet – it ought to be creamy and rich, but not sweet. A thin layer of sour cream on top is a good sign.