Investigations--the SEC looks into Solarigate, German prosecutors inquire into GhostWriter. The Meris botnet is responsible for recent DDoS attacks. Implausible deniability. The SINET 16 are announced.

The SEC’s inquiry into the SolarWinds incident may expose other, unrelated data breaches. Researchers identify an IoT botnet, Meris, as responsible for DDoS attacks against a number of banks. German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the GhostWriter campaign. Researchers look at the cozy, implausibly deniable relationship between Russia’s security services and cyber gangs. A money-launderer gets eleven years. David Dufour from Webroot has straight talk about paying the ransom. Our guest is Jeff Williams from Contrast Security with a look at AppSec Observability. Congratulations to the SINET 16 winners. And we remember 9/11: has it already been twenty years? For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/175