Computing looks back at the most important cyber security stories of the past six months
3 - China has "mountains of data" about cyber attacks coming from US
Responding to US allegations of malicious attempts to infiltrate its government systems and those of its top corporations, China in turn accused the US of the same activity.
A top Chinese official claimed in June to have "mountains of data" showing evidence of hacking originating from the US.
Huang Chengqing, director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT), made the comments ahead of President Barack Obama's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.
Huang said that cyber espionage goes both ways between China and the US, although he avoided directly accusing the US government of computer hacking.
"We have mountains of data, if we wanted to accuse the US, but it's not helpful in solving the problem," Huang told a government-run Chinese newspaper.
"They advocated cases that they never let us know about," he continued, before calling for more co-operation.
"Some cases can be addressed if they had talked to us, why not let us know? It is not a constructive train of thought to solve problems."
The week before, it was revealed that Chinese hackers had gained access to secret US government files about advanced weapons systems.
Huang didn't deny the cyber attack had occurred, but suggested that if the American government wanted to keep the information secure, it shouldn't have been connected to the internet in the first place.
"Even following the general principle of secret-keeping, it should not have been linked to the internet," Huang said.
2 - European Commission demands answers on Prism
Moving to even more recent events, EU Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding has raised her concerns over the Prism surveillance and information-sharing programme with the US Attorney General Eric Holder, who she is to meet in Dublin on Friday.
In a statement on her website, Reding cited the importance of trust and privacy to individual citizens, companies, and the wider digital economy.
"The respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law are the foundations of the EU-US relationship," she began.
"This common understanding has been, and must remain, the basis of cooperation between us in the area of Justice. Trust that the rule of law will be respected is also essential to the stability and growth of the digital economy, including transatlantic business. This is of paramount importance for individuals and companies alike."
The Prism programme apparently gives the US National Security Agency and the FBI access to data from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Skype, though each firm denies that it has given any agency access to its servers.
The controversy arose when former CIA employee Edward Snowden stated that US agencies gathered and shared data on the public's phone and internet use.
Google has responded to the controversy by publishing a letter it claims to have sent to both US Attorney General Holder and the FBI, in which it states that while it complies with legal requests for information, that does not extend to "unfettered access" to its data.
"Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the US government unfettered access to our users' data are simply untrue. However, government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation."
[Turn to next page for the top security story of 2013 so far]
