Google's Millions Back Space Surveillance | Assange Extradition Denied | Hackers Steal Microsoft Source Code

Plus: U.K. Judge Blocks Extradition Of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange To U.S.

Anyone working in cybersecurity knew their Christmas holidays were potentially going to be disrupted thanks to the breach of IT supplier SolarWinds, which led to further hacks of various government departments, state agencies and tech giants like Microsoft.

As the ramifications of that sprawling attack, allegedly carried out by Russian government-backed hackers, continue to be analyzed, 2021 will likely throw up more epic acts of espionage. But outside of the clandestine realm, the world should also look out for unwarranted surveillance of innocent citizens, especially if the contact and location tracing that's come with monitoring Covid-19 remains in place.

We'll be keeping an eye on how governments continue to snoop on their own populations as well as those of other nations throughout the year. And we'll be tracking which individuals and companies are helping nations set up their most outlandish spying projects.

If you have any tips on government surveillance or cybercrime, drop me an email on tbrewster@forbes.com.

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Microsoft confirmed that some of its source code was accessed in the huge SolarWinds (or Solarigate) attacks. But it was steadfast in saying that, though it was hacked, it wasn't used as a launch pad for further attacks on its customers.

Over the Christmas break, another vulnerability was discovered in SolarWinds Orion, the IT management tool that was turned malicious by Russian hackers. The DHS has been urging everyone to update to the latest version.

The New York Times reported that SolarWinds had been warned before about its attitude to security and the possibility for disaster.

A backdoor account with an easily-findable username and password was discovered for firewalls and routers manufactured by Zyxel. It affected as many as 100,000 devices, according to ZDNet.

Winner Of The Week

Forbes inaugural Cybersecurity Awards gave best product to Corellium, a startup whose software can spin up virtual iPhones for security and app testing. The company has been sued by Apple for copyright, but in another win for 2020, that claim was thrown out just before the end of the year.

Loser Of The Week

Facial recognition faced major pushback in 2020, with moratoriums on its use across different states. But problems continue to emerge in places where it's still in use. Kashmir Hill at the New York Times reports on the third case of a Black man being wrongfully arrested based on a bad face match. Nijeer Parks, a 33-year-old falsely accused of shoplifting candy and trying to hit an officer with a car, is now suing the police, the prosecutor and the City of Woodbridge, New Jersey, after he spent 10 days in jail.