The Sony PlayStation 4 dominated the console market in 2014, outselling the Microsoft Xbox One throughout the entire year. The PS4 racked up 18.5 million PS4 sales worldwide, dominating every month except for November and December, The NPD Group said.

"PlayStation 4 was the top-selling console in the US and globally in 2014," a Sony spokesperson told GamesBeat. "And [it is] the fastest selling console in PlayStation history with 18.5 million sold through after just 14 months in the market. We are humbled by this success and want to thank gamers worldwide for helping us achieve holiday sales of more than 4.1 million across 123 countries and regions."

However, Sony has faced increased pressure from the Xbox One to close 2014, as Microsoft has offered competitive price cuts - and gamer bundles - as gamers have a lot to cheer for. Sony will face increased pressure from Microsoft in 2015, so it cannot bask in its 2014 success for too long.

The Lizard Squad made waves with their massive DDoS attacks on PlayStation and Xbox Live networks over the Christmas holiday. These attacks spoiled Christmas for untold millions of people as the DDoS attacks crippled servers and left shiny new game consoles unable to connect to online services. These attacks appear to be part of a larger marketing scheme for the Lizard Squad's DDoS-for-hire services.

The Lizard Squad isn't afraid to taunt authorities and that has drawn even more scrutiny. However, they have been very successful at remaining in the shadows, until now. UK police with the South East Regional Organized Crime Unit (SEROCU) cyber crime unit apprehended an 18-year-old male connected with the recent PlayStation and Xbox Live DDoS attacks. The man was also charged with several swatting incidents, in which a fake police call is made to instigate police raids against others.

The Lizard Squad has also been connected with a bomb threat issued to an airline. This threat was made on an aircraft in the air that had a Sony executive among the passengers. This type of escalation has likely led to a heightened sense of urgency for officials to find those behind the shadowy Lizard Squad. The SEROCU worked closely with the FBI to apprehend the suspect, which suggests that The Lizard Squad is high on the FBI's priority list.

Over the past month a number of websites, including TweakTown, have experienced sporadic redirects to scam websites. It has been exceptionally difficult to track down the source of these redirects, and our team has been working tirelessly to isolate the source of the issue. The source of the issue appears to be malicious code injected into Google Adsense ads, which are used by websites around the world.

In December a number of webmasters took to Google's Adsense Forum to complain of the issue, which seems to have peaked around January 9th. A total of 180 complaints were made on that day alone. Web security company Sucuri explains that cybercriminals possibly exploited two Adsense campaigns with Javascript code that loaded the malicious code. This redirect unfolds whether the user clicks the ad or not. Sucuri was able to track down the source, and notes:

The malicious redirect worked even in the Ad Review Center of the Google AdSense dashboard on Google.com site where webmasters may view ads that Google displays on their sites. This problem existed for about a month since the second half of December 2014, but became really widespread last Friday (Jan 9th 2015). By the end of the weekend, Google seemed to have been able to mitigate it.

Cybercriminals want to breach US companies, stealing data and customer records, and have found surprising levels of success. Some breached companies eventually discover that criminals spent months poking aroun compromised systems, taking their time before stealing large amounts of data.

The US government wants companies to be more forthcoming about data breaches once they are discovered, but some companies - if they actually know about it - remain quiet. Companies will be given some leeway if they inform the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about cybersecurity incidents after they do occur, according to changes the Obama Administration plans to put in place.

"There is an element of embarrassment at work here," said Robert Cattanach, partner at the Dorsey & Whitney law firm, in a statement published by reporters. "But hacking is not a problem that any one company can solve alone."

Smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi took the phone market by storm, and hopes to transition that success into connected technology. Xiaomi has introduced a "smart module" that its hardware partners can integrate into products sold to consumers.

The module will cost just $3.60 and can be installed in refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and other home products, according to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun. There is tremendous potential in smart technologies, and Xiaomi wants to ensure products are created in an effective manner to appease partners and consumers.

The Internet of Things (IoT) had a prominent presence during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, and smartphone makers have taken notice. Ideally, Xiaomi and other companies want users to be able to control connected technology via their smartphones.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a bureaucratic mess when it comes to cybersecurity - and would be inefficient and overmatched trying to protect citizens and other federal branches. This news comes as part of the "A Review of the Department of Homeland Security's Missions and Performance" report, which heavily scrutinized DHS activities.

"Widespread weaknesses in the federal government's information security practices represent a significant vulnerability that could be exploited by adversaries, creating a potential threat to national security and American citizens," according to the report.

It's not just hacktivists trying to breach US infrastructure, but foreign states with sophisticated cyberespionage programs. The DHS itself has failed in maintaining its own security protocols, let alone trying to secure other departments from potential cyberattack.

According to a new ruling by the EU court, European flight booking websites must display the total cost of booking immediately as the booking process begins. This is due to most companies waiting to display additional charges and fees until the last page of the process.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) applies not only to a flight you might be in the process of booking, but all flights in relation to it also. This news comes as a addition to the 2008 EU regulation stating "that airlines show the final price to be paid at all times, including taxes, charges, surcharges and other fees. The rules apply to any form of published pricing, including on the Internet," as reported by PC World.

Multiple airlines have ignored or bypassed these hidden charge laws, seeing the German Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) take on a legal battle with Air Berlin, promoting this initial law to be put in place.

Amidst the hectic week that was everything-CES 2015, the WaratTell rose from the ashes - set as a sensor based on 10 years of "laugh-detecting technology" and designed by Masafumi Matsumura of Osaka Electro-Communication University - this product actually has a real purpose.

Designed for when your oldies are put away in a home, this sensor will allow you to monitor how happy seniors are via an internet connection and an linked application, showing you how often they laugh or even if they've fallen over or are in any other kind of distress. This is thanks to audio-processing software that is linked to the sensor automatically distinguishing between various vocal sounds.

Fully optioned with a microphone, Bluetooth connectivity, Wi-Fi modules and an accelerometer, this device is located within a bright orange casing painted with a smiley face - which is then connected to a lapel or hangs around your neck.

Adobe has finally made Lightroom available on Android Smartphone platforms, months after adding iOS support for the program. This photo-editing program requires your device to be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or newer and needs a minimum of a 1.7GHz quad-core CPU and at least 8GB of free storage space.

This is one of the first times that we've seen smartphone applications specifically contain system requirements, but it's acceptable given the computing power needed for tasks that this software can perform. This app is also free to download, as long as you've created a Creative Cloud account and features slightly less features than the desktop edition - giving you full reign of the basic panel and cropping tools.

Unfortunately this release is limited only to your smartphones, with tablets being excluded from operation. You would think that tablets are far superior, given their viewing surface greatly outweighing that of a smartphone.

The French government announced there are 19,000 civilian websites now under cyberattack by unknown sources, in a wide-ranging attack. The French Defense Ministry recently faced a targeted distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, according to officials discussing the ongoing cyber operation.

"These attacks have no effect on the conduct of our operations," said Rear Admiral Arnaud Coustilliere, in a statement to CNNMoney. Reportedly, the attacks are targeting websites while hoping for weak cyber defenses, though the top visited French websites appear to be working fine.

Over the past week, cybercriminals have posted pro-Islamic images and messages on various religious groups websites and other sites. The Anonymous hacker group temporarily downed a jihadist website last week and the Charlie Hebdo magazine released a new edition that has sold millions of copies.