As the 2010 Winter Olympics kick off, the games are on everyone’s radar, including the cybercriminals who are looking to capitalize on this world event. Spam campaigns featuring breaking news stories filter through to in-boxes faster than ever before, as automated scripts scrape headlines and the text of news stories from hundreds of Web sites. This year, cybercriminals are going one step further, sending sinister emails using the Olympics as a guise to distribute malicious content in highly specialized, targeted attacks.

Social networking sites are a threat to online security, and Facebook is the worst offender, a report from Sophos states. The number of businesses hit by malware and spam attacks through social networks rose by 70 percent in 2009, the report found. More than 72 percent of businesses believe employees’ behavior on social networking sites could endanger security. The issue of social networks is rife with contradictions — although social networking sites help malware authors spread their attacks, they have also been instrumental in spreading knowledge.

Following a breach of its computer systems a year ago, Heartland Payment System, one of the five largest payment card processors in the United States, came under considerable pressure to strengthen its IT security, and it’s been embroiled in several lawsuits because of the breach. In January 2009, hundreds of thousands of business owners were stunned when Heartland announced its systems had been breached. Heartland’s services include card processing, payroll services, check management, online payments and micropayments.

Google is reportedly looking into the possibility that one or more staff members at its office in China helped enable the attack on its infrastructure in mid-December. After the attack was discovered, some Google China employees were denied access to internal networks, while others were put on leave, and still others were sent off to offices elsewhere in the Internet search giant’s Asia-Pacific operations, according to a Reuters report. Google did not return requests for comment by press time.

Computer security companies are scurrying to cope with the fallout from the Internet Explorer flaw that led to cyberattacks on Google and its corporate and individual customers. The zero-day attack that exploited IE is part of a lethal cocktail of malware that is keeping researchers very busy. “We’re discovering things on an up-to-the-minute basis, and we’ve seen about a dozen files dropped on infected PCs so far,” Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of research at McAfee Labs, told TechNewsWorld.

Following a hack attempt on Google originating in China, the Web search powerhouse stood up to the country’s government and declared it would no longer cooperate with its censorship laws. In fact, it may stop doing business in China altogether. Doing that would cost Google hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year, as well as any future growth opportunities there. However, what effect would rejection from one of the largest Web companies in the world have on China?

Social media is changing the expectations of consumers in the digital channel. Consumers now demand more transparency from companies. They want more than just the one-way conversation of traditional advertising. Consumers are no longer visitors to sites; they are active users of the Web. They expect to be driving the conversation. On social sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and on mobile devices through mobile Web sites and apps, consumers are determining what is being seen, what is being said, and how to say it.

Facebook has partnered with McAfee to improve the social network’s security measures. The arrangement will have McAfee remotely clean up Facebook subscribers’ PCs if the social networking site detects that the computer is infected. These subscribers will also see an ad for a six-month free subscription to McAfee’s Internet Security Suite software. Both companies will codevelop educational materials that will be posted on Facebook’s site for its subscribers. McAfee created a custom scanning and repair tool for Facebook that will be made available to the social networking site’s users.

Facebook has partnered with McAfee to improve the social network’s security measures. The arrangement will have McAfee remotely clean up Facebook subscribers’ PCs if the social networking site detects that the computer is infected. These subscribers will also see an ad for a six-month free subscription to McAfee’s Internet Security Suite software. Both companies will codevelop educational materials that will be posted on Facebook’s site for its subscribers. McAfee created a custom scanning and repair tool for Facebook that will be made available to the social networking site’s users.

Data leakage prevention is a topic that has been getting a lot of attention lately. Keeping sensitive data from leaving the network has quickly risen to the top of many IT and compliance officers’ lists of priorities. DLP will likely be the first thing most organizations spend their 2010 information security budgets on. Any time sensitive data gets into the hands nonauthorized individuals, it can constitute a data security breach. Malicious employees may take and use sensitive customer or employee information to commit fraud, identity theft or sell to others for quick, easy money.

If you want to know why the netbook is headed to the endangered species list, take a look at Gateway’s new ultraportable. The handsome offering with the bland designation “EC 1437u” has power, performance and a small footprint, all for a very reasonable price of $549.99. When the notebook is pulled out in a crowd, its glossy, cherry-red shell is sure to evoke envious questions about its origins. Although larger than most netbooks, the Gateway model is still smaller than a clipboard, albeit thicker and heavier.

Cyberpunk author William Gibson once wrote, “The street finds its own use for things.” That’s been the case for the Mac mini since its introduction in 2005. Originally marketed as a personal computer, it quickly gained street cred as a media server for the blossoming digital living room. Now Apple has given its mighty mite a proper server configuration in the hopes of moving the white box from the home to the office. The Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server was introduced last month. Save for the absence of a SuperDrive slot, the unit looks much the same as any other mini.

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