ITNews writes that “

[a] report by the Center for American Progress and the Center for Democracy and Technology has found there is too little action being taken against online criminals, despite rising consumer concern about online safety.  The report found that [U.S.] state officials were spending only 40 per cent of case time investigating online fraudsters, preferring instead to concentrate on higher profile solicitation and pornography cases.  Only 8.9 per cent of investigations involved data security, confidential records, or identity theft, and 15.5 per cent involved online sales and services, such as failure to deliver on a purchase.”

Internetnews.com reports that “[s]pending on online ads overtook advertising on mainstream TV in Britain last year, growing 40 percent to $5.3 billion and accounting for 19 percent of all advertising, U.K. communications regulator Ofcom said.  In its annual report on Britain’s $95.6 billion communications industry, the watchdog found that TV advertising remained flat at $6.6 billion. Ofcom also said it found that Britons spent four times as much time on computers, or 24 minutes a day, and twice as much time on mobile phones in 2007 as in 2002.  ‘We are spending more and more time with our communications devices but spending less on them,’ Ofcom’s strategy and market development partner, Peter Phillips, said in the report, which covers TV, Internet, mobile and fixed-line telephony and radio.”

The Mercury News reveals that “[o]n Wednesday, Apple became Silicon Valley’s most valued company, nudging out Internet behemoth Google by what amounts to pocket change among the tech giants.  For the first time since Google’s 2004 initial public offering, Apple finished the day with a higher market value than the Internet search leader. The total value of Apple’s stock was $158.84 billion, a relative whisker more than Google’s $157.23 billion. That was enough to unseat Google as Silicon Valley’s No. 1 company.”

At the same time, however, PCMag.com has an article claiming that if the applications in Apple’s new App store represent “the state of software development today, we should all worry.”

eWeek.com warns that “[s]ecurity hackers behind the CNN-spam campaign [have] switched to MSNBC, sending spoofed e-mails claiming to be MSNBC news alerts in an attempt to lure victims into downloading malware. The hackers are sending about 1.5 million to 2 million spoofed MSNBC news alert messages per hour, according to security researchers at MX Logic. Security firms Sophos and MX Logic warn users to be careful about clicking on links in e-mails.”