According to an annual report by Barracuda Networks, 95 percent of all email sent in 2007 was spam. In 2001, the report points out, 5 percent of all email was classified as spam. The company bases its numbers on evaluation of more than one billion daily email messages sent to 50,000 customers. From 2006, the tide of spam rose from an estimated 85-90 percent to its present level of 95 percent.

Based on its analysis, the company says that nearly 50 percent of users received five or fewer spam messages each day, while 13 percent received more than 50 spam messages per day. Nearly 6 of 10 respondents viewed spam as the worst form of junk advertising, compared to 31 percent who cited postal junk mail and 12 percent who cited telemarketing.

The Department of Defense has advised its vendors that its spending on traditional IT goods and services will slow, in favor of additional spending on network-based and embedded IT technologies. The DoD still plans to increase traditional IT spending by about 5.5 percent over the next few years.

The shift in spending priorities could hurt vendors and integrators, because the DoD plans to prohibit the use of lead systems integrators starting in 2010. Companies that offer embedded IT technologies and specialized networking services will benefit, however, thanks to increased defense appropriations for the war.

Microsoft has described a bug in its newly released Home Server product that could corrupt files. The corruption occurs when certain programs are used to edit files before they're saved to the Home Server. Users of Vista Photo Gallery, Live Photo Gallery, Office OneNote 2007, Office OneNote 2003, Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Money 2007 and SyncToy 2.0 beta, may find their files corrupted after saving them to Home Server.

Additionally, the company is looking into reports that Torrent applications may cause corruptions of Quicken and QuickBooks program files. Microsoft has not yet released a fix for the problems, but suggests making a backup copy of these program files prior to saving them on Home Server. According to the company, the problem may be related to a recently discovered issue with Windows Home Server shared folders and its interactions with certain programs.

A Cornell university researcher is looking for ways to reduce IT-related repetitive motion injuries. Alan Hedge is evaluating a vibrating mouse, as well as an LCD monitor on an adjustable arm to determine whether these devices can reduce computer-related injuries to office workers.

So far, Hedge's observations are mixed. The vibrating mouse does remind users to remove their hands from the device when they're not using it, however, test subjects tended to hover directly over the mouse using a hand position that could create injuries that are just as serious or perhaps worse than those created by holding onto a mouse.

The LCD monitor mounted to an adjustable arm, however shows promise. Users reported a reduction in neck and back pain when using the mounted monitors.

For anyone who doubts the seriousness of phishing on the Internet, a new study by Gartner shows that phishing attacks cost 3.6 million consumers more than $3.2 billion dollars. The number of phishing victims rose by more than one-third from 2006, with the prime target being debit cards.

More than three percent of consumers who responded to the Gartner study indicated that they'd lost money due to a phishing attack. The average dollar loss in 2007 dropped to less than $900, and the number of persons able to recover their money increased.

PayPal and Ebay are the most-spoofed financial brands, and nearly half of all victims indicated that a debit card had been the payment method they'd used when they were victimized. Debit cards are becoming more attractive, since security measures for debit cards, and debit fraud are weaker than those used to protect credit card information.

According to Gartner, phishing attacks directed against debit cards will continue to grow through 2009, and online ad networks will deliver about 30 percent of the malware directed at consumers.

A security company in Bucharest has identified a Trojan aimed at replacing Google AdSense text with malicious ads. The malicious ad links could direct unsuspecting users to malware sites that could subject victims to additional attacks.

Google has already begun to cancel customer accounts that are displaying the bogus ads. The Trojan modifies the Host file on the victim's computer to redirect ad link visitors to an address not affiliated with the Google AdSense program and directs victims to load ad text from another source.

Most malicious code comes from online ads. DoubleClick and RealPlayer have been targeted in recent months with malware-embedded ads.