Scammers abuse Air France tragedy

Cybercrooks are once again taking advantage of current events to push malware, reports The Register.

Search engine result poisoning is being used so that searches involving the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 off the coast of Brazil point to scareware affiliate websites. The complex attack uses multiple site redirections, according to a Trend Micro blog.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK has launched a new guide to help businesses developing IT systems to consider the privacy impact on customers and employees, says Computing.co.uk.

The latest version of the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) handbook is designed to help organisations address the risks to personal privacy before implementing new initiatives and technologies.

An American ISP allegedly involved in distributing spam and images of child abuse has been thrown off the net, says The BBC.

The US Federal Trade Commission asked for Pricewert LLC's net links to be severed after it had gathered evidence of the firm's 'criminal' connections.

The FTC alleges that Pricewert had created one of the "leading US-based havens for illegal, malicious, and harmful content".

Spending on Internet advertising took a big drop in the first quarter of 2009 as troubles across the broader economy took their toll, reports CNet.

For the three-month period, Internet advertising revenue in the US was $5.5 billion, down a notable 5% from the $6.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report Friday from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Aside from a handful of smaller quarterly declines, Internet advertising revenue has risen steadily since the middle of 2002, as the sector began to recover from the dot-com bust.