Digital Trends - Internet giant Google has proposed paying some $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over privacy violations that occurred when it launched its Buzz social networking service earlier this year. Some 30 percent of the proposed settlement money would go towards legal fees associated with the case, $2,500 each would go to the seven Gmail users who brought the suit, and the remainder would be split amongst organizations that promote online privacy and privacy education. Google admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge.

PC World - A clever spammer found a glitch in Facebook's photo upload system and used it to post thousands of unwanted Wall messages this week.

NewsFactor - Apple launched iTunes 10 with Ping, a new music-oriented social network, on Wednesday. Within hours, the site fell victim to spammers looking to make a quick buck from Apple's unsuspecting 160 million music lovers exploring the new way to discover what music their friends are listening to.

PC World - Germany will soon launch a service to help consumers remove malicious software from their computers in an attempt to stem the spread of spam-sending botnets.

PC Magazine - Days after its release, Apple's new Ping social network within iTunes is being inundated with spam comments.

PC World - Apple's music-focused social network, Ping is only a few days old, and already the iTunes-based feature is "drowning in scams and spams," security researchers say. The scams are nothing too advanced at the moment, and there are no reports of clickjacking worms or other forms of aggressive malware, experts say. But if you're looking for links to bogus surveys promising free iPhones, iPads, and other assorted iDevices, then Ping in iTunes 10 is the social network for you.

Mashable - iTunes Ping is apparently full of spam, yet another hiccup in Apple's road to establishing a legitimate social network.

PC World - Facebook users will soon have a new way of knocking spammers out of legitimate accounts.

PC World - Researchers are hoping to get a better insight on botnets after taking down part of Pushdo, one of the top five networks of hacked computers responsible for most of the world's spam.

PC World - A botnet responsible for a significant amount of spam has been crippled but may reconstitute itself in a matter of weeks, according to vendor M86 Security.

PC Magazine - On September 1, New Yorkers will have a chance to peer inside the sleazy world of cybercrime when the "Norton Black Market Experience" rolls in to Times Square via a converted semi truck.

PC World - In the wake of revelations that the US military network was compromised in 2008, and that US digital interests are under a relative constant threat of attack, the Pentagon is establishing new cyber security initiatives to protect the Internet. The Pentagon strategy--which is part digital NATO, part digital civil defense, and part Big Brother--may ruffle some feathers and raise concerns that the US Internet is becoming a military police state.

PC Magazine - Google has fixed an issue with Gmail that caused a small percentage of its accounts to repeatedly send email messages over and over.

Mashable - This week, a Gmail bug caused duplicate messages to be sent from some user accounts. In certain cases, the same messages were sent over and over for several days, which, as you can imagine, must have been extremely annoying to the recipients.

PC World - Gmail users have been reporting in droves that the Google webmail service is resending messages to their recipients, turning these users into accidental spammers who are unintentionally annoying friends, acquaintances and business contacts.

PC Magazine - A new study reveals that many companies aren't prepared to fight cybercrime.

PC World - More than 40 percent of the world's spam is coming from a single network of computers that computer security experts continue to battle, according to new statistics from Symantec's MessageLabs' division.