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McAfee, the computer security firm, announced that it is buying Trust Digital, a smartphone management and security software company.

McAfee, which has nearly $2 billion per year in sales, is hoping the acquisition of Trust Digital will allow it to present a total security loop, from endpoint, McAfee's speciality, through a company's smartphones, and back again.

Does Facebook need to run its own anti-virus and anti-malware security system? That's a question that may need to be addressed in the near future as the now almost 500 million users on the social networking service are facing regular attacks from rogue applications, phishing attempts and other sorts of hacks, not to mention the onslaught of viral, but often completely inaccurate reposted status messages that spread around the network like modern-day chain letters. These messages warn users about some supposed threat occurring on site, but are often either misguided or out-and-out lies.

Is it time for Facebook to step in and do more to protect its network and its users from threats like these?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg penned a public statement about Facebook privacy issues and what's being done about that issue by way of an article published in today's Washington Post. In the brief, carefully crafted mea culpa, Zuckerberg addresses the ongoing privacy backlash the site is now facing: "We just missed the mark," he wrote, referring to the overly complex, granular privacy settings and controls that offer toggles for everything from search engine visibility to whether or not your photo albums can be seen by your boss.

What wasn't addressed, however, was why the need for clearer, easier-to-use privacy settings became such an urgent matter in the first place. And that is at the core of Facebook's steamroller approach to forcing people into public sharing, a corporate philosophy that seems less about impact to its bottom line and more about fulfilling Zuckerberg's personal vision for a more social Web: "If people share more, the world will become more open and connected," he writes in the article. "And a world that's more open and connected is a better world."

Google just announced that it is rolling out a new beta feature that will allow users to enable Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption when using Google's Web search. Currently, whenever you search on Google, your search data is not encrypted and anybody with enough interest in getting this data can do so by listening in on your connection. Now, Google will use the same encryption methods that banks on e-commerce sites use to prevent others from snooping on your searches as your data moves between your browser and Google's servers.

Togetherville is a new social networking site launching today that's aimed at young children under 10-years-old. Although some parents may balk at the idea of children this young establishing a social networking identity and presence, the purpose of the new service is to provide a training ground where parents can teach their kids important lessons about online communication, community building and what it means to be a good digital citizen.

Think your Facebook profile is private? You had better double-check. A new website provides a voyeuristic look into the once-private social network by making Facebook status updates searchable.

"My boss is a jerk and always tells me what I'm doing wrong!", posts one user who we'll be kind enough to not name (although her full name is available on the site). "Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but I'm totally wearing my new corset to work today," another woman over-shares. "I totally cheated on the test!" brags a third.

Do these people know their status updates are now available to the whole Web? Or do they just not care?

Facebook is now one of the most popular targets for phishers, hackers and scammers. According to the Associated Press, however, Facebook is in the process of rolling out some new security features that will protect its users from malicious attacks, spam and phishing scams. For a while now, Facebook already offered users the ability to be notified when an account was accessed from a computer or device they hadn't used before. Now, Facebook will also alert users of unusual activity on their accounts and allow users to register their devices with Facebook.

Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, introduced a "plugin checker" page last fall that analyzed whether the plugins you had installed in your web browser were up to date. Now that tool has been updated to check plugins installed in other web browsers too, including Safari, Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer.

According to the Director of Firefox Development, Johnathan Nightingale, plugin safety is an issue across the web. "Outdated plugins are a major source of security and stability risk for web users," he wrote in a recent company blog post.

Thirty-two percent of online teens have experienced some form of harassment via the Internet, a problem also known as "cyberbullying." According to recent data, 15% of online teens have had private material forwarded without permission, 13% have received threatening messages and 6% have had embarrassing photos posted without permission.

In light of the recent discussions surrounding Facebook and privacy issues, it's important to note that Facebook's new push towards becoming a more open, public network won't just have an effect on an adult population concerned with worries of "friending" bosses and colleagues or adjusting the privacy settings on their children's photos - it will affect the children themselves, as well as teens and young adults, all of which combined make up over a quarter of the social network's user base.

A surveillance firm is now selling a spyware application for Apple's new slate computer, the iPad. With this software installed, users can secretly track activity including emails sent and received, web sites visited and contacts added to the iPad's address book. The information is surreptitiously recorded to a log file which is then uploaded to the Web whenever the iPad has an Internet connection. Afterwards, the user doing the spying can review the data from any computer connected to the Web, with no further need to gain physical access the iPad.