This week’s proof of the fast-acting, opportunistic nature of today’s spammers and cyber scammers:

While the phrase “swine flu” has reportedly not been seen in spammed messages prior to the start of this week, an estimated 5 percent of junk mail clogging inboxes around the world now refers to it, according to industry stats cited in a Guardian.co.uk article.

Google Street View has now - starting Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - been launched in Sweden. Google's 360 degrees horizontal and 290 degrees vertical filming may catch you in action when you are taking your daily walk on the boulevard! Google Street View, a feature associated with Google Earth and Google Maps, was first launched in May 2007, when Google´s Chevy Cobalt units with roof-mounted cameras became part of the city images.

You may have seen the headlines last week about a series of worm attacks on Twitter. As we know that many of you use the site (and maybe even follow the team here at Lavasoft on it) we’d like to take a moment to clarify what it was and how you can stay safe.

While April 1 may have passed without the Conficker botnet activating an ‘armageddon-like’ payload, as some reports speculated, Conficker is still a threat that the world is watching.

Conficker is now not only making headlines for the malware’s latest actions and expectations, but it’s also making waves due to how computer users have responded to this threat and others like it.  

Social networks – whether you love them for the ease and ability to speak your mind, or haven’t completely warmed to them because of the opportunities they open up for scammers – there’s no denying their increasing popularity.

In light of that fact, we’ve featured social networking communities in the April issue of Lavasoft News. If you use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or any of the other countless networking sites, this month’s safety news and Lavasoft Malware Labs threat information is not-to-be-missed.