Once upon a time, Mac users could brag they were much safer from malicious electronic attacks. After all, in the days before Google (GOOG), when Microsoft (MSFT) was the only uber-player in town, Windows was the perpetual malware target. Phishers, however, aren't discriminating; they're just looking for an account to plunge. So, both Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft users are threatened. Virus writers do tend to focus on the Windows operating system, which owns 90% of the OS market, but phishers are platform independent.

Phishing involves attempts to get a user to reveal information about their accounts. Once the soon-to-be victim clicks that link or fills out a form, the "transaction" is complete -- no operating system interaction necessary. As a result, there really isn't any advantage to using a Mac over a PC.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to make billions in revenue each quarter on the back of its extensive text advertising network used on various Google properties as well as partner websites. The argument can still be made that the large majority of Google's income rests on the back of those simple ads which can be eerily relevant and lucrative for those who advertise on Google's network. One area, though, that has fallen by the wayside in recent years is the importance of Google ads in its Gmail email service.

Although competitor Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) still has a larger customer base of email users, Google's Gmail product counts tens of millions of global, more affluent users. Although the company gives almost all its products away for free, you won't see advertising inside most of them.

Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are partnering up this holiday season to try and keep all those nasty but legit-looking email messages out of your Yahoo! Mail inbox. Yahoo! is by far the world's most popular web-based email service and I can only imagine the effort it takes to sniff out fraudulent and phishing email messages from tens of millions of inboxes every day.

In many cases, Yahoo! Mail users will receive official-looking messages that appears to come from eBay or its online payment division, PayPal. Those who are fooled into divulging personal information like passwords and account sign-in information usually have a large headache cleaning up the identity theft mess later. But, what if those unofficial email messages never arrived in your inbox to begin with?

Last last week, the three companies (PayPal is a wholly-owned eBay subsidiary) announced that the DomainKeys e-mail authentication system would be used to block malicious email messages from the inboxes of Yahoo! Mail users. Yahoo! stated that the upgrade would occur over its global email network for the next few weeks, allowing it to verify the domain from which email messages arrive. In other words, those Russia-based fraud emails that look like real eBay communications may soon be blocked for good.

This is a great initiative between the largest email provider and one of the largest commerce sites on the entire internet, and it's perfectly timed for the holiday e-commerce season that's already underway. Now, Yahoo! needs to market this new partnership in every way possible to let customers know what it is and how it can help them. Something like this does no deserve to be just working behind the scenes.

For hundreds of thousands of eager job hunters out there, one of the quickest way to get their resumes out to perspective employers is using the online job site from Monster Worldwide (NASDAQ: MNST), Monster.com.

It all seems easy enough; just post your resume and wait for the job offers to roll in. Well, it has been discovered that hackers have cracked into the site's database in order to garner personal information that could help them tailor targeted "phishing emails" to the site's users.

"Phishing" is a long running problem for unsuspecting internet users, where users get e-mails -- seemingly from respected companies -- that convince them to log into various sites and turn over personal information. The most lucrative phishing programs come to users from sites pretending to be bank institutions, or large internet sites such as eBay.com. These try to get the users to log onto the sites and update passwords, or something similar.

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman last week outlined eBay's current three-prong approach for battling the phishers and scammers who continually prey on unsuspecting eBay users. Red Herring reported that this past Thursday at the VISA Security Summit in Washington, DC, Ms. Whitman made it known that in the continuing effort to restore basic user security to their site would remain proactive and reactive. What I found to be a startling contrast to former eBay attitude on the subject was Ms. Whitman's admission that in this continuing effort eBay could not go it alone, as evidenced by her request for involvement in the anti-fraud efforts by the filtering of e-mail by ISPs, something which is unlikely to happen.

The three-prong approach that eBay is implementing is focused on protecting eBay users from unwittingly divulging important personal and financial information to people who have no business obtaining such data. The plan involves a key fob that accesses randomly generated passwords, the blacklisting of known fraudulent websites, and a request that ISPs only forward e-mail from recognized domains. On their face the conjoined ideas sound legitimate but analysts remain highly skeptical as to their usefulness effectiveness and implementation.

Losses from e-mail phishing and other data diversion tactics topped $2.8 billion for 2006. Reports say that the three major targets are PayPal, eBay, and commercial banks. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said that eBay is "at the center of this hurricane for fraudsters." While eBay is certainly not at fault for the continuing onslaught upon their membership, this writer maintains that it needs to be far more transparent about its problems, far more helpful to its members, and far more aggressive in the successful prosecution of the individuals who continue to pillage eBay membership.

Key fobs are for keys. Prisons are for scammers. Let's get with it eBay.

Had enough of the malls already? Today is the recently anointed retail landmark known as Cyber Monday. It is the first Monday after Thanksgiving and the day that shoppers, in theory already weary of the extreme shopping experience offered on Black Friday, are ready to shop from the comfort of their office chairs.

The day got its name from trade group Shop.Org just last year and doesn't represent the biggest online shopping day -- just one of the biggest, according to an article in the The New York Times (registration required). The headline predicts, "E-Looking But Little E-Buying," and the article pokes fun at the alleged phenomenon, quoting a retail analyst saying the day is "more hype than reality."

Perhaps this year that record will change as more stores offer special online deals. Barnes & Noble, The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD), and Petco.com are mentioned in The Times as having special offers today. GottaDeal.com has a special CyberMonday forum listing online offers from Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY).