6. Spammers use free Web services to shield links: Spammers are using free Web services to try to make the spam links they send out look more legitimate, according to MessageLabs. Photo-hosting sites and the like are being used by spammers who are taking advantages of various features offered as part of free services, the e-mail security vendor has found.

7. Microsoft, Red Hat, HP, Sun give desktop virtualization a boost: Desktop virtualization has been constantly in IT headlines in recent days, with Microsoft, Red Hat, HP and Sun all getting into the mix, announcing virtualization products, plans and related acquisitions.

8. Online ad targeting progresses in UK, lags in US: A behavioral ad targeting system that has raised privacy concerns in the U.S. may soon be in use in the U.K. BT plans to use the Webwise tracking system from online ad company Phorm and two other U.K. Internet service providers, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse, are planning to test the system, according to Phorm. Webwise tracks the sites Internet users visit and the keywords they use in searches and then sends them ads related to where they've surfed and what they've searched.

9. Internet traffic growth slowing, research firm shows: Remember the alarming reports that the Internet is going to collapse under the weight of its own data, especially as more video goes online? Well ... For the second year in a row international Internet capacity grew at a quicker pace than Internet traffic, according to TeleGeography. International Internet traffic grew 53 percent from the middle of last year to the middle of this year, compared to 61 percent in the prior year. Between 2007 and 2008, average traffic utilization levels on the Internet dropped to 29 percent from 31 percent, with peak utilization decreasing from 44 percent to 43 percent, the market-tracking firm found.

10. Cheaters: Inside the hidden world of IT certification fraud: A group of IT hardware and software vendors have joined with independent certifying agencies, test centers and some others to create the IT Certification Council in an effort to share information to keep certification fraud from occurring. Certification cheating is apparently a dirty little IT secret that the council seeks to bring into the open.