Google’s launch of a Web-based spreadsheet is further proof that the company is eyeing Microsoft’s Office stronghold. Now the question is: should Microsoft be worried? Google on Monday unveiled Google Spreadsheets, an addition to its roster of Web-based productivity applications that includes Google Calendar, launched in April, and Gmail, launched two years ago. In March, Google acquired Writely, a collaborative word processor that runs in a browser. The company hasn’t made clear its plans for that product and it remains in the beta stage of testing.

McAfee announced it has acquired Preventsys, a move designed to expand its security and compliance lineup. Preventsys markets its Security Risk Management System to large corporate customers. The acquisition is intended to bolster McAfee’s other risk management products, such as Foundstone, which it acquired two years ago for $85 million. Preventsys’ software is designed to consolidate security data from a multitude of vendors’ tools and display the information on one dashboard or screen.

Microsoft’s long-awaited entry into the market for all-in-one PC care is shaking up the consumer security field. A number of companies, including perhaps unexpected ones such as AOL, are readying security and maintenance packages for home computers, following Microsoft’s launch last week of Windows Live OneCare. It’s hard to pick an outright winner, but one thing is clear: health care for your Windows-based PC is getting easier, cheaper and more comprehensive.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been hit with a class-action lawsuit following the theft last month of a device containing personal information on about 26.5 million veterans. Five organizations and several individuals have asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force the agency to individually inform everyone affected and to pay $1,000 each to anyone whose privacy has been harmed, Vietnam Veterans of America said Tuesday. The suit also seeks to prevent the department from using the data until safeguards have been put in place.

Microsoft plans to launch updated and renamed Antigen email security products, nearly a year after completing the takeover of their maker, Sybari. Meant for use by organizations small and large, the Antigen products promise to cleanse email of spam and viruses. They work with Microsoft’s Exchange email server software and are part of the company’s strategy to become a player in the security software arena. Last week, Microsoft introduced Windows Live OneCare, a consumer security product.

The European Commission may take until the middle of July to decide whether to impose on Microsoft a daily fine of 2 million euros, about $2.6 million. Europe’s commissioners will meet for the last time sometime before the summer break on July 19. A commission representative told journalists Tuesday that this was the latest date on which a decision could be taken on the fine, which follows a landmark 2004 antitrust ruling.

AK Computer Services announced it has released Gestio Virtual Infrastructure Protection for Microsoft Virtual Server. Gestio VIP for MSVS allows you to monitor all aspects of Microsoft Virtual Server and its associated Virtual Machines using NetIQ AppManager. Gestio VIP for MSVS monitors and protects a Microsoft Virtual Infrastructure using your production systems management application. This enables you to apply the same levels of control, escalation, reporting and service level agreements to your virtual infrastructure as you apply to your production infrastructure, allowing you to confidently use Microsoft Virtual Infrastructure for production scale applications.

A major spammer who was accused of sending up to 25 million emails per day has settled a lawsuit with Microsoft and the state of Texas. The settlement has cost Ryan Pitylak $1 million, as well as the seizure of many of the assets he accumulated during a short-lived career as one of the world’s worst spammers. At the peak of his spamming activity, the 24-year-old Texas resident was listed as the world’s fourth most-prolific spammer by antispam group Spamhaus. Now Pitylak is claiming something of an epiphany, saying he has seen the error of his ways and will dedicate his efforts to trying to rid the world of nuisance email.

Sweden’s domestic intelligence agency said it would probe why the government’s Web site crashed on Sunday amid reports hackers had sought revenge for a crackdown on alleged online piracy. The government Web site went off line in the early hours of Sunday. The Internet home page of the national police crashed in similar fashion on Thursday. The police Web site problem came a day after the Pirate Bay Internet page, which the recording industry calls a major source for downloading pirated music and films, was shut by police.

Over 80 per cent of UK IT professionals are under pressure from business management to deliver more value from their existing computing infrastructures. This is the finding of a survey conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne during April 2006 amongst 100 senior IT Decision makers in UK companies with more than 1000 employees–half of which employ more than 3000 people. In responding to the challenge to deliver more from existing systems in line with business requirements the top challenge cited by respondents was the ability to integrate and interoperate new systems with an average of 57 per cent nominating this issue.