Trust is tremendously valuable, but unfortunately supplies are running a bit short on the Internet right now.

We've all heard about Trojan horse malware that poses as software you might want to run, phishing scams that send fake e-mail purporting to be from your bank, and identity thieves who can siphon away your money. But an unpleasant new variety of faith-undermining behavior has shown up twice now in recent months: bogus versions of the digital certificates that enable encrypted communications on the Net.

How does a bogus certificate hit you where it hurts? Think of the Web sites you trust, the ones with the traditional closed-lock icon that signifies a secure connection. Fake certificates, in combination with changes to the way in which data is routed around the Internet, can be used to steal passwords and intercept e-mail from use of those sites.

The problem is that there are hundreds of organizations called certificate authorities (CAs) that issue certificates, and those organizations may be vulnerable to attack. The certificate authority worry is very real: In March, Comodo issued fake certificates after a successful attack, and in August DigiNotar issued 531 fake certificates for Google... [Read more]

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

A huge update for the iOS Facebook app (Free) released today adds some features users have been waiting for, along with other fixes and tweaks to the interface.

Among the major new features, the updated iOS Facebook app is supposed to improve sharing options, add tagging of friends and places in posts, tweak the design of both Profile and Group walls, and provide added privacy controls on posts that match your settings on the Web site.

Smaller refinements and bug fixes include faster notification speeds, bug fixes for Facebook chat, changes to filter selection in the News Feed, tweaks to the notification bar, and general improvements to performance and stability.

A screenshot simply can't do justice do Contre Jour, a truly beautiful game.

If World of Goo and Cut the Rope somehow got sucked into a black hole, Contre Jour is what would emerge from the other side. This breathtakingly beautiful and relentlessly addictive puzzler isn't the most original iOS game ever, but it's definitely one of the most wonderful.

"Contre jour" translates literally to "days against," but in this case it refers to a photo-backlighting technique. And once you eyeball the game's lush backlit levels, you'll understand the reference.

But it's hard to escape comparisons to World of Goo, not just in the level design, but also in the goo-ball-like "hero" of the game, Petit. The little guy's nothing more than a gelatinous eyeball, and it's your job to roll, fling, and otherwise maneuver him to the glowing blue orb---collecting as many glowing lights as possible along the way.

This is not unlike capturing as many stars as you can before feeding Om Nom in Cut the Rope. And, in fact, Contre J... [Read more]

Last week, we saw a big release on the security front, as AVG let loose its shiny new 2012 suite. While the company did make some important security improvements in this latest version, including adding important protection against fake antivirus software and ransomware, it focused a bit more of its attention on performance. Specifically, the company says that it has reduced the size of its virus signature database by 40 percent and the number of running processes in the suite from 16 to 11. The company also stated that AVG 2012 uses 20 percent less memory overall than previous versions, and that it ought to impact your computer's boot time less. But of course, these are all AVG's claims. You can see what our findings were here.

In other news, Google officially closed 10 of its businesses in order to streamline its operations and focus on bigger bets. Fortunately, all of the employees working on the closing businesses will be moved to other posts. Be sure to read up on Google's "fall spring cleaning" here.

One of the most popular and customizable third-party clients in the multiservice chat category continues to impress. Adium supports multiple services, including AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Windows Live, and Google Chat. Part of what made the original Adium so attractive was the multitude of IM service options, and that still forms the core appeal of this client. This latest version comes with a laundry list of new features and fixes making it a must-download for Adium users.

Also this week we have the latest version of Google Chrome, a full-featured Web browser that's among the most standards-compliant and fastest browsers available. Our game this week is Boom, the arcade classic that still manages to be both addictive and fun.

Don't forget to check out this week's collection of iOS apps: Hot new iOS games. [Read more]