There's been much hype, crazy valuations, and overall market excitement about businesses that promise to unleash the power of the social graph, location, recommendations and group buying.�Facebook's latest valuation�according to SecondMarket is now about $30 billion, Foursquare�raised $20 million at a post-money valuation of $115 million�while still at a pre-revenue stage, Yelp,�short of selling for $550 million to Google, raised over $25 million at an undisclosed but very high valuation, and finally Groupon�raised $135 million at a whopping $1.35 billion valuation. So besides their huge success with the investment community, and their users, what do these companies have in common, and what does all this have to do with disrupting Local Commerce? Editor's note: The following guest post is by David Marcus, founder and CEO of Zong, a mobile payment provider for Facebook Credits, AT&T and hundreds of leading destination websites and mobile applications
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At the Security Innovation Network (SINET) Showcase at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., this week, Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, presented a dire assessment of the cyber-security threat facing our nation. He discussed how rogue governments and hackers are quietly infiltrating our computer systems and the disasters that can be perpetuated?like those you see on the TV show ?24?. Chertoff worries that these risks haven?t yet gripped the public imagination; that it may take a ?digital 9-11? to get businesses, consumers, and governments to fortify their defenses. The most troublesome thing I learned by talking with a who?s who of our nation?s security community was that our government doesn?t believe it has the ability to defend us from the rapidly evolving threats. Yes, the National Security Agency and some branches of government have brilliant computer scientists working for them and can defend their own systems; but the rest of us are our own. The Government simply can?t innovate fast enough to keep pace with the pervasive threats and dynamics of the internet or Silicon Valley?s rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, as George Hoyem, a partner at the CIA-backed venture fund In-Q-Tel, noted, there has been a 571 percent growth in malware since 2006; today, 60 percent of all websites are infected.
The New York District Court, at the request of the RIAA, has forced LimeWire to shut down its network and cease distributing its software. 
