Gmail appears to be under siege. In fact, since Google started alerting users to the threat of cyberattacks in June, the search giant says its has detected thousands more instances of malicious activity. Even more concerning, The New York Times’ Bits blog suggests that the attacks are “probably” state-sponsored. Mike Wiacek, a manager on Google’s information security team tells Bit that since Google started to alert users to state-sponsored attacks three months ago, it had gathered new intelligence about attack methods and the groups deploying them. 

With the help of Nielsen, Twitter this week is introducing a new survey tool for advertisers. Free to some of its bigger brand partners, Twitter eventually plans to charge for the service, AllThingsD reports. “Some users will see a tweet asking them to take a survey, and if they click on it, the message will expand within their timeline, and trigger a brief series of questions.” Nielsen’s role will be to audit and analyze the results. “Twitter hopes that it will be able to use the feature to convince advertisers that they’re getting their money’s worth,” AllThingsD adds. 

Early adoption data is coming in for Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 8 -- and it’s not good. “The newest numbers from California-based Net Applications portray a tepid reception so far for Windows 8,” Computerworld reports. In fact, nearing public launch of Windows 8, users are apparently five times less likely to be running the new OS than they were Windows 7 at the same point in its countdown, Net Applications reports. 

Elsewhere in Facebook Land, the social giant is challenging proposed revisions to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) on the grounds that it could compromise teens’ right to freedom of expression. In a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last week, Facebook argues that revised limitations on “plugins” could create "significant impediments" on "innovation and the ecosystem that shapes students' online experiences." As CNet notes: “Facebook also argued that a ‘Like’ on the social network is free speech and that eliminating teens' access to the button would be a violation of their constitutional rights.” 

In an about-face for AOL, the online media company finally plans to start distributing its video on YouTube. The content will span 22 branded “channels,” but as AllThingsD points out: “These aren’t YouTube’s new channels, where Google offers video makers a cash advance in exchange for a window of exclusivity on the site.” Rather, “The deal is constructed the way YouTube used to approach ‘premium’ content makers: A simple Internet real estate + revenue sharing deal.” 

How is Facebook fighting back against Wall Street’s disaffection? For one, it’s been “rolling out products pretty aggressively,” COO Sheryl Sandberg tells CNBC’s Media Money blog. “What we’ve done since the IPO is continue to really focus on building that business,” Sandberg said regarding Facebook’s advertising and other monetization efforts. “And I think we’re executing better and better.” What does Sandberg make of Facebook’s stock price, which is down around 40% since the company’s public debut in May? “We’re obviously disappointed and really surprised by what happened in the IPO,” she said. 

Interrupting Google’s untiring efforts to take over the world, Iran is reportedly planning to block YouTube. As reports, Mohammad Reza Miri, a member of the telecommunications ministry committee responsible for filtering the Web in Iran, was quoted on Monday by the Mehr news agency as saying a recent Gmail block was an “involuntary” consequence of trying to reinforce censorship of Google's YouTube video-sharing site. "Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough technical knowhow to differentiate between these two services,” he said. “We wanted to block YouTube and Gmail was also blocked, which was involuntary.”    

Sending our irony meter into the red, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- i.e., the woman in charge of keeping your emails safe -- doesn’t email. “I don’t have any of my own accounts,” she told a cyber-security conference last week, according to The New York Daily News. “I’m very secure.” Does Napolitano really distrust email as a secure form of communication, or is she just really slow to change her habits? Making sure to protect her rationale, she attributed her email-less existence to a “a whole host of reasons,” The Daily News reports.    

TechCrunch has the jump on Jason Calacanis’ latest project, which, in true pivot fashion, is directly tied to his last big Web endeavor, Mahalo.com. What do we know, so far? The undertaking is (or is somehow connected to) the url inside.com; an ad posted by Mahalo is seeking a user experience/user interface graphic designer for the site; and, in that ad, it describes inside.com as a “knowledge community, focused on creating high-quality videos, apps, iBooks and written courses.” According to the post, inside.com is already “well-funded by Sequoia…Newscorp, Mark Cuban, Elon Musk (Paypal) and CBS.” Adds …

With his letter of apology, last week, Tim Cook singlehandedly stemmed criticism over Apple’s Maps debacle, and ushered in a new, friendlier era for the company that Steve Jobs built. Or, at least, that’s according to Pandodaily’s Farhad Manjoo. “In a single succinct, sincere, and brilliant note, Tim Cook … put Apple’s Maps fiasco to bed,” Manjoo believes. “He offered a clear assessment of the problem … took full responsibility for it… put forward a heartfelt apology … and gave customers an easy, pretty-good short-term solution to the problem.” For Manjoo, the move suggests that Cook’s Apple will be “a …