Social Web's new headache

Worms have a new way into your house. Social networking is getting so popular (among adults as well as teens) that all those nasty virus and worm writers out there are starting to take advantage of it. Social sites - especially the big ones like MySpace, YouTube, Xanga, etc. – are the next wave for malware, the UK's VNUNET reports, citing research by computer security company ScanSafe. "One in 600 profile pages on social networking sites hosts some form of malware, according to an analysis of more than five billion web requests in July." And just what is that malware? Most of what ScanSafe identified was "spyware and adware, ranging from more benign programs that track usage to difficult-to-remove spyware that can redirect a browser." And even though everybody assumes this is just a teenager thing (which is certainly the concern of family PC owners), it may be comforting to know the malware issue is becoming a problem in the workplace too. Social networks now account for about 1% of all Web use at work, ScanSafe found.