Mousetrap Technology - Times Online - WBLG

A new infected website every five seconds

That's the findings this week from online security specialists Sophos, who say their filters are detecting an alarming rise in the number of infected web pages in the first quarter of 2008, another indication that cyber criminals have set up shop virtually across the web.

Sophos says its filters blocked, on average, an infected website every five seconds -- up from one infected web site every 14 seconds a year ago. The top three culprits are the US, China and Russia, which account for more than 82 per cent of all web-based malware hosted online.

What more can social networks do to protect us from ourselves?

Over the last few days we’ve seen a glut of official reports and warnings about Facebook, Bebo and the other social networks, and the threat that they pose to children. Or rather, the threat that some children pose to themselves by posting too many details about themselves.

It must be a frustrating time for the networks, who will be tempted to dismiss the reports as scaremongering by people who don’t understand the new phenomenon and want it stopped. A desire to seem sympathetic and responsible will keep a lid on the frustration, but it’s hard to see what more they can do to protect people from themselves.

It is, after all, up to the individual to decide what he or she posts. Where the person in question is too young to make a sensible decision, that responsibility passes upwards to the parents.

Parents may struggle to strike a balance between allowing children freedoms and keeping them safe, but in this respect the internet is an extension of everyday life rather than a world apart. "Don’t talk to strangers" is good advice, either in the street or on the web.