YouTube Infected with Malware

Up until this point, it's been fairly obvious what websites users should avoid.

If you're looking at naked people, you're in trouble. Downloading illegal music files? Ditto.

However, few scrutinize the user-populated video site YouTube, which has become one of the Internet's most entertaining hotspots since Google bought it last year for over a billion dollars. Unfortunately, it may not be safe, either. Although not the first time it's been reported, the video site is again spouting a malware threat.

The Zlob Glob

This time the culprit is Zlob, which is a particularly dangerous form of adware. Zlob has been loaded onto YouTube by spammers in the form of a video link, which quickly installs a Trojan, then obscene pop-up ads, and finally data thieving code. It might be considered the BFG 5000 (or for you non-gamers, atom bomb) of malware threats. (Source: techworld.com)

The discovery is being reported by Secure Computing, which has revealed the problem for a couple reasons. For one, the threat will be largely unexpected by YouTube visitors, who now need to be more vigilant than ever when searching the massive video database.

On the other hand, Secure Computing is also hoping their finding will lead to a steady income. Secure is encouraging companies to employ its own program, TrustedSource, to help make YouTube a safer environment. (Source: pcworld.com)

MySpace went through similar malware infections when it was the toast of the web. Now that YouTube has grown to its current, immense position on the Internet, expect these threats to continue.