Classic good news/bad news results this morning from a security vendor’s report on the safety of using search engines. Since we’re launching into a new week, let’s start with the good:
According to an Associated Press report on McAfee’s annual assessment:
The percentage of search results leading to sites that dish up unwanted and/or risky adware and spyware has dropped from 5 percent to 4 percent.
And, while the risks are greater when clicking on the search engines’ paid keyword ads, improvement was measured there, too, as the prevalence of risky sites dropped from 8.5 to 7 percent.
The bad news is fairly predictable: Search terms most likely to get you – or more likely your less careful teenager – into trouble are those dealing with music and file sharing: BearShare, LimeWire and Kazaa were cited.
Looking for a cool screensaver? Don’t, as 42% of sites identified through search were found to be risky.
In the meantime, Congress is doing its best (insert laugh track here) to see that the improvements measured by McAfee continue to trend in the right direction.
