The ArtLab

As part of its "Look before You Click" Campaign, Consumer Union's WebWatch released new data [PDF] on Tuesday demonstrating the pervasive presence of malware. With a grant from the New York State Attorney General's office, WebWatch conducted a survey of New York residents and found that nearly one in four residents of the state had been the victim of a badware infection in the past year.

A lot of that malware - from annoying pop-ups to more malicious viruses - is preventable. The survey shows that most New Yorkers know the basics of protecting their computers; Ninety seven percent keep their computers secured behind a firewall or maintain updated anti-virus software. That's the good news.

The bad news is that there's still a lot of net pollution out there: spam, spyware, viruses, illegal traffic. Not only are people not protected from all of it, many of them, without even knowing it, actively seek out the places on the web where rogue software is most likely to reside.

Consider the Storm botnet, estimated by some to be on as many as 50 million computers. It spread on the web since early 2007 through spam or website offers for things like "free" music or software downloads, things millions of web surfers have looked for before.  The virus spread further - and was remotely controlled by its operators - via peer-to-peer file sharing networks, which also offers the promise of "free" stuff.   Other malware distributors are now ramping up, exploiting social networks, other web tools and even reaching into the workplace.

Fortunately, the operators of peer-to-peer networks are starting to realize the commercial value of their networks-how they can maintain their cooperative and collaborative peer-to-peer spirit, while at the same time protecting users and working with content creators rather than against them. One of the earlier-and better-examples of how to blend advertising, social networking, and file sharing in a safe, legal environment is imeem , which has negotiated revenue-sharing contracts with major record labels.

Cutting down the number of places where cyber-criminals can turn to spread their malware is a part of the Arts+Labs mission, and a win-win-win for all of us: P2P networks become legitimate, revenue earning businesses; content creators are compensated for their work; and consumers can still get the content they want without worrying about becoming a victim - or an unwitting purveyor - of dangerous or illegal content.