Today's news that the Google brand name is being used to circulate a new virus threat to web users is the sad face of corporate success and the Wild West that is the internet, (read stiory here: Spoof Google email on the loose).

Google is now a target of virus writers in the same way as Microsoft has been in the past. Today's threat neatly rides on the wave of recent announcements of new services from Google and an unaware user could easily be tricked into believing that Google Pharmacy, the rogue site that contains Trojan software, is following hot on the heels of Book Search, Google News and Scholar.

Sadly Google may be about to find it is to become target number one for the vigilantes that write these technology time-bombs. The precarious position of Google over its strategy in China, its massive size and visibility place it right in the crosshairs of those in computer and information world that think it is their right to decide who or what is the prominent player on the internet. Sadly they have little regard for the poor end users and organisations that rely on this software to exist.  Which of course does bring into question how much we all rely on Google?  But as the power of Microsoft shows, few of us are prepared to commit the time and effort required to change to an alternative.

If virus writers are about to increase their attacks on the search market, information professionals and researchers are going to have to become highly alert to the risks their systems and organisations face. For corporate and academic information professionals this is likely to lead to a greater involvement with the IT departments to try and thwart these threats before they cross the firewall.