Google may pledge to do no evil, but the same is not true of the World Wide Web. According to the search giant, web browsing and online searches are growing more risky.

In a new technical report available this month, Google outlines the frequency of drive-by downloads on the Internet. A few of the interesting points in the analysis, which is currently under peer review, include the following:

• More than 3 million unique URLs on more than 180,000 sites automatically install malware on visitors PCs.

Identity theft is a big business. This was confirmed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commissions annual report, Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data, which shows fraud complaints that consumers have filed with the agency over the past year. Again this year, identity theft tops the list of all fraud complaints. In fact, the FTC received 258,427 complaints related to identity theft - 32 percent of the total complaints! Consumers reported fraud losses totally over $1.2 billion.

Home computer users are not the only ones forced to wage the war against cyber threats. Malware attacks constitute a critical and constant security risk to corporate networks. The staggering statistics speak for themselves: as many as 40 percent of organizations will be targeted by financially-motivated cyber crime by 2008, research from Gartner shows.

Today, February 12, is Safer Internet Day in many countries throughout Europe. In connection with that, Eurostat, an office of the European Communities, has released stats on Internet activities.

Results from surveys of households and individuals in the European Union show that:

• One person in eight avoids e-shopping because of security concerns.