Another Wikipedia Caution

Over the past year or so nHumanities has posted several entries on Wikipedia, the rapidly growing and extremely popular online web encyclopedia. (See Wikipedia and Wikiality.) We use Wikipedia on occasion ourselves, so we appreciate that it is often useful. However, we've always cautioned that the key distinguishing feature of wiki software--that is that the material can be posted and edited by users--makes it a dangerous tool for serious research.

Now another type of hazard of using Wikipedia has surfaced. In the German version of Wikipedia, hackers edited the entry on the computer virus W32.Blaster worm. They added a link to a web site where a fix could be downloaded to take care of the virus. In fact, downloading the "fix" actually installed the worm.

Heise online has an article on the incident, and iTWire also has a column about it. The offending pages were immediately pulled from the web site, but the incident sounds yet another cautionary note.

The price of internet usage is eternal vigilance.