After looking at the results of a recent survey I have to repeat this advice again: Beware of phishers.

This describes an e-mail masquerading as a trusted Internet site, such as eBay, Amazon.com or a banking service. The e-mail details some fictitious problem with your account and asks you to click a link to correct the problem.

It usually warns of some dire consequences if you do not, such as the shutting down of your account. Once you click the link, you are directed to a site that looks like that belonging to the real service provider.

Once you enter your account details, your password and even your credit card details, you've been had. You will soon find yourself short of money or the victim of identity theft.

The survey, by the Indiana University School of Informatics, found that a higher-than-expected percentage of Internet users are likely to fall victim to a common e-mail scam called phishing.

The study found that phishers may be fooling as 14 percent of those targeted per attack. Surveys by the Gartner Group previously reported that about three percent of receipients fall foul of phishers.

The research simulated phishing tactics used to get account information from eBay customers. Ebay's customers are a frequent target of phishers.

In the study recipients of the fake e-mail were sent to the actual eBay site once they clicked on the link. However researchers received a message letting them know the recipient had logged in.

They also conducted an experiment on "spear phishing". This involves an attack in which a scamster sends a personalised message to a user who is expecting a similar sort of message.

The scam depends on the phisher using personal information readily available over the Internet. The information is used in the e-mail. The researchers used three types of approach statements in this spear phishing attack: "Hi can you ship packages with insurance for an extra fee? Thanks"; "HI CAN YOU DO OVERNIGHT SHIPPING? THANKS!"; and "Hi, how soon after payment do you ship? Thanks!"

Many of the fake survey messages contained the user's eBay username to make it more believable.

"We think spear phishing attacks will become more prevalent as phishers are more able to harvest publicly available information to personalise each attack," the researchers stated.

The study is available at: http://www.indiana.edu/~phishing.

In other news, a beta version of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system has just been released for review by the media. I do not yet have a review copy (I was promised one). However, for those who want a quick look try the extensive review by PC World (www.pcworld.com).

The review concludes that at least in beta Microsoft has ironed out some of the problems, but is still not perfect.

"Vista continues to be exceptionally stable," PC Magazine concludes. "There's no question that this new Windows is more reliable than XP."

In other Microsoft news, the company last week released fixes to a record 26 flaws to its software. If you have not set automatic software updates, make sure you do the update.

The fixes are contained in 10 security updates, of which six are rated by Microsoft as "critical". They fix Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, among others.

Of the 26 vulnerabilities, Microsoft labelled 15 as "critical", six as "important", two as "moderate", and three as "low" priority.

Other than "Wow! Wish I had been there", I have a simple thought on the Google buyout of YouTube for $1.65bn. Do people really like being bought and sold on what is becoming the Internet meat market?

Back in the old days, when the Internet was young, a kind of rebel, non-corporate (as opposed to anti-corporate) attitude existed among users. This spirit gave birth to formal and informal networks outside the mainstream.

Now sites are being sold for enormous sums based on the communities they have created. YouTube is a site where people can post videos they have created. The user-generated content attracts about 100m daily video viewings.

Google essentially bought YouTube for the community. I wonder if they will stick around ? or simply fade away to other sites? That's the $1 billion question!