As part of this gig, I read a whole lot of blogs.  There are a few great ones, a whole lot of mediocre ones – and millions which make me wish I could get back the 30 seconds that I wasted waiting for them to load up in my browser.  And apparently there are some that are potentially dangerous.  

A report from ScanSafe, which markets Internet content filtering solutions, says that up to 80 percent of blogs contain “offensive” content, ranging from raunchy language to porn to malware which can automatically load onto a user’s PC.  The company says that businesses in particular need to be aware of this, because employees who view such sites could represent a liability risk.  

Athough you could be forgiven for assuming that a company which makes its money selling safeguards against this kind of thing has an agenda with this kind of report, they do have a point:  there are plenty of MySpace pages which I’m sure would get their creators fired, or at least severely reprimanded, if their bosses happened to stumble across them – as was the case with a certain ex-Delta Airlines flight attendant.  

I’m not just talking about the ones that look like someone’s in a contest to see how many times they can gratuitiously fit the F-word into a single blog posting.  I've seen blogs that insult the writers' customers, fellow employees and even employers.  And now, it seems that some blogs are hosting malware.  If if some of that ends up on someone’s computer at a financial services organization – well, I’m guessing that it wouldn’t be a happy occasion.  

Yeah, it’s just another case of a few numbskulls ruining a pretty good thing for almost everyone else, but then, these days – what else is new?  

Read more at Ars Technica.