Cyber Monday: Christmas for scammers and malware?

It's the Monday after Thanksgiving and you're sitting at your work computer suffering from food coma. Too bloated to get any real work done, you decide to do something that doesn't occupy too much of the brain--online Christmas shopping.

There's more at stake here than the cost of shipping and handling, though. First off, you're boss probably doesn't want you to be surfing Amazon when you have spreadsheets to complete. Secondly, you could be opening up the corporate network to malicious hackers during what is known to be a particularly risky period.

Scammers are ready for unsuspecting online shoppers to be hunting for holiday bargains that hit on what has become known as Cyber Monday (given that more than 40 percent of you will be buying holiday gifts online, according to this survey). There will no doubt be malware hiding on retail sites, fake sites created just for distributing viruses and Trojans, and e-mails with malware-laden attachments and links leading to nastiness.

For more of this story, read Cyber Monday: Beware the malware on CNET News.