Wikipedia has not yet seen the need to implement a virus-scanning function, analysts say, but the recent incident with malicious software planted on Wikipedia pages might force the company to put in automatic virus checks, much like Yahoo and Hotmail have done with their free Web-based e-mail services.

Malware writers have used a Wikipedia article to lead users to a booby-trapped page that contained malicious code designed to plant viruses on the computers of unsuspecting users.

The hackers created a Wikipedia page that offered a Windows security update for a version of the Lovesan/W32.Blaster worm, and included a link to an external site that was labeled with the name "wikipedia-download.org."

 Source: Sci Tech Today