Internet scoundrels have begun abusing Google code hosting projects to distribute malware and promote smut. The assault follows a bout of the same kind of abuse against Microsoft's comparable MSN Spaces beta site dating back a year, net security firm McAfee reports.

Misuse of Google code is much more recent and something that intensified over the festive season, McAfee researcher Chris Barton writes. In a blog posting on Wednesday, Barton explains how "new projects" on Google code offering illicit thrills redirect users to fake codec download sites and mucky video havens.

"The difference between this and the MSN Spaces abuse that now about a year old is that Google appears to automatically index code projects," Barton explains.

Barton, who points to an incident of continued abuse on MSN Spaces beta (specially a rogue "project" that links to a penis pill site), hopes Google is more proactive in cleaning up its act. He offers a few preliminary suggestions on how the problem might be nipped in the bud, or at least mitigated against.

"I trust Google would like to appear less evil and will take more decisive action. I’d suggest mashing code and safe browsing together but it appears not to find anything wrong with the clickable links, though it did catch on after some redirection took place." ®