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'Lack of response' to Obama social network threat

Users of Barack Obama's dedicated social network could still be at risk from a newly-discovered virus threat.

The security threat was discovered on My.BarackObama.com a week ago by experts at Websense.

However, according to Computer World, the online security firm has yet to hear back from someone responsible for the site, despite efforts to alert them to the threat.

Barack Obama may be the most recent US politician involved in the 2008 presidential election race exposed to an online security threat, but he is not the first.

Alaska governor and former vice-presidential hopeful, Sarah Palin, famously had her Yahoo! email account breached by hackers in September last year.

But while only Ms Palin's privacy was breached in this case, the Obama social network malware threat targets any user unfortunate enough to click on one of the website's links.

Dan Hubbard, vice-president of security research at Websense, told Computer World: "The group behind this is one of those that's infecting people with fake antivirus software.

"We've been constantly trying to reach [those responsible for the social network], and tried every possible angle, from email to the site itself to the phone, but we haven't heard back."

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