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Sophos latest report into malware threats has revealed that 9,500 infected web pages were discovered each day during May.

The online security firm's figures show that malware continues to pose a serious threat to web users, as the number of malware threats increased over April's figures.

Google has been addressing the issue of online security lately, and has launched the Google Online Security Blog as part of this effort.

Google has been looking into web-based malware and has come up with some worrying figures. Of the 4.5m web pages it looked at in depth, 450,000 were capable of downloading malicious code without the user's knowledge.

A further 700,000 web pages in Google's study contained code which could potentially compromise a user's computer. 

Figures from web security firm Sophos show that the number of new pieces of malicious software have more than doubled in Q1 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

In Q1 2007, Sophos identified 23,864 new malware threats, compared to 9,450 in Q1 2006. On a more positive note, the percentage of infected email has dropped from 1.3% in Q1 2006, to just 0.4 this year.

Online communities such as Myspace are becoming a major target for spyware creators, security company Webroot has warned.

The group says spyware infection rates have returned to 2004 peak levels as cyber criminals focus on new distribution channels such as social networking sites.

Google has begun issuing warnings to users if they are about to access a site containing harmful code.

Forming part of the 'Stop Badware' initiative, the alerts appear if users click on a link to a page known to host spyware or other malicious programmes.