I have written before about the dangers of free music on the Web. Downloading music from those peer-to-peer networks exposes your computer to possible attack and infection.

We have two in my family, and we get our music from the Apple iTunes Store. (Yes, I pay $1 per song.)

The other day, yet another such danger surfaced. Windows users are vulnerable to malware that can insert links to malicious Web pages within audio or video content. When you play the music file, Internet Explorer launches and loads a dangerous site.

The site then asks you to download something, which of course is malware that infects your computer. The download could be a , for example, which hijacks your PC. This allows the hackers to take control of your machine and possibly use it to send out a flood of spam, or attack other computers.

Be especially wary if you get a pop-up upon playing audio or video content.

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