The open encyclopedia Wikipedia has been accused of having poor editorial standards in the past, but it now stands accused of distributing a virus to its users.

The German version of the website carried a link to what it claimed was a fix for a new version of the Blaster virus. When users clicked on the link and installed the associated program, it actually infected their computers with the virus.

Wikipedia can be edited by anybody, so it is particularly susceptible to attack. However, this is the first time it has been used in this way. The affected page has now been edited to remove the link to the virus.