Phishing and worms go together like, well, fishing and worms. But unlike the latter, you're the prey, and it can be particularly dangerous swimming in social networking waters, suggests a new report by Microsoft and McAfee.

The two software makers noted a sizable spike in phishing attacks during the months of May and June, driven in large part by hackers concentrating their efforts on social networking sites. Other popular targets included gaming sites, banking portals, and e-commerce.

While Trojans still topped the charts, Microsoft noted that worms are becoming much more prevalent, rising from fifth place in the second half of last year to now being the second most prevalent category of threats. Much of the rise can attributed to Conficker, which still has most security experts puzzled.

For those still clinging to XP, Microsoft noted that infection rates for Vista were significantly lower than for XP.

Image Credit: serc.carleton.edu