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Bit.ly, the reigning king of Twitter's short URL service is taking a good hard look at malware. In a blog post published earlier today, the company announced a partnership with three security giants to beef up protection for the millions of Bit.ly short links whizzing through Facebook and Twitter every month. The company will incorporate Verisign's iDefense IP reputation service, WebSense's ThreatSeeker Cloud Service and Sophos' Web Alert Services.

Twitter can't catch a break these days. Still reeling from the ongoing denial-of-service attacks that hit late last week (and have yet to let up), the company soon faced yet another threat: the return of Koobface. The Koobface internet worm, a deadly little piece of internet malware which got its start on Facebook, has long since spread to other social networking sites including MySpace, Bebo, and Twitter. But the latest variant - the "new and improved" Koobface - is even more devious than before. And Twitter's recently launched malicious URL filtering feature couldn't put a stop to the worm's spread.