Sure, technology is all fun and games -- until somebody gets hurt.

In the spirit of Halloween, I'd like to freak you out with some newly reported threats that could come back to haunt all of us.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office this week that said fear of the H1N1 flu pandemic could drive up telecommuting. This in where people are working could make it difficult for ISPs to manage the traffic, causing localized bottlenecks.

Although the report sounds alarmist, the effect of H1N1 fears on the Internet may be understated. The reason is that in the event of a real pandemic, both business travel and school attendance would plummet, in both cases replaced by heavy video-chat or videoconferencing.