Facebook is offering a free, six-month, McAfee security software subscription to the 350 million users of the social networking site in an effort to reduce exposure to security threats.
The partnership with McAfee is for one year. The first six months of use will be free, followed by a special discount following the trial period. Members need to visit the Protect Your PC tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook.
In a post on the Facebook blog, the site detailed its history in trying to protect users' accounts: "We invest in dedicated teams and advanced technical systems that detect and block suspicious behavior. When we find a message with a link to a fake login page or other malicious Web site, we prevent it from being sent and delete all instances of it from the site. We also work with third parties to get malicious sites added to browser blacklists or removed completely."
When an account is compromised, the owner of the account often learns of it by logging into Facebook and finding that unauthorized messages -- including perhaps spam -- have been sent from his/her account. The account owner must take proscribed steps to secure the account and learn security best practices. The site has now also incorporated custom McAfee software into this process for people identified as having infected computers. In addition, if a computer is found to be infected, the user must run a scan and clean the machine before accessing Facebook.
Facebook and McAfee will also jointly develop and update content for the Facebook Security Page.
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