A recent survey by Norton revealed that 44% of people have been “victim of a cybercrime perpetrated via a social network – viruses, online credit fraud, unsolicited pornography, receiving excessive spam and ‘phishing’ e-mails (bogus messages sent by fraudsters posing as banks and other retail companies).” This number is increasing and the users of Facebook are growing more and more vulnerable to attacks from cyber-terrorists. So, as a user of the largest social networking site on the planet, how do you protect yourself? Norton is here to help answer that question with a FREE application called Norton Safe Web (BETA).
“The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site — it’s just that policing 350 million users can’t be an easy job for anyone…” said Graham Cluley (Sophos) in a recent CNET article. That is where Norton Safe Web steps in. The new tool works much like Web of Trust (WOT) and has already been available as an online service for some time. The folks over at Norton have just integrated it into Facebook for the specific purpose of testing your feed for links to unsafe/malicious content. There are some limitations to this new application, but it is a step in the right direction for Facebook users and their computers.
Protecting your computer from security threats, like viruses and malware, has long been a necessary evil for PC users. Threats are plentiful, and so are the costs associated with anti-virus programs and updates. Unfortunately, both seem to also be on the rise.
