Safety first – even on Facebook.
Statistics from social networking security apps suggest that up to 1 in 5 items on the average facebook users news feed can lead to malicious content.
Rogue or malicious applications may pose as online versions of well known games, promise you bonuses for online games (such as farmville) or allow you to see certain exclusive content.
They also offer add ons to the facebook structure such as a dislike button or the facility to see who has viewed your profile. Many of these add on features are not supported by facebook.
These Apps gain access to your information when you allow them access to your profile. This can be just to get information on you, or to try and redirect you to malicious sites via links in your news feed.
To avoid being caught out:
Be cautious which apps you allow access to your profile.
Best to ignore surveys which give you free credits etc. Are they free… or are you paying with your profile information?
Try not to follow links to external sites if they look suspicious.
You can download browser protection which comes with most antivirus programs now (eg. http://www.siteadvisor.com/ ) and if the bar goes red when you follow a link - close the site down if it isn’t blocked automatically.
You can also get facebook apps, which scan your profile, and posts on your newsfeed for links to malicious content. One such example is safego by bitdefender http://apps.facebook.com/bd-safego/ which scans the content behind the links and lets you know when something unsafe appears.
Whilst the facebook environment is fairly safe, there are always people trying to tempt you outside the bubble.
Filed under: Internet, Online Advice
