Facebook Touts Safe Cyber Experience

Ars Technica reports: Social networks have become popular vectors for malware, and Facebook is taking measures to ensure that its users are safe.

The company announced Wednesday that it partnered with McAfee Inc. to provide security software and services to Facebook's 350 million users. Though the offerings are pretty much your standard security package, Facebook is painting itself in a positive light by being proactive about user security while other social networks stand on the sidelines.

Through the agreement, Facebook users will be able to get McAfee's security tools, a "custom" scanning and repair tool, and education materials about malware. They also qualify for a free six-month subscription to McAfee's security suite (with discounted pricing after that), though the subscription part is optional. Facebook wants to make it clear, however, that it is pouring money into this partnership in order to benefit users, "and will not be taking a share of any revenue from user subscriptions." The other tools are free and will remain so for those who choose to use them.

This isn't likely to be the most exciting news in a Facebook user's day, but it's a helpful step in a world where malware spreads through social networks like an STD on a college campus. Users have been careless when using sites like Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace, downloading unknown files with abandon and clicking links they're not familiar with. Malware writers are aware of how easy it is to target these users, too, leading to continued growth in malware attacks via social networks.

Of course, Facebook likes to act as if it's a rare, Bigfoot-sighting-level event when a user's account has been compromised. However, the company still emphasized that users can take special steps to take back their accounts and that McAfee's "custom technology" will clean their machines after the breach.

And although Facebook sure seems to like patting its own back over the move, it really is one that is needed across more services (particularly in the Wild West known as MySpace). The company is "taking an unprecedented step towards making the entire Internet more secure and reducing the possibility of threats being brought onto our service by unsuspecting users," Facebook VP of global communications Elliot Schrage said in a statement. "We hope this is something that other services will emulate."