Honestly, it should come as no surprise that Facebook isn’t exactly a snuggly blanket of impenetrable security when it comes to feeling safe on the internet. Perpetually beset with accusations of compromising users’ privacy, Facebook has spent much of its time in the last several months repairing its relationship with its users.
But maybe privacy isn’t all we should be worried about. According to security firm BitDefender, approximately 20% of Facebook users’ news feeds are infected with malware. Delicious.
BitDefender says it gathered the data via an app called Safego, installed by 14,000 Facebook users, which analyzed over 17 million Facebook posts inside of the month it was launched.
So where the hell is it all coming from? BitDefender says independent developers, who use the likelihood of a Facebook user’s clicking of a link from someone they know and trust as a tool to spread their criminal ballyhoo.
Facebook claims its aware of the issue, and that it has standard procedures for malware and the like.
“Once we detect a phony message, we delete all instances of that message across the site,” said FB in a statement.
Hey, that’s good enough for me. In the meantime, though, I guess the fact of the matter is that 1 in 5 links in your news feed is likely malware. So I guess, like, don’t be an idiot, and don’t click the obvious malware links. You know, the ones that are written in Engrish and say things like “Tom Everyman liked “LOL so funny! please to be buy c1al1s v14gr4 free click here click” on “spyware.cz/spyware/virus/hax.php“
