facebook poses security risk

Social networking site Facebook is reportedly brewing malware day in and out. Security firm BitDefender reported that one out of the five items in Facebook news feed leads to malicious content. Now that's not surprising since loads of new users are joining Facebook and sharing as well as re-sharing the content posted in the news feed. These statistics come from the users of BitDefender's SafeGo application on Facebook that scans the user account to check for any potential malware spreading links.

BitDefender has analyzed 14,000 Facebook users who downloaded its SafeGo application. According to the statistics, about 60 percent attacks on users Facebook profile or system come from the notifications that are sent out using malicious third-party applications. These malicious malware applications comprise of:

• 22 percent of these nefarious app claim to offer you details of those who've viewed your profile
• 15.4 percent Promises bonus items in other popular games like FarmVille, Frontier Ville
• 11.2 percent offer non-facebook features like Dislike button
• 7.1 claimed to connect you to Social Network Versions of Super Mario

Websense's Defensio tool free for home users suggested that about 40 percent of all the status messages contain a URL and out of those 10 percent are spam or lead to malicious content.