The Fight Against Spam Might Get a Little Easier!

Webnotes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice LLC. Content also featured on WBTV’s Protecting Your Cyberturf Segment featuring Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton

The fight against spam might get a little easier and isn’t that great news?  Facebook recently announced they were ramping up their efforts to stop spammers by creating the “Antivirus Marketplace”.  The service will provide a free six month license to anti virus software.  And who doesn’t love free?  


Companies like McAfee, Symantec, Microsoft and others are teaming with Facebook to offer free access to anti virus software.  Not only that, Facebook is launching a security blog to provide tips and information on how to better protect your accounts.  Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains this good news.


Criminals go where the action is.  Facebook has over 900 million active users so cybercriminals love to push their malware, spam, and other misdeeds via Facebook.


HOW THE NEW FACEBOOK FEATURES HELP:
1.  6 months free antivirus
2.  Security blog with tips and information
3.  Facebook and 5 other companies (McAfee, Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec, TrendMicro) will create a blacklist of the spam originators to help block out the bad guys


WORD FOR THE WEEK:  BLACKLIST or WHITELIST
It’s a term used to help filter out the bad guys on the internet.  When a company like Facebook or McAfee create a “blackllist” - they simply will not allow any traffic from these addresses in.  When they create a “whitelist”, this list only lets you talk to a short list of specific addresses known to be safe.


WEB RESOURCES
For information on these free services and more, go to the Facebook Security page at https://www.facebook.com/security .  You will also find more Facebook news about Safety at:  https://www.facebook.com/fbsafety


Free Antivirus Tools:
Sophos (for the Mac):  www.sophos.com/freemacav
McAfee:  http://home.mcafee.com/store/free-antivirus-trials
Microsoft:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
Symantec:  http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp
TrendMicro:  http://housecall.trendmicro.com/