Facebook, McAfee Team on Facebook Security Effort

From PC World: Facebook and McAfee have formed a partnership aimed at improving security for Facebook's 350 million users, the two companies announced.

Social networking hacks: Top 10 Facebook and Twitter security stories of 2009The new relationship begins with McAfee offering Facebook users a free six-month subscription to its Internet Security Suite software. But it goes far beyond that. McAfee will also be working closely with Facebook to provide a free quick response scan-and-repair service for any new malware threats that emerge. McAfee's security contribution dovetails with Facebook's larger security effort, which now includes an automated process for detecting anomalies in Facebook users' accounts that might indicate malware or hacker attempts.

If Facebook determines a user has a security-related problem, an automated process kicks in and displays screens from Facebook informing the user a remediation process is underway, initially shutting the user out of the account, says Barry Schnitt, director of policy communications at Facebook.

Password changes would be invoked, along with other possible security remediation processes, such as running a malware clean-up. Phone-based support from Facebook's team could be part of helping the Facebook user get back to normal.

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