According to data from security company BitDefender, there's harmful content behind about 20 percent of posts on a Facebook news feed.
BitDefender said about 60 percent of attacks on Facebook stem from threatening third-party apps, according to a report in the Register. About 22 percent of the offending apps claim to tell you who has been snooping on your profile, 15 percent tout extras in social games like Farmville, 11 percent offer counterfeit advertisements for a "dislike" button, and 7 percent focus on social iterations of console games like "Super Mario Brothers."
BitDefender got the data from its SafeGo Facebook privacy app, which scans users' accounts for malicious content. The Romanian company launched SafeGo in beta last month to scan components like wall posts, inboxes, messages, and comments for malware. SafeGo provides you with a dashboard that includes statistics, recent activities, and a privacy meter that shows the security of your profile. It also asks permission before accessing any of your information. The program has been downloaded by about 14,000 users and has scanned more than 17 million posts on Facebook, the Register said.
Malware on Facebook doesn't just originate in apps; viruses like Koobface account for close to 5 percent of threats. So next time you spot a wall post that says "You'll never believe what this guy's cheating girlfriend did," you might want to think twice before clicking the link.
The Register report said BitDefender's stats are pretty consistent. Information from Websense's Facebook security tool Defensio suggests that of the 40 percent of status updates that contain a Web link, about one in 10 lead to spam.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: Leslie Horn