How to protect yourself from Facebook viruses
Like home foreclosures and hurricanes; social viruses are things you increasingly read about in the news but hope you will never have to deal with. Unfortunately, as many Facebook users are finding out, "hope" is turning out to be a mind-numbingly dull protection strategy.
From those Facebook links from someone you barely know encouraging you to click to see the photos of how ‘She went soo crazy in college last week!!!’ to sensationalist news headlines asking for a click... well, clicking these links opening up pages outside of FB could be opening doors to all kinds of nasty stuff that secretly resides and multiplies in your computer hard drive.
So, what is a Facebook virus?
A Facebook virus is a computer virus you get from your social media activity in Facebook. Apart from the source, it is of similar nature as other viruses, designed to cause mischief in your computer.
Some of the ways you can get this virus include:
- You clicked on an illicit link, perhaps mentioned in a status update of one of your Facebook peers or a message sent to you.
- You carelessly granted an application access to your account. Facebook monitors this and shuts such apps down quickly, but the damage is often done if they are given short term access
- Someone hacked your account and injected a virus. This commonly happens when you use a simple password (or your account is accessed by someone who knows your password).
- You have a typical computer virus which engineered access into your Facebook account.
Why Facebook is an attraction to hackers?
Dell SonicWALL reports that more than 28 percent of all Internet app traffic takes place on Facebook. That fact, combined with the site’s still unprecedented rising popularity, makes it a prime target for attackers.
Another major attraction is the viral nature of Facebook. Hackers are aware that their attacks can spread faster than just about anything – just like a viral post that gets shared thousands (even million) times. There is no reposting needed such as in other sources for injecting viruses.
Hackers can inject these Zeus-laden links in profile pages, fan pages, comments, private message inbox, community groups, content, apps and games.
What can you do to protect yourself?
Of course, there is no fool-proof solution to avoid such viruses. But there are a few things you can do for prevention, mitigation and protection.
Install antivirus software
A vigilant eye can keep you save from Facebook viruses, but even the pros can fall victim. The good news is this is how they learn, so it’s better to be prepared for the worst. Keep your operating system safe with browsers and antivirus programs that can detect harmful links and sites.
There are free antivirus software trails to try before you go for a complete solution. According to Trend Micro, some free tools also provide protection against viruses and other threats while you are surfing Facebook and other websites from a smartphone.
Examine links and messages
Fake applications may look legitimate, but they mostly carry tell-tale signs of being harmful. If you’re unsure about a link, hover the mouse over it and look at the URL in the status bar of your browser. If it carries any random characters in long strings or points outside Facebook, don’t click it.
If you see messages claiming that you can monitor your profile views and other enticing information, there’s a good chance it’s a trap trying to gain your personal information.
Lastly, keep all software programs and browsers up to date.