DHAKA: Facebook is launching free anti-virus software that monitors for malicious activity and offers to scan infected computers directly from the social network.

The scanning software is being provided by security firm Eset and is intended to protect Facebook accounts from being attacked by malicious software on users’ computers, reports The Guardian on Wednesday.

“Our goal is to offer our users the right technology to improve their experience of our services and better protect their devices,” said Chetan Gowda, a web developer at Facebook responsible for fighting spam. “ESET Online Scanner for Facebook will significantly decrease the number of malicious links from among the trillions of clicks that take place every day on Facebook.”

Combatting spam and malware

In 2012, Facebook launched a service that detected malicious activity on Facebook accounts and offered users with suspected infected computers a list of free anti-virus software. The new scanner takes it one step further by offering to scan user computers directly from Facebook.

Users will be notified when they first log into Facebook if suspicious behaviour is detected such as spam messages or the posting of infected links. They will then need to download and install a small programme that scans the computer, but the progress of the scan and results are delivered through Facebook, allowing users to get on and do other things while the scanner checks the computer.

The move comes as an increasing number of scams and malicious software have taken to spreading through Facebook, attracted by the 1.35 billion monthly active users.

The scams have used social engineering to get people to click on infected links spreading through friends’ news feeds with click-bait headlines. Facebook has been proactively blocking and removing links it spots as malicious, but has not been able to stop the root of the problem – infected computers.

The social network hopes the new free anti-virus service will help cut down on the amount of malware spread through Facebook, tackling the cause directly.

BDST: 2013 HRS, DEC 03, 2014