from Hacker News

Facebook news feeds beset with malware

by spotirca on 11/24/10, 4:02 PM with 3 comments

• by snprbob86 on 11/24/10, 7:47 PM

  > Security firm BitDefender said it had detected infections contained in the news feeds of around 20% of Facebook users

  I've seen a lot of malware posts, but 1 in 5 users? I'm skeptical based on my biased sample.

  > BitDefender arrived at its figures by analysing data from 14,000 Facebook users that had installed a security app, called safego, it makes for the social network site.

  Well there you have it, their sample is clearly more biased. A large number of people don't install apps at all. Some people install apps indiscriminately... including both malware and "safego".

• by cmer on 11/24/10, 7:44 PM

  I founded Defensio a few years ago and we fight exactly that problem. The amount of malware and spam we're seeing on high profile business and celebrity pages is astonishing.