Infected Pc's Won't Be Allowed On Facebook.

[Danielx386]

Facebook has joined forces with McAfee to provide discounted security services to all of its 350 million members.
Facebook users will be eligible for a free, six-month trial of McAfee Internet Security Suite software and a discounted price thereafter.

If Facebook uncovers any sort of threat, the social networking site said it would take steps to secure a user's computer, a process that includes a sweep of the affected computer by McAfee technology.

"Now, if your computer is infected, you will be asked to run a scan and clean it before accessing Facebook," Facebook wrote in a blog post.

At launch, the McAfee software will be available to Facebook users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Other countries will be added throughout the first quarter.

To access the software, click the "Protect Your PC" tab on the McAfee Facebook Page.

"Facebook is very serious about security and has made significant efforts to protect its users and service by investing in dedicated teams and sophisticated systems, and this partnership with McAfee furthers that mission," Todd Gebhart, executive vice president and general manager of McAfee Consumer, Mobile and Small Business, said in a statement.

"By partnering with a market leader like McAfee, we are taking an unprecedented step towards making the entire Internet more secure and reducing the possibility of threats being brought onto our service by unsuspecting users," said Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications, marketing and public policy at Facebook. "Keeping the Internet secure requires that users, security vendors and Internet companies all work together. We think we've developed an excellent model for this collaboration, and to ensure the greatest possible value to our users, Facebook will not accept any revenue from subscriptions. We hope this is something that other services will emulate."

In addition, Facebook and McAfee will work together to develop content for the Facebook Security Page, and McAfee will frequently update its own page.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358015,00.asp


Virus writers: Take this thread and smoke it.

Daniel

 

[diabolo]

does this mean we would all have to use McAfee if we want access to FB? I hope not.

 

[Zubair]

Is this a planing or it is applied

 

[Danielx386]

No, I don't think so.

Is this a planing or it is applied: I don't know but you get their software fore free for 180 days

Daniel

 

[Zubair]

only 180 days!! :S

then we have to pay for it!!!

 

[Danielx386]

But you don't need to use it, you just need something installed from my understanding

Daniel

 

[wongers]

that will never actually come to play in the end, surely not?

altho if this did happen, i cant imagine this would be something that would actually become complete specific to McAfee, every virus scanner would have to release a patch for this to become widely compatable.

it would kind of come down to a similar issue as Windows getting bummed for preloading their releases with Internet Explorer and not giving people the choice. (cant be arsed going in to that with an more detail)

 

[callumacrae]

What about Linux peoples? If you have to have a virus scanner installed to use fbook...?

~Callum

 

[wongers]

its an interesting thought as to how they would acheive this, i mean would facebook request that you download a security plug in before you are able to view the site? in which case, would that be more a browser security as apposed to anti-virus but can the 2 be interlinked? quite an interesting project i say.

 

[farscapeone]

This is much more complicated then it seams to be. People at Facebook know that they can't "force" users to do or have something on their computers cos they will leave and go to some other soc-networking site. I don't have to mention what impact would it make on number of new users.

Somebody will say, "so what, if you are not infected you don't have to worry about it", right? Ideally, yes, but we all know that every anti-virus software has so called "false alarms". What then? How can we be sure that McAfee is right? We can't.

Here's my opinion.
I think that this is just another of those McAfee business ideas.

 

[ah-blabla]

So they want people to first install a bloatware OS in order to install a bloatware scanner, in order to use FB?

I can almost imagine people's computers being marked infected on day 180, meaning they get locked out and need to pay for the scanner to be marked as safe again to get back onto FB...

 

[Danielx386]

No, it think it check to see if you got any antivirus installed, if so you can use it, if not, GET LOST. I think you can use what ever you like, i'm using norton.

Daniel

 

[Smith6612]

The last I checked, didn't McAfee have not too great of detection rates for the residential products? But I wouldn't be too worried about this for the meantime. Right now Facebook is only requiring people who have had previously infested machines scan their PCs. I haven't gotten any news on what else will be happening as this moves forward. Now as for Linux and Mac users, I'm sure Facebook will let those users slide. After all, unless someone is sudo/root happy there's a slim chance of them getting anything.

 

[Danielx386]

Yeah, I don't like McAfee (sorry McAfee but you smell like bad BO, ewwww)

 

[dibb3386]

I can see it now... No Mr. Facebook i dont want mcafees on my computer ive got avg premium/free. I dont need a different antivirus. N..N..Noo Mr Facebook i dont need it, yeah i know what you banners say.....its says...,.oh another banner filling my screen i wonder what it will be? Oh i never would have guessed. Do i want to install mcafees? erm no.. i dont.....installing WT* i said no.

 

[mcnigelmcgruff]

This sounds like a quagmire for Facebook. Firstly, from the original post, it looks like they will be able to initiate a scan and delete items remotely if you download the anti-virus from them. That is bordering on illegal. Second, implementing something like this can be very difficult. Where I work we currently have a system in place for users to access our wireless network. You download a file from the web page, then run it and it checks for Windows updates, and checks your anti-virus (it is able to check the most popular ones out there). If it determines that your PC is secure and up-to-date, it will register you with the network and allow you access. http://www.bradfordnetworks.com/interoperability However, it is a piece of junk. It constantly breaks, the redirection to the registration page doesn't always work, and when we installed a new core router, DHCP failed for the system entirely. My point is that it can be done, but that Facebook will have a really hard time getting it going and keeping it running. A site that large can't afford to have outages for hours/days. (We were told our system had set a record at over 300 days without a reboot.)

 

[monkeymhz]

If they are going to force me to use McAfee ill be choked. I recommend avast, or avira, but I think the rest are a waste of time. If its optional then i think its a good thing they just better not force it on us. To me virus scanners are useless, I never get virus's. Ever. However my parents buggered up their PC, but I fixed it, If you know what your doing virus removal is not hard. But the best way is to not get it in the first place. (because once you get a virus, you feel tainted lol)

Ive seen some pretty nasty virus's right up to the point were they embed them selfs in the MBR (Master boot record). However with Windows Vista an on (including Win7) virus's have been drastically cut back on.

All I know for sure is I do NOT want a a stupid 180 day trial.

 

[carl6969]

What about Linux peoples? If you have to have a virus scanner installed to use fbook...?
~Callum

Facebook will simply issue a public statement stating that Linux is not a "mainstream" OS so they do not feel a need to support it.

This is exactly what Nokia did regarding a very popular program which facilitates communication between Nokia phones and PC's using a USB cable for purposes such as file exchange and using the phone as a modem. (Linux supporters responded by developing an open source / Linux version of the program). Another example is streaming video on Netflix. Linux is not considered "mainstream" so Netflix feels no urgent need to support this portion of their customer base. That attitude needs to start changing. I seem to remember reading that Dell is going to start offering factory installed Ubuntu on new laptops.

Furthermore, how would one obtain virus software for Linux, or for that matter, Apple? These OS's don't need virus software at the present time so, obviously, nobody has developed any.

So, aside from being a generally bad idea for everybody, (including the "mainstream" Windows users), IMHO, Facebook needs to consider the fact that not every user needs, (or can even obtain), virus software.

 

[Smith6612]

Facebook will simply issue a public statement stating that Linux is not a "mainstream" OS so they do not feel a need to support it.

This is exactly what Nokia did regarding a very popular program which facilitates communication between Nokia phones and PC's using a USB cable for purposes such as file exchange and using the phone as a modem. (Linux supporters responded by developing an open source / Linux version of the program). Another example is streaming video on Netflix. Linux is not considered "mainstream" so Netflix feels no urgent need to support this portion of their customer base. That attitude needs to start changing. I seem to remember reading that Dell is going to start offering factory installed Ubuntu on new laptops.

Furthermore, how would one obtain virus software for Linux, or for that matter, Apple? These OS's don't need virus software at the present time so, obviously, nobody has developed any.

So, aside from being a generally bad idea for everybody, (including the "mainstream" Windows users), IMHO, Facebook needs to consider the fact that not every user needs, (or can even obtain), virus software.

Dell has been offering Ubuntu installs for at least a year now...

 

[lynnwood]

This is all about marketing and money. Why would Facebook actually care about whether their visitors' PCs are infected with malware. I'd bet that about half of their members' PCs are part of a bot network or at least has some adware loaded. If they started restricting access to their site based on whether their visitors are using infected PCs their usage statistics would fall through the floor.

If Facebook were to implement some sort of process like a 'clean room' in which visitors had to somehow validate a 'malware-free' status, I would applaud them and even consider joining their crappy site. I would call my broker to buy more shares of their stock.

Too bad ISPs are not held liable for granting Internet access through their networks to people who are not responsible enough to protect their PC.