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Today, Trend Micro is proud to announce that we are taking part in Facebook’s new security initiative to help protect its more than 900 million users against the wide variety of threats that target users of the world’s most popular social network.

As part of this initiative:

• Facebook and Trend Micro will work together to leverage the latter’s threat intelligence capabilities, particularly its knowledge of malicious websites, to protect Facebook users. This means even non-Trend Micro users of Facebook will also be protected by the enhanced capabilities of the Trend MicroT Smart Protection NetworkT against threats commonly found on the social network like survey scams.
• Users in the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia can download a free copy of either TitaniumT Security Essentials (for Windows users) or Smart Surfing (for Mac users). This free copy will be valid for six months, and all users have to do is like the Fearless Web page and visit the new AV Marketplace section to download a copy.

Among the threats that users face on Facebook are survey scams, which frequently leverage the latest viral trend du jour. In the most recent example we’ve seen, fake news of Justin Beiber supposedly stabbing a fan was used to lure users onto malicious sites that kept going to various survey sites.

Scam surveys are web pages that require users to disclose sensitive information in exchange for a supposed prize they won or a free item. Users are typically lead to these pages via malicious wall posts that leverage celebrities, events, or other popular news items. Below are some of the scam activities that we have previously seen targeting Facebook users:

• Free iPad 3 Scams Steer Users to Bad Sites
• Cybercriminals Leverage Whitney Houston’s Death
• Free ‘Breaking Dawn Part 2’ Tickets Scam Spreads in Facebook

This, along with many other similar threats, is blocked by the Smart Protection NetworkT – and thanks to our new partnership, by Facebook as well. The infographic below shows how Trend Micro protects Facebook users from malicious attacks by using the data from the Smart Protection NetworkT.

To know more on how you can protect yourself from threats targeting Facebook and other social media sites, you may read our comprehensive e-guide A Guide to Threats on Social Media.