Facebook has upwards of 750 million users and that makes them a major target for unsavoury types who try to infect Facebook users with viruses, trojans, or just steal their passwords through phishing scams. In response, Facebook has teamed up with web security firm Websense to scan every link posted to the site for potential threats and protect their users.
Facebook has become a hub for sharing content, and this policy means that users should be a little better protected from links posted by other users either unknowing of the threats, or even when infected by a Facebook worm that posts links to infect others. Websense has previously offered its Defensio service to users to scan the links posted to their Facebook walls and other social networks sites, but this is a solution deeply integrated into Facebook itself and aimed at every user – not just the subset who may look for such safety initiatives.
Facebook will also maintain it use of the crowdsourced Web of Trust service that relies on users to report suspicious links alongside the new Websense service.