Norton by Symantec today announced that its Safe Web for Facebook application, a free tool to let Facebook users know if links are safe before clicking on them, has surpassed one million users less than a year after its initial launch.
Norton Safe Web for Facebook protects users by scanning their news feeds and identifying URLs containing security risks such as phishing sites, malicious downloads and links to unsafe external sites.
“There is an inherent atmosphere of trust on social networking sites, where we’re all constantly sharing information and links with friends, family and coworkers,” said Marian Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate. “Cybercriminals have been quick to capitalize on this aspect by figuring out ways to inject fraudulent or malicious links into people’s newsfeeds so that they appear to be from a trusted source. Our free application makes it easy to prevent that one wrong click which could put you in the crosshairs of a cybercriminal.”
In the last year, Norton has seen threats focusing on social networking sites rise and is detecting more than a quarter of a million malicious links each year with Norton Safe Web for Facebook.
“Norton Safe Web for Facebook is currently scanning an average of 3.5 million URLs daily – about 100 million every month, and we’re gaining about eight thousand new users every day,” said Jens Meggers, Senior Vice President Engineering, Norton by Symantec. “We’ve maintained a high user rating by ensuring it is a quick and easy way to save users from spamming their friends or infecting their own computers with malicious applications.”
