Studio Press

Under the scheme, the social networking site’s users whose accounts are hacked will be required to cleanse their computers of viruses before they can return to the online community. More than £7.5bn worth of free software will be distributed to Facebook users in Britain, United States, Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The global deal, which involves McAfee security software, worth £22.50, follows a rise in malicious software, or malware, targeting users. The viruses are designed to rapidly spread across the site’s global network, hijack people’s computers, before it sends out messages to all their friends encouraging them to visit websites. According to recent research, almost half of internet users do not have adequate virus protection, and more than three in four fail to regularly update anti-virus and anti-spyware programmes. Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of global communications, marketing and public policy described it as an “unprecedented step towards making the entire Internet more secure and reducing the possibility of threats being brought onto our service by unsuspecting users”.:source:telegraph.co.uk: