Facebook expands AV Marketplace with 7 new partners
Nearly six months ago, Facebook launched the AV Marketplace, offering users access to antivirus applications. This morning, the company announced a deal with seven new partners: avast!, AVG, Avira, Panda, Kaspersky, Webroot, and Total Defense. In addition, Facebook's existing partners McAfree, Norton, TrendMicro, Microsoft, and Sophos, are also now providing antivirus apps for mobile devices.
For PC users, the AV Marketplace offers Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013 (free), avast! Free Edition, Avira (free), a 6-month subscription to McAfee Internet Security, a free trial of Norton AntiVirus, Total Defense Free with Free Cloud-Based Security Assessment, AVG Free 2013, Microsoft Security Essentials, a free 6-month subscription to Webroot SecureAnywhere 2013, a free subscription to Kaspersky PURE Total Security, and a 6-month subscription for Panda Internet Security 2013. Mac users can download Kaspersky Security for Mac, avast! Free Edition, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013, a free trial of Norton, Avira (free), and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition (free). Android users can grab either McAfee Mobile Security or Norton Mobile Security Lite for Android.
This is the latest move from Facebook on increasing user security. The company recently implemented a series of phishing protection mechanisms, as well as the launch of phish@fb.com, where users can report phishing attempts. In July, the company also launched malware checkpoints, and is using a URL blacklist system, which scans links and compares them with their partners' databases to verify that they aren't malicious.
According to Facebook's announcement, "Effective security must be a cooperative effort; by adding these new partners to the Facebook Security family we are sure we can keep our community even better protected from threats both on Facebook and elsewhere on the web." The company plans to announce new tools in the future. The products from these seven new partners, plus the new mobile apps, are available for download now.
[via Facebook]