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Facebook's Anti-Virus Marketplace turns focus to URL blacklist system

Facebook continues to maintain that security is a primary focus as its Anti-Virus Marketplace gets stocked with more solutions from the likes of Avira, Kaspersky, and Webroot.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Facebook has announced that it is expanding its Anti-Virus Marketplace through the addition of seven more security solutions providers to its coalition.

That group consists of Avast, AVG, Avira, Kaspersky, Panda, Total Defense, and Webroot.

Launched earlier this year, the Anti-Virus Marketplace is the product of a partnership with anti-virus software providers that offer Facebook users with free software to keep their computers secure.

Facebook reps said that approximately 30 million people have already visited the Anti-Virus Marketplace since its unveiling in April.

In July, the world's largest social network continued to develop upon its security agenda with the introduction of Malware Checkpoint, which enables Facebook to direct users who think their computer might be infected to sites where they can get free anti-virus software.

According to a blog post on the Facebook Security blog on Tuesday morning, one of the primary objectives now for these partners is to help improve Facebook's URL blacklist system, which scans trillions of clicks per day and consults the databases of all Anti-Virus Marketplace partners to ensure sites are safe.

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.

In addition to these new partners, some of Facebook's existing partners -- including Microsoft, McAfee, TrendMicro, Sophos, and Symantec -- will begin offering anti‑virus software for mobile devices. Their free anti-virus software is also available for PC and Mac.

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