Websense Research: Top Facebook Pages Leave Fans Vulnerable to Malicious Content

San Diego, CA (Vocus) October 7, 2010

News Facts

    About 40 percent of Facebook posts contain links and about 10 percent of those posts are either malicious or spam. That puts the average Facebook user one click away from malware a few times each day. And, even though individual pages are being targeted, more risk comes from high-volume corporate and celebrity pages.

    Websense is now offering an expanded suite of Defensio 2.0â?¢ security services for businesses and celebrities that automatically removes unsavory content, whether it is malicious, spam or even profanity. Defensio 2.0 reduces security, productivity, and legal liability risks by analyzing and classifying user-generated content that is posted to corporate and personal Websites, blogs, user forums, and social networking sites.

    Defensio, the security eyes and ears of Facebook and the blogging world, analyzes more than 2.5 million comments and tens of millions of URLs weekly. The Web 2.0 threat detection and analysis conducted by Defensio is then incorporated into all Websense solutions, which are powered by the Advanced Classification Engineâ?¢ and the Threatseeker Network. This integration protects all Websense customers from Web threats as they occur.

Defensio 2.0 Protects Facebook

    Defensio provides a critical level of visibility and security for Facebook users. In fact, many top Facebook pages are inadvertently exposing their fans to malicious content. Celebrities especially fall victim to these exploits and unwittingly help them spread quickly, like recently when Justin Timberlakeâ??s 3.7 million fans were treated to a malicious link on his and 250,000 other walls. Lady Gaga, with close to 19 million fans, recently hosted 1,717 instances of profanity, 372 spammy links, and 93 directly malicious links on her Facebook wall in a single week.

    Defensio 2.0, the first and only security solution designed to protect pages on social networking sites like Facebook, helps organizations protect their brand reputation and their fans from spam and malicious content on their corporate and celebrity pages. For example, an award-winning MTV VMA musician, a world-class auto manufacturer, and a branch of the U.S. military all protect their Facebook pages and fans with Defensio.

Quote(s):

â??The Defensio 2.0 technology answers a huge market need, as social networking continues to permeate the consumer and enterprise world,â? said Carl Mercier, Websense director of development for social Web security and Defensio founder. â??As demand increases, weâ??re seeing Web 2.0 sites as the channel used most by spammers and malicious attacks. Defensio 2.0 is the only technology that scans and protects user-generated content on social networking sites and corporate blogsâ??giving users the ability and flexibility to harness the full power of social networking securely and safely.â?

â??Defensio can benefit customers in many ways,â? said Chris Christiansen, program vice president for IDC's Security Products and Services group. â??Intelligence captured by Defensio adds to the advanced content analysis that powers the rest of Websenseâ??s email, Web, and data security products. By adding this information into its Advanced Classification Engine, Websense goes beyond virus signatures, URL reputation, or categorization to address uncategorized Web content. This real-time analysis of social networks can alert customers to new Web threats as they occur.â?

Multimedia Elements:

Click to view a video introduction to Defensio 2.0 and its new features.

Click to view a behind-the-scenes video featuring Websense Labs top security researchers explaining the Websense Advanced Classification Engine (ACE). This technology serves as the engine driving Websenseâ??s Defensio product, which protects against malicious scripts and zero-day threats that evade antivirus products.

Click to share â??New Versions of Websense Defensio Automatically Remove Malicious Content from Business and Celebrity Social Networking Sitesâ? on Facebook.

Click to share the Defensio 2.0 video on Facebook.

Click to share on Twitter:

Check out Defensio2.0,free social media tool removes malicious links, spam, and profanity from ur Facebook wall http://bit.ly/dfhLk4

Websense Links:

Facebook: â??Likeâ? Websense.

Twitter: Follow @Websense.

The Defensio 2.0 security application for Facebook is immediately available. To download it for free, or to learn more about Defensio 2.0 for Web 2.0 sites, visit Defensio.com. To learn about Defensio 2.0 for purchase, visit Defensio.com/pricing. To view a video introduction to Defensio 2.0 and its new features, visit defensio.com/video.

About Websense:

Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN), a global leader in unified Web, data and email content security solutions, delivers the best security for modern threats at the lowest total cost of ownership to tens of thousands of enterprise, mid-market and small organizations around the world. Distributed through a global network of channel partners and delivered as software, appliance and software-as-a-service (SaaS), Websense content security solutions help organizations leverage new communication, collaboration, and Web 2.0 business tools while protecting from advanced persistent threats, preventing the loss of confidential information and enforcing Internet use and security policies. Websense is headquartered in San Diego, California with offices around the world. For more information, visit websense.com.

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