ESET to offer free malware scanner for Facebook and twitter users

Facebook announced that it has partnered with another IT security vendor ESET. The goal of the alliance is to prevent malicious links from populating user News Feeds and Facebook Messages.

Facebook currently offers a number of software malware solutions including F-Secure and Trend Micro, and ESET Online Scanner for Facebook is joining the fray and will go live today.

In a blog post announcing the partnership, software engineer Chetan Gowda of Facebook's site integrity team said, "To help people who use Facebook to proactively combat malware and make it easier to find and use the right technology for protecting their devices, we announced partnerships in May with anti-malware leaders F-Secure and Trend Micro. These companies built free versions of their products directly into Facebook so that people could get the help they need without additional hassle. Today, we are expanding those capabilities by adding the anti-malware technology of another IT security vendor, ESET."

ESET malware scanner tool also protects Twitter users. On Twitter it will protect posts and profiles from anyone that you are following, and on Facebook it will protect your messages, timeline, newsfeed and timelines of your friends.

Here's how ESET malware scanner works on Facebook: if the device you're using to access our services is behaving suspiciously and shows signs of a possible malware infection, a message will appear offering you an anti-malware scan for your device. You can run the scan, see the scan results, and disable the software all without logging out of Facebook—making it seamless and easy to clean up an infected device.

“ESET is pleased to offer its services to Facebook users all over the world. Signature low system footprint and ESET’s top rated detection technology used in ESET Online Scanner guarantee effective and easy detection for free,” said Ignacio Sbampato, chief sales and marketing officer at ESET.