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Facebook adding warnings to links that may be malicious
For years, Facebook has been loaded with bum links that spread virally across the social media platform and take users to malware-infested site. These are the ones that have cryptic promises of something shocking or titillating but seem to be written in a style that doesn't sound like something your friend would be saying even though it's on their feed. Now Facebook is doing something about it, partnering with security firm Websense to warn users that a link will take them to a malware site. It's a nice move and one wonders why they haven't done it sooner.
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John, I have a partial retraction to make. Because of your timely reporting I was able to go to the Websense site and learn that their affiliation with Facebook is only 48 hours old, and uses a different page format for the warning.
It appears another service was responsible for the past slander; I wanted to be fair to Websense and clear that up. Facebook seems to be primarily responsible so far.
Having said that, this could get interesting. The Websense site indicates they will intercept URL's and send Spiderbots to probe sites to see if they are malicious.
That could backfire on their bots. My software is as sophisticated as theirs, and very protective. If they probe too aggressively or in the wrong way their bots will be bounced off the site with a 403 warning in a heartbeat.
If they bounce back as bots do, they will be bounced again. If it happens three times they will be bounced with a "503" I think, for 24 hours.
I will have a permanent record of it in my "kill logs" as they are called, and I will know exactly who it was that gets bounced, and why.
This will all happen in less than 10 seconds. Websense indicates they use cloud technology; if they come in using the wrong reverse proxy service they will get bounced far faster than that; it may trigger an "Instaban".
John, I better contact you directly if things get "dicey"; if it turns out that Websense seems to do a stellar job I'll come back and report that as well.
Again thanks for your fine reporting. John, it's what I do as well, with articles at over 150 websites.
BTW, I better go warn the two international sites involved, I use their software, and their combined "bad-guy" database, it's the largest one of it's kind in the world for private use.
No, it's not a nice move they way they are doing it; the security firm they are using is bogus in that they make un-founded accusations. I own a very reputable NFL football news magazine with all original articles.
There are many fans of this team on Facebook who share links to individual articles about the last or next game. Facebook blocks their path out of Facebook to the website with warning pages that warn them not go to my site.
It warns people that the site may damage their computer or steal personal information, or phish them. This is a slanderous outrage, there is no basis in fact.
The security firm is placing that warning at random without any proof or recourse. If my analytic software did not show referral URLs to my site, and I had not checked some of them I would never have known.
If I can find an attorney who will take Facebook on for slander for even a huge % of the settlement I will bust them; Facebook is out of control.
I have never used Facebook socially or for business precisely because of the stories that circulate about their Gestapo like practices.
Yes, there are spammers on Facebook; there are spammers everywhere. I fight them daily, or rather my site software does, I have the very best in the world.
The good intentions of Facebook in this regard are wiped out by their slanderous disrespect for innocent sites.
Thank you for bringing up this matter and naming the security firm; you have given me a target to go after.
Slander is still an international crime, and I can back my claims up, I have permanent records and screen-shots of everything including the names and accounts of the people who receive these warnings unjustly.
Thanks again.
