Nearly 1 billion people around the world now have Facebook accounts. In spite of that fact, many of these people have no idea how to protect themselves from social media viruses. With hackers and virus manufacturers increasingly targeting users of social media, it has never been more important to educate yourself on social media malware threats.
A recent study conducted by Avira concluded that computer users are most worried about having their personal information stolen from Facebook and Google+. Twitter was seen as the most secure of these social networks.
The reasoning behind these choices appears to be obvious: users divulge everything from their phone number to their full name on Facebook, and input similar information into Google+. Information on Twitter, meanwhile, depends entirely on what you decide to put into each 140 character tweet.
The Avira users were surveyed in January and February of 2012. With privacy concerns on the rise, each of these social media networks was seen as a threat, with over 40% of respondents choosing ‘all of the above’ when asked which social media network posed the biggest security risk.
Hackers and viruses will continue to target social media users as long as they remain uninformed on PC security issues. Don’t click on every link that your friends send you, and try to limit the phone numbers, addresses, and other personal information that you divulge online.
If you don’t want to manually scan each incoming link for virus and malware threats, then you can always purchase antivirus software that will do it for you. Some of today’s latest PC security tools will proactively scan your social media accounts and identify any viruses they come across. If you do happen to click on a malicious link, that antivirus software will confirm that you want to travel to the dangerous website.
The bottom line
Whether your social media account’s privacy is hacked by a virus or sold by Google and Facebook themselves, it has never been more important to reduce the amount of information you release online. Identity theft is on the rise, and most people claim that it can never happen to them (and they often have no basis for this assumption).
If you want your computer (and your identity) to remain protected, then you need to install the right combination of antivirus software and PC optimization tools. Using this blend, you can unlock your computer’s maximum performance and protect yourself from online malware threats. For all of these reasons, more and more people are downloading PC Cleaner Pro every day in order to safeguard their computers – and their lives.