Woburn Company Teams Up With Facebook

A Woburn company has teamed up with Facebook to work on security for the social media giant.

a developer of security and threat management solutions, is supplying Facebook with "up-to-the-minute data about the latest malicious software threats worldwide," according to a statement from the Woburn-based company. Kaspersky Lab said the information "will be used to protect Facebook users from inadvertently visiting malicious web pages."

In the Facebook feed, many users have found that they can "like" or "share" friends' photos. Some malware and virus developers have noticed this and are capitalizing on it, according to a statement from Kaspersky.

"Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen incredible growth in the amount of personal information people will voluntarily share, and cybercriminals have naturally ‘followed the money’ by creating scams and malicious programs specifically targeting social networks," said Costin Raiu, Director of Global Research and Analysis Team of Kaspersky. "It takes a blend of online awareness and top-notch security technology to be protected online—one cannot take the place of the other—and by partnering with Facebook, Kaspersky Lab intends to provide both.”

Kaspersky Labs has been working with Internet technology for over 15 years and operates in over 200 countries for 300 million users.

Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan said he was happy to partner with the company.

"Starting today, the people who use Facebook will be able to benefit from Kaspersky's industry-leading intelligence and technology with their malicious URL data and inclusion in the AV Marketplace," said Sullivan. "We look forward to the combined work of our companies to help keep people safe both on and off of Facebook."