Facebook says it has partnered with security vendor Websense to better protect its users from malicious URLs posted on the popular social networking site.

Such attacks typically take place by enticing users to click on links leading to external sites embedded with malware or which are used to conduct phishing. Under the arrangement, all URLs posted on Facebook will be passed through Websense's real-time link scanner to determine if they are safe.

Users will see a message with a brief explanation should a link be determined as not being safe. A prominent "return to previous page" button will then be provided for users to head back towards safety, though they can still proceed if they chose to disregard the warning.

In a prepared statement, Dan Rubinstein, Facebook's product manager for site integrity, commented that "Facebook cares deeply about protecting users from potentially malicious content on the internet. We are excited about our partnership with Websense to provide industry leading tools to help our users protect themselves."

It is not clear from the announcement whether the extra layer of checks will create any delays when heading to an external site, or what the frequency of scanning by Websense will be. The latter is important as infrequent checks may allow hackers to do a bait and switch in which a "clean" site is presented for initial scanning, and substituted later with malware infested code.

For more:
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at PCWorld

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