“What are you doing in this video?!” … “I can’t believe they let her do this!” … “Is this about you?!”

If you have ever clicked on links like this on Facebook, you’ve likely also caught a social media virus or malware that creates social network spam.  The best way to avoid getting these nasty little bugs is simply not to click on any links or images from people or accounts that you don’t know.  But the biggest problem with socially-spread malware is that when it infects your friends, it automatically sends viral (literally) posts on their behalf.  So what’s the solution if you can’t recognize which posts are ok to click?  Researchers from UC Riverside have created a prototype Facebook app that detects social malware with 97 percent accuracy.

So how does it work, you ask? According to Dark Reading;

“MyPageKeeper, a project designed and created by computer scientists at the University of California, Riverside, does just that. Created as a Facebook application, the program searches the news feeds of its subscribers every two hours looking for suspected social malware and scams, collectively referred to as “socware” by the researchers. When it finds a suspect post, it leaves a comment indicating that the item is likely a scam or malware.

For anybody who has ever had to deal with a hacked Facebook account, this is welcomed news.  This technology could also help businesses keep their accounts safe.  Hopefully Facebook users can sleep a little bit easier at night knowing their accounts are that much safer, thanks to the folks at UC Riverside.  As this is an early itteration of the software, we can hope to see more developments in this story in the future and will keep you updated.