Facebook Hands Out Free Security Software

Battered by a recent wave of cyberattacks, Facebook is offering its 350 million users a free six-month trial of McAfee's Internet Security Suite. Hoping to protect users from viruses and other threats, it also announced yesterday that it's partnered with McAfee to develop an online tool to scan and clean the computers of Facebook users whose accounts have been attacked.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites have become increasingly popular targets of cybercriminals who prey on users' inherent trust of online "walled gardens" inhabited by their friends and family, Reuters reports. Facebook has recently been hit by the Koobface virus, which tricks users into clicking on links in spam messages and then takes over the victim's computer. (More Koobface stories.)