FAQ: Security and Facebook’s new messages system

Update 11 February, 2011: Facebook has announced that it is rolling out the new messages system to all users.

We've begun expanding the rollout of the new Messages to everyone: http://ow.ly/3UNyG. Take a tour at http://ow.ly/3UNAF.

— Facebook (@Facebook) February 11, 2011

What follows is the article we wrote in November 2010, explaining the security implications of Facebook’s new messages system – with particular regard to malware and spam.

Earlier today Facebook announced its new messages system. Although widely anticipated to be a Gmail-killer (some even dubbed it “FMail”), it turned out to be somewhat different.

Here’s a quick FAQ of what we think you may want to know about it, and the implications for…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.