AVG has just announced a new partnership with Facebook to help protect the world’s largest global online community from the latest security threats (16.10.2012).

Having just reached one billion members, Facebook is big. Providing each and every one of those members protection from phishing attacks, malicious apps, and other threats? That’s big, too. Very big.

Facebook is immensely successful, because we are a social and community-driven society. We crave interaction. We want to know what our friends and family members are up to, and we want them to know all that’s going on in our lives, too.

Of course, we don’t need Facebook to do all these things. But Facebook does allow us to interact with the many people in our lives more efficiently, whereas in the real world, without Facebook, many of those relationships would probably just fall away.

On Facebook, many of us have learned what it takes to start, maintain and grow an active community: Communication. Cooperation. Sharing. Respect.

But healthy communities require something else: a sense of security. Without it, the community stalls. We can imagine the inconvenience that can happen when an infected account compromises the accounts of other community members. It’s not appreciated to say the least. Unless the community can defend itself by protecting its members, fear and resentment reign. And that’s when we trust less, contribute less, and participate less.

And so, in the spirit of helping people protect themselves and strengthen their communities, it is with great pride that we at AVG partnered with Facebook to provide data from our Linkscanner® technology and the collective intelligence of our more than 128 million users to help Facebook users avoid malicious web links posted or sent on Facebook. There is also the option to download the latest AVG AntiVirus FREE 2013 from the Facebook AV Marketplace.

Many of us are aware of the threats Facebook members face. Many of us are not. In the AVG Technologies Q2 2012 Community Powered Threat Report, we revealed how members have been hit with sophisticated, socially engineered attacks designed to trick people into giving up their personal and financial data. Last August, in a span of just 8 hours, AVG Threat Labs identified an astounding 1.6 million malicious advertising attacks appearing on Facebook pages and other websites, some of the ads even imitated the Facebook look and feel. The attack left many Facebook members unable to log on to their accounts or access any games or applications.

AVG, for its part, was able to protect its community members. With 128 million active users and more than 1.5 million Facebook fans, AVG knows working with people creates a stronger shield of protection than individuals can create on their own. And now we’re able to extend that community powered protection to Facebook users.

You might say this partnership has helped make Facebook a safer place. With one billion Facebook members, I’d say we’re helping to protect a big part of the world.

How important is security in your community? Let’s discuss either here, on Twitter, or Facebook!