“It’s an ever-changing battle for us,” said Jonathan Domen, a network analyst at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., a private campus with about 3,600 students. “It really comes down to getting a handle on it really quickly before people start clicking and things get much worse.”
Blocking Facebook, campus technology chiefs said, isn’t an option, because so many students use the site for social and educational purposes, connecting to classmates and professors alike.
“We have to walk a very fine line,” said Domen, adding that Bryant’s network blocks students from accessing Facebook applications that are especially vulnerable to malware.
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Bryant University uses a program that isolates potential phishing victims and blocks their access to the campus network until the student has followed instructions that help him or her fix the security breach.
It usually takes students about three minutes to clear malware picked up through social media, Domen said. The program was made by New Hampshire-based network security company Bradford Networks.
“Quarantining” infected student laptops or campus computers that have been attacked via Facebook is also a way to help students understand the threats that lurk on Facebook, no matter how irresistibly clickable some links might be.
“It’s an awareness program to let students know not to do this,” said Frank Andrus, chief technology officer for Bradford Networks. “A lot of times, the student doesn’t even know that this is happening, that [his or her computer] is being compromised.”
A popular Facebook phishing scheme that surfaced last year brings users to a Facebook login page that looks identical to the real page. If a user name and password are entered on the fraudulent site, a hacker can gain control of that person’s Facebook account.
Battling this scheme requires a quick glance at the website URL, Andrus said. If the website address doesn’t begin with Facebook.com, the social media user should immediately exit the page.
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