Last week on LIFT’s youth corner, Pav Pich Sokkim, a 23-yeard-old laboratory technician at Calmette Hospital, said he finds it hard to deal with virus links that spread throughout Facebook.

Responding to Sokkim’s question, Kheng Vantha, the 30-year-old co-founder and IT manager of BIZ Solution and also the inventor of Khmer Anti-Virus and Phum Dictionary, shares some advice over the this serious issue.

“Virus links on Facebook are categorised in malware, which is a kind of virus that can slow down computers and silently steals users’ personal information such as phone numbers, e-mail contacts, passwords, and in some serious cases, the bank account information,” said Vantha.

The IT expert says that the source of virus links can be found on Facebook in applications, chat-rooms or on wall posts. The effects of it can be a disturbance to our friends or a blockage of account from Facebook in some cases.

How to recognise the virus links? “The virus links are very tricky,” says Vantha, adding “an example: let’s see how much time the links need to tag people – it is impossible for a human to tag so many people in a second in several Facebook posts – it can only be done by a virus link!”

Vantha said that it is very rare that our friends post pornographic pictures or send us unusual links.

He gives this advice in dealing with a virus: first, report it to Facebook when users see inappropriate or suspicious content. Second, change your Facebook password immediately after knowing that users’ accounts have been hacked – try not to use common words as a password – use symbols, capital letters, numbers and so on.

Third, delete applications such as games that are no longer used by going to manage apps option on Facebook. Also, do not re-type in your Facebook password or click the allow button if any suspicious applications or links require users to do so.

Finally, run your anti-virus program and always keep it updated.

According to techchai.com, there are links with certain extensions that users should not click such as (.ws .co .de) and more.

“Virus links can come in many forms; it is hard to cure, but at least, some basic prevention could help,” said Vantha.

Samreth Sodh