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BALTIMORE, MD–October 15, 2013–Riskive, the Social Risk Management company, today unveiled FriendGuard, a free app that leverages advanced math and science to protect individuals and families against social identity theft and malware attacking their social accounts.

According to Riskive data, cybersecurity attacks have increased by 700% in the past year with more than 90% of hacks leveraging social media platforms.

FriendGuard is the first consumer-facing product developed by Riskive, which earlier this year secured funding to protect users and organizations against social-based cyber threats. Riskive is backed by Genacast Ventures (a fund in partnership with Comcast Ventures), Core Capital and multiple prominent angel investors.

“We are proud to announce the immediate availability of FriendGuard to protect families and everyone at risk from social network cyber threats,” said James C. Foster, CEO of Riskive. “The data our team compiled throughout this year demonstrates the severity of a silent, yet very dangerous threat assaulting the safety of our personal information online.”

A single compromised social account can also lead to the compromise of other social accounts and real-life accounts – like bank accounts. Compromises occur at an alarming rate- one new social media account is compromised every three seconds. Until now, there was no functional product on the market that can protect any consumer, on any device, at any time, from anywhere, on any network, on social networking platform from hackers and viruses–anti-virus is not for social networks and cannot provide real-time support.

“We are in the early stages of a new era of cyber attacks,” said Richard Stiennon, Chief Research Analyst at IT-Harvest. “Social platforms have opened up a window for cyber thieves to steal and harvest personal information of individuals and businesses for profit.”

FriendGuard leverages advanced algorithms to detect if individuals are connected to hackers. Individuals who activate FriendGuard are provided with a FriendGuard Score, like a credit score but for security. This score is derived from our expansive database of malware and other compromising networks and real-time analysis of evolving threats in an individual’s network. Users receive alerts when someone posts malware or a click-jacking scam on their wall or a friend’s wall, suspicious connections, and other malicious content.

FriendGuard is free for individuals and can be activated at http://friendguard.com for immediate protection against social cyber threats. Subscription pricing applies for families ($3.99 per month) that allows parents to protect their kids from cyber attacks as well as other suspicious connections.

“While its human nature to give our friends and closest contacts the benefit of the doubt, the reality is that most cyber attacks put us at risk because the people in our social networks have been compromised,” said Foster. “FriendGuard provides proactive threat detection to ensure your social network information remains safe.”

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About Riskive

Riskive, the Social Risk Management Company, is a Baltimore, Maryland-based startup with a mission of protecting the social enterprise. Businesses and government organizations leverage Riskive’s cloud-based technology and predictive analytics to identify and prevent malicious cyber attacks before they occur. Please visit: http://riskive.com/.

Article source: http://www.darkreading.com/end-user/riskive-unveils-free-app-for-social-iden/240162590