Many web services have security systems in place that will alert you of suspicious activity or failed attempts to access your account, but social media giant Facebook Inc. is adding a new type of alert to protect users from a more serious type of attacker: state-sponsored hackers.

“The security of people’s accounts is paramount at Facebook, which is why we constantly monitor for potentially malicious activity and offer many options to proactively secure your account,” Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos said in a security update. “Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state.”

“While we have always taken steps to secure accounts that we believe to have been compromised, we decided to show this additional warning if we have a strong suspicion that an attack could be government-sponsored,” Stamos continued. “We do this because these types of attacks tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others, and we strongly encourage affected people to take the actions necessary to secure all of their online accounts.”

Stamos noted that these alerts do not mean that Facebook’s own systems have been compromised, but they could mean that a user’s device has become infected with malware. He says that anyone who receives the security alert should repair or replace their infected systems.

“To protect the integrity of our methods and processes, we often won’t be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers,” Stamos added. “That said, we plan to use this warning only in situations where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion.”

Facebook is not the first web service to issue alerts specific to state-sponsored attackers. Google had previously instituted a similar system in 2012.

Photo by mikecogh