Facebook launches ThreatExchange platform to keep Internet safer

Facebook on Wednesday launched a new platform to help thwart fast-evolving malware and other online threats.

The new platform, ThreatExchange, allows people to share information and solutions to better address online attacks, Facebook's Mark Hammell said.

"We quickly learned that sharing with one another was key to beating the botnet because parts of it were hosted on our respective services and none of us had the complete picture. During our discussions, it became clear that what we needed was a better model for threat sharing," Hammell, manager of Facebook's threat infrastructure team, said in a blog post.

He said ThreatExchange is an API-based platform for security threat information – just in line with Facebook's core service is a platform for sharing.

Also, he pointed out this would jibe with ThreatData, Facebook's existing threat analysis framework.

The platform also allows flexibility for organizations to be more open or selective about the information they share, he said.

"As a result, we included a set of privacy controls so that participants can share only with the group or groups they wish," he said.

With ThreatExchange, Hammell said partner companies can query the available threat information and also publish to all or some participating organizations.

"Threat data is typically freely available information like domain names and malware samples, but for situations where a company might only want to share certain indicators with companies known to be experiencing the same issues, built-in controls make limited sharing easy and help avoid errors by using a pre-defined set of data fields," he said.

Hammell indicated early partners in this effort include Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Yahoo. Upcoming new contributors include Bitly and Dropbox, he said.

ThreatExchange can be accessed at (threatexchange.fb.com).

"To be stronger together, we need a more open approach to security with the right tools. That’s how we can most effectively protect people’s accounts, safeguard data, and rid our services of spam and malware," it said.

Hammell said the goal is that organizations anywhere will be able to use ThreatExchange to:

- share threat information more easily
- learn from each other's discoveries
- make their own systems safer.

"That's the beauty of working together on security. When one company gets stronger, so do the rest of us," he said. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News