Facebook launches platform for companies to share security threat data

Facebook introduced ThreatExchange, a platform where partner companies can query available cybersecurity threat information and publish their own. "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," Mark Hammell, manager of the threat infrastructure team at Facebook, said. "During our discussions, it became clear that what we needed was a better model for threat sharing."

ThreatExchange includes a set of privacy controls so that participating firms can share only with the group or groups they wish. "Our goal is that organizations anywhere will be able to use ThreatExchange to share threat information more easily, learn from each other's discoveries, and make their own systems safer," Hammell said. "That's the beauty of working together on security. When one company gets stronger, so do the rest of us."