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Facebook Launches ThreatExchange To Let Companies Share Threat Info

Posted by samzenpus on from the protect-ya-neck dept.

An anonymous reader writes Facebook today launched ThreatExchange, described as "an API-based clearinghouse for security threat information." It's really a social platform, which Facebook naturally excels at building, which allows companies to share with each other details about malware and phishing attacks. Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Yahoo participated in ThreatExchange and gave feedback as Facebook was developing it. New contributors Bitly and Dropbox have also recently joined, bringing the initial participant list to seven major tech companies.

30 comments

  1. Threat exchange by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    aka the internet

  2. will it also share attck info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on itself?

  3. 'Which Facebook naturally excels as building'?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Try to get the dicks out of your mouth before you post.

    1. Re:'Which Facebook naturally excels as building'?? by grcumb · · Score: 1

      Try to get the dicks out of your mouth before you post.

      It's the fact that you used the plural that makes this true comedy.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  4. Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Send it to Jeb Bush, by e-mail. Good way to share.

  5. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    great place to find some cool exploits... :)

    1. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's actually worse than that. Anyone who is interested in trying to launch a cyber-attack would hang on out such a group just to gain information about what attacks people are detecting, how they are detecting them and what they are doing about them. That would be invaluable information to a would-be attacker.

      At my previous company we sold enterprise security products. Our former CEO decided that "social" was a good buzzword and wanted to jump on that band wagon, so he tried to float the same idea - a "social" group where people would share information about attacks, etc. For all the obvious reasons, it never got off the ground.

      This is either just a publicity stunt by FB or it is Mr Zuckerberg deluding himself into thinking that he is anything more than a personal information broker. No seasoned security practitioner is going to discuss any sorts of details about their on-going security efforts in a public forum.

  6. Does it allow by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

    selfies ? ( :grin: )

  7. Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by trippin_efnet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find this path troubling. I could see this becoming a thing where only mega corporations benefit from this sharing, while leaving small companies, small projects, and the lowly common folk. These kinds of things should be discussed in the open. If someone knows of an exploit, it is irresponsible to not share this info so we can all band together and fix our fucking systems. It shouldn't only be the elite few in the circles of trust who get to fix their systems first.

    1. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Then make your own project and include everyone. This is Facebook using Facebooks money to do something that benefits Facebook. You aren't entitled to benefit from that.

    2. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by trippin_efnet · · Score: 1

      As I'm sure you're well aware, we have/had many open lists where vulnerabilities are/were shared openly, so I don't really need to personally create one. This is not about anyone feeling entitled. This is about the fact that these systems are more important than just their servers. A lot of the software and hardware used to power their systems are also powering banks, many governmental systems, hospital networks, and on and on and on. To take the approach that we'll patch a few and leave the rest open is terribly bad for everyone. If you can't see that, you're not looking wide angled enough. But thanks for snotty reply. :)

    3. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

      when a corporation or group of corporations inhabits a large enough of a market, society and government does in fact have a right to intervene and alter or reduce their power and make demands on them

      many people have this mental block where government demands or social demands on private corporations and individuals is the root of all evil

      when simple economic and historical fact shows that when private entities dominate public spaces, they abuse the privilege

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    4. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 0

      And what does any of that have to do with this? Nothing.

    5. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

      because facebook doesn't dominate the market where this topic is important, of course /s

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    6. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as Facebook trades in my society through benefitting from society's mathematical, scientific, technological, cultural and legal development and infrastructure, I most fucking certainly am entitled to call for Facebook's regulation - and, with sufficient support, for that regulation to be imposed.

      Absolute private property is like all forms of religious fundamentalism - a concept for the dull and the insecure. A balance must always be struck, and is always struck, to the mewling cries of babies at both extremes.

    7. Re:Screw the commoners. Share amongst ourselves. by quantaman · · Score: 1

      I think this is less the case of "we found a bug in package X" and more like "we've been getting a lot of attacks from phishing group Y, we've been doing Z to stop them".

      That's not the kind of info you can disclose publicly since it tells attackers where you're vulnerable, if you're going to do this kind of thing you're going to have to make it a small circle.

      --
      I stole this Sig
  8. Threat identified by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    I'm adding fb.com to my list of blocked hosts. Thanks, f***book.

  9. GThreat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't wait for the Google version, which no one uses outside of Googe... G+ slam! #micdrop

  10. Site for disclosing threats... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...and it's made using WordPress.

    1. Re:Site for disclosing threats... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahahaha! I looked at the source, and it seems, that you are right! Haha! That's golden!

  11. Awesome site! by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    So, you can go sign up, but there's nothing in my inbox from them. I even used my @hp.com email, nada.

    1. Re:Awesome site! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a honeypot to get your email. The alphabet agencies are now busy reading your mail right now.

    2. Re:Awesome site! by tepples · · Score: 1

      The alphabet agencies are now busy reading your mail right now.

      As opposed to what, the Kanji agencies?

    3. Re:Awesome site! by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      Dear God I feel sorry for them. It's my work email, so it's just full of incident reports, Inspiration Emails from Meg Whitman and fellow execs, all the CRAP the former employee who had my email eddy signed up for (some HR drone, a dozen HR stuff about new government regs and crap per week), and...that's it. I'd love for my email to be added into the "haystack" they sift through - maybe it would help obfuscate some other data haha

  12. Yeah... by thephydes · · Score: 1

    and I'd trust Facebook? well no ....

    1. Re:Yeah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Was going to say... this seems like a ploy. Wow, the people who forcibly link your personal life to sell to marketers are going to start a privacy, confidentiality, and integrity focused website? Fat chance.

    2. Re:Yeah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hurrah for Facebook! They set the gold standard for rude attempts to get all your data, changing privacy settings routinely.

      Wonder if those big corps used honeypot email addresses.

    3. Re:Yeah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The headline got sliced somewhere in editing, it should say: "Facebook Launches ThreatExchange To Let Companies Share Threat Info With Facebook".

  13. So What by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Zuck wants a Federal Law stating that his penis MUST be shared with 3-year old girls.

    Not news.

  14. Portable Apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sick of dropbox? Oh Yes, Archive Box is a portable cloud based storage app to save your data that you can access from your favorite devices. Download free app. www.archive-box.com