Ascribing to the philosophy of safety in the herd, Facebook has opened the ThreatExchange platform. Organizations can share data on security issues they face, which in turn would help fend off cyber attacks.
The platform built by Facebook is meant for corporate security professionals and attempts to ward off hackers by sharing information pertaining to malware threats, hackings and other vulnerabilities that companies grapple with.
The underlying philosophy behind the ThreatExchange platform is that if hackers target a major firm, chances are, they will also attempt to weasel their way into the security systems of the company's rivals.
"ThreatExchange is a platform created by Facebook that enables security professionals anywhere to share threat information more easily, learn from each other's discoveries, and make their own systems safer," noted the website for the initiative. "We included a set of privacy controls so that participants can help protect any sensitive data by specifying who can see the threat information they contribute."
Any company signing up to the ThreatExchange platform would be able to share threat information on common attacks in a safe manner. This would in turn help stop hacks or malware attacks more swiftly.
"ThreatExchange is built on the existing Facebook platform infrastructure, and we layered APIs on top of it so that partner companies can query the available threat information and also publish to all or a subset of participating organization," revealed Mark Hammell, manager of the Threat Infrastructure team at Facebook.
With the increase in malware attacks, security is becoming a major concern and industry experts are leaning toward the belief that there is safety in numbers. The vulnerabilities one is exposed to are too colossal for a single organization to handle on its own.
Early participants to the ThreatExchange program include the likes of Twitter, Yahoo, Tumblr and Pinterest. Dropbox and Bitly have also joined forces on the initiative, which works on the principle that when "one company gets stronger, so do the rest of us."
With organizations having the ThreatExchange platform at their disposal, malware threats and other vulnerabilities may decline, and information sharing may propel the development of a safer system.
