Facebook ThreatExchange initiative fights against cybercrime

More than 90 organizations are now participating in ThreatExchange, covering technology, security, insurance, financial institutions, higher education, defense and ISP industries. The information sharing that transpires among these organizations yields an average of more than 3 million interactions on the platform every month.

The intelligence gathered complements - for participating organizations - a capability to corroborate and warn each other against hacking activities as well as other online threats. Security experts recognize information-sharing as critical in solving hacking, spam, phishing and other cybercrimes. However, this has not been tried before because organizations are wary of cyberespionage, customer lawsuits and losing competitive advantage.

Facebook supposedly solves the problem by functioning as a neutral platform so that these concerns are eliminated. Facebooks algorithm can spot data patterns and user behavior and it has a tried and tested capability to manage dynamic communities of interest. These variables are also crucial in finally realizing a cybercrime-fighting consortium.