ThreatExchange: Facebook and Yahoo unveil alliance on cybersecurity

Facebook, Yahoo and other technology firms announced the creation of a "ThreatExchange" to share information to help thwart cyberattacks. "ThreatExchange is built on the existing Facebook platform infrastructure, so that partner companies can query the available threat information and also publish to all or a subset of participating organizations," the social network said in a statement.

"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. That's the beauty of working together on security. When one company gets stronger, so do the rest of us." The statement said Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Yahoo have been working on the program and new partners including Bitly and Dropbox.

"We have a vested interest in making the Internet safer and giving people better ways to connect and share," Facebook said. "After working with a number of our peer companies to refine the structure and implementation, we are ready to introduce ThreatExchange and see what we can learn from each other." The move comes amid a stalled effort in Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation that would make it easier for a company to share information about threats without fear of liability. The Obama administration, meanwhle, unveiled plans this week for a new US intelligence center to integrate information about cyber threats, aiming for the same kind of coordination used to battle terrorism.