ID: IRCNE2013081926
Date: 2013-08-18
According to "computerworld", the use of tools to detect malicious patterns in apps led Facebook to temporarily disable some legitimate third-party apps that integrate with the social networking website, it said Thursday.
On Tuesday, a number of users complained that their Facebook developer accounts and apps were unavailable.
Facebook said it uses automated systems to identify and disable malicious apps to protect its platform and users. These techniques identify a malicious pattern, find the apps that match that pattern, and then disable those apps.
But on Tuesday, Facebook started with a broad pattern that correctly matched many thousands of malicious apps but also matched many high-quality apps.
"When we detected this error, we immediately stopped the process and began work to restore access," Zarakhovsky wrote. Facebook did not say how many legitimate apps were affected.
The company now plans to make improvements to its processes and technology, including better tools to identify overly broad patterns and better processes to verify that all the apps matched are in fact malicious. It will also address the bugs and bottlenecks that slowed down the recovery process.
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