Facebook Trusted Friends & App Passwords Introduced

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Facebook admits that 0.06% of its billion-plus logins per day are compromised. The company is doing something about this security problem by implementing a few new security features.

Facebook says that security and safety are core features of the social network. But even as the company wants user data and credentials to be secure, some users tend to slip up, and can inadvertently compromise their accounts through applications or as victims to social engineering attacks. To help address security problems like these, Facebook will be launching two features aimed at keeping accounts safe from getting into the wrong hands.

Trusted Friends

The first update is a “trusted friends” feature, which lets every user select three to five most-trusted contacts on the social network. Each of these are then given their own set of keys that, in combination, can be used to login to your account in case it has been compromised. This will come in useful if you’ve forgotten your password and don’t have access to the listed email address. Or, this can also be helpful if someone has gained access to your account somehow and changed your password.

Application-Specific Passwords

Taking a cue from Google’s own two-step verification process, Facebook now lets you define different passwords for third-party applications. This way, you don’t have to disclose your main Facebook password. Through the Security Tab under Account Settings, you can now generate passwords for apps, and this will only need to be keyed in once, when logging into the third-party app. Facebook says this can be particularly useful when using Login Approvals, since some third-party applications have trouble accepting security codes alongside the usual Facebook login.