The University of Alabama at Birmingham have been awarded $250K by Facebook for the great work they do fighting cybercrime. The donation is particularly sweet as the money comes from a pot of money recovered by Facebook from spammers.
The University reports the money is in recognition to the work they do on tracking down spammers around the world, including assistance they gave to the uncovering of the notorious Koobface gang. The donation will be put towards a new expanded version of the CIA|JFR headquarters, due to be opened next year.
Joe Sullivan, security chief at Facebook, applauded the work done by the University, and the need for trained cyber-professionals:
“As a result of numerous collaborations over the years, Facebook recognizes the center as both a partner in fighting internet abuse, and as a critical player in developing future experts who will become dedicated cybersecurity professionals”
In Jan 2012 the New York Times published information on a top-secret operation conducted by Facebook and computer security researchers including the University of Alabama, exposing the names the names of people it believed were responsible for the Koobface worm. Their obscured pictures can be seen below courtesy of Sophos Labs.
Koobface victimns were used as part of a botnet which has helped its creators earn millions of dollars every year by compromising computers.
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