Facebook Is Giving Political Campaigns Higher Security Protections

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. is offering stepped-up account-security tools to political candidates and people who work on their campaigns, aiming to help protect them from being hacked ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

The company will let state and federal candidates, political party officials and their staff members apply for additional security protection for their accounts and pages on the social network. Facebook will also train political officials to use its existing tools, such as two-factor authentication, which requires users to have their phones to receive a verification code in order to log in.

“As we detect abuse, we will continue to share relevant information with law enforcement and other companies so we can maximize our effectiveness,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy, said Monday in a blog post. “We are continually assessing how this pilot and our other security programs might be expanded to future elections and other users, such as government officials.”

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