Facebook Makes Donation To UAB's Cyber Program

Facebook is donating $250,000 to the University of Alabama at Birmingham for helping stop international cyber criminals. The school's cyber program played a key role in tracking down those behind the social-media virus Koobface. It took three years to end the threat, according to Facebook, which credited then-student Brian Tanner and Gary Warner, UAB's head of research in computer forensics. The $250,000 represents a portion of the money the social media giant recovered from spammers and cyber criminals with the school's assistance. It will be used to build a new headquarters for UAB's Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research. Interim UAB president Richard Marchase said the gift from Facebook will help put UAB at the front of the war on cybercrime. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.