Facebook beefs up security with SSL option

Social site recommends secure connection for public computer users

Facebook is to provide its subscribers with a secure socket layer (SSL) option which will encrypt information in transit between the social network service and users' devices.

Members will have to switch on SSL in their personal settings to activate the service, writes Sean Nichols on Computing's sister site V3.co.uk.

Facebook is recommending the service to subscribers who use the service over shared or public computers but is also warning that SSL may slow their connection.

Attacks on the popular social site have grown ever more frequent over the past 12 months amid calls from industry pressure groups for Facebook to tighten its security.

Earlier this week, the profile page of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, was hacked and defaced.

Security experts have warned that an increasing number of attacks is inevitable for such a popular site.

SSL is not considered the most secure of technologies, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation questioning its vulnerability in March last year. But it is widely used for transactional web sites such as those owned by retailers and banks.