Facebook users data could help researchers, creator says

Many people were surprised last week when they learned an online security consultant had managed to compile the names of 100 million Facebook users and publish them in an online database.

Ron Bowes, the man who created the file, told Consumer Ally he did it as part of a "password auditing" project for Nmap Security Scanner, a free and open source security tool online.

He e-mailed Consumer Ally about his decision to create and make the database accessible and the uproar over it.

Bowes, who is a developer for Nmap and also blogs at SkullSecurity.org said a small portion of Nmap's purpose is to audit passwords.

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