Facebook nixes click-bait headlines in users' newsfeeds

Facebook, which used this as a prime example of a click-bait headline, says the changes to News Feed will "help people find the posts and links from publishers that are most interesting and relevant." Facebook

What if this article was titled "29 reasons we're thankful for Facebook's News Feed change," or "Facebook switches its News Feed algorithm. You won't believe what happens next," how about "Here's one unbelievable reason Facebook changed its News Feed policy?" Do you think readers would be quicker to click on it? Most likely, yes -- but according to Facebook, that's not really a good thing.

The social network announced Monday that it's cutting down on so-called click-bait stories appearing high in people's newsfeeds. Facebook said the reason for the change is because it wants users to see more relevant information and make sure posts from friends aren't drowned out.

The new changes to News Feed "help people find the posts and links from publishers that are most interesting and relevant, and to continue to weed out stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don't want to see," Facebook research scientist Khalid El-Arini and product specialist Joyce Tang wrote in a blog post.

The way Facebook is going about de-prioritizing click-bait articles is two-fold. One, the social network will look at how long people spend reading an article. If users click on the article and then quickly click back to Facebook, that's an indication the article may be click-bait because it didn't fully interest the reader. Two, the company will take into account how many people are liking and commenting on a story vs. the number of clicks it's getting.

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Hack of hospital chain leads to theft of up to 4.5M users' data

Community Health Systems oversees 206 hospitals in 29 states. Community Health Systems

One of the biggest hospital groups in the US revealed Monday that it suffered a monumental security breach, which possibly led to 4.5 million patients' data being stolen, according to Reuters.

Community Health Systems, which oversees 206 hospitals in 29 states, said the stolen information includes Social Security numbers, patient names and addresses, telephone numbers, and birth dates, according to Reuters. This is the largest known attack to involve hospital patient information since the US government began tracking these types of data breaches in 2009.

"One possible goal of this attack is to facilitate future targeted attacks," Elysium Digital data security expert Joseph Calandrino told CNET. "The type of data that was stolen from the hospital system is often used to verify a person's identify. The exposure of this data creates a risk that the hackers could leverage it to gain access to other accounts and information."

It's believed the cyberattack originated in China, according to Reuters. Security firm Mandiant, which investigated the breach in April and June, said the hackers belong to a group that targets defense, engineering, financial services, and health care companies. It's unclear if these hackers are affiliated with the Chinese government.

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Various security experts have long accused China of waging a cyberwar on US government and private company websites. A report by Mandiant released in 2013 linked China's People's Liberation Army to a large number of cyberattacks on US soil. However, the Chinese government has flatly denied that it is involved in cyber-espionage or hacking.

The cyberattack on Community Health Systems is just one of many over the past few months. Last December, retailer Target revealed 110 million people's data was stolen in a breach, and retailers Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores were also attacked around the same time. Earlier this month, cybersecurity firm Hold Security identified what is arguably the largest known data breach in history, in which a Russian cybergang allegedly stole 1.2 billion username and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses.

Community Health Systems told Reuters it stopped the cyberattack by removing the malicious software used by the hackers. The hospital group is currently notifying its patients of the breach.

CNET contacted Community Health Systems for more information, we'll update the story when we hear back.

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