Facebook shook the tech world’s foundation a bit with the announcement of Graph Search capability. Users are anxious for a chance to play with the new feature, and attackers are looking forward to this potent new weapon, er, tool as well.

In a nutshell, Facebook Graph Search is a search engine that allows you to find things based on relationships and context—basically drawing from the limitless pool of Likes, tags, and check-ins posted by a billion Facebook members.

From a search perspective, Graph Search seems like a very powerful tool—something that makes search more personally relevant, and a concept that should have Google worried a bit. You can search based on people, places, friends, and interests. For example, you can do a search for “friends who like The Beatles and live in Chicago,” or “Italian restaurants my friends have visited nearby.”

However, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword as well. Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, says, “The new Facebook Graph Search is a phishers’ dream come true. It takes the micro-targeting capabilities that have been available to online advertisers for years and puts them into the hands of cyber criminals.”

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