Last week, Facebook announced it incorporated SSL encryption into its system in order to secure all communications between browsers and its web servers. Users will be aware of the upgraded security protection on the site, as a green lock will now appear in the address bar of their browser.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, or HTTPS, which Facebook incorporated, uses SSL to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server. Before last week's announcement, Facebook had only used HTTPS for pages that required log in information, but now with protection on all pages, various notorious hacking tools have been render defunct.

The social media giant has faced tremendous criticism during the last year, having undergone a serious of security failures that drew the ire of community groups. For instance, a malfunction last summer made the private chats of users available to others for a brief period.

For a site offering so many web services for its users, security has become a large issue for Facebook's technicians and the incorporation of SSL encryption proves that the site is moving in the right direction.