Firesheep Makes Stealing Your Wi-Fi Secrets Easy

via Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

From all the yammering, you’d actually think there was something new about Firesheep, the Firefox extension that lets you grab login IDs, passwords, and other important information. What a joke. I, and any hacker or network administrator worth his salt, have been able to do this kind of stuff for years.

The only thing “new” about Firesheep is that how it easy makes it to do. I’m unimpressed. Anyone who was serious about grabbing your personal information has already been doing it for years. Trust me, if someone really wanted your data and you’ve been using open Wi-Fi networks, they already grabbed it.

No, the real worry isn’t about some jerk grabbing your Twitter password in a coffee house. The real worry has always been that your office Wi-Fi is easy to compromise and then someone can use a packet-sniffer to get something that really matters like your your Accounts Payable password. (more)

Need a Wi-Fi Security Audit and Compliance Inspection? (you do) Please call me. (more)

11/4/10 – UPDATE: IBM researchers are proposing an approach to WiFi security they call Secure Open Wireless in light of the release of the Firesheep tool. (more)

11/5/10 – UPDATE: 10 Ways to Protect Yourself from Firesheep Attacks (more)

Tags: advice, computer, data, eavesdropping, espionage, Hack, News & Updates, security news, spy, TSCM, Wi-Fi

By on 28/10/2010