We’ve talked about wireless security before, but thanks to a little Firefox extension called Firesheep, the dangers of using public wifi are finally getting the attention they deserve. The technology in Firesheep isn’t anything new — in fact, black hat hackers have had the ability to do this sort of thing for years. But thanks to Firesheep’s convenient packaging, which makes it dead-simple for pretty much anyone on the same unsecure wireless network as you to sidejack your Facebook session or worse, awareness for this threat is reaching a crescendo, and prompting big name web sites to finally adopt full SSL encryption. Check out this list to see which common sites are vulnerable to Firesheep attacks (as of 11/1/10).
If you’re not a network security geek, you might be wondering how to know if you’re vulnerable — and what to do about it. Here’s the lay of the land. [Read more...]