A new Firefox add-on has been released to protect users surfing social networks at their local Starbucks or other Wi-Fi landing spot. Does this “BlackSheep” really work, or is it just a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
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Facebook has quietly admitted it can’t protect users from the Firefox add-on that makes it easy for anyone from your neighbor to the guy next to you at Starbucks to hack your Facebook account.
Hot on the heels of Firefox add-on Firesheep, which enables hacking into the accounts of mobile users of Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Google, Katie Kindelan at sister blog Social Times reports on a new threat: Idiocy.
Idiocy was created by London-based software developer Jonty Warieing, according to Social Times, and it searches for users logged onto Twitter over unsecured Wi-Fi networks, hijacks their sessions, posts a Tweet warning the users that they are vulnerable, and links to a Web site explaining what happened.
For more, please see Kindelan’s post on Social Times.
Users who log onto Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Google via open Wi-Fi networks are at risk of having their identities hacked due to a Firefox add-on called Firesheep, released by Seattle software developer Eric Butler at the Toorcon 12 security conference in San Diego, reports Katie Kindelan from sister blog Social Times.
The app — which Butler claims he created to expose the dangers of using public Wi-Fi networks to go online — has been downloaded nearly 50,000 times, according to Social Times.
There is a possible remedy, though, other than the obvious one of not logging on via Wi-Fi: Social Times reported that a TechCrunch user posted about another Firefox plug-in that blocks Firesheep, although the URL was not functioning at the time of this post.
A new Firefox add-on gives the person next to you at your local Starbucks the power to hack your Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Google accounts. Does this really work? Can you protect yourself?
