Firefox Extension Can Hack Your Facebook and Twitter On Any Unsecured WiFi Network

At a Cafe? Connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi network? Now, anyone can gain access to all of your social network login information whenever you connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Guess what? Your Twitter or Facebook account can be hacked using a Firefox extension!


ReadWriteWeb points to his new Firefox extension which is called Firesheep and developed by Eric Butler. Here's Bulter explains how it works on his blog:

On an open wireless network, cookies are basically shouted through the air, making these attacks extremely easy

Firesheep opens a sidebar in Firefox that shows everyone who is connected to a certain unsecured WiFi network. With a single click, you can connect to most any social network using that person's user name and password.

For anyone who complains about this, TechCrunch pointed to Force-TLS as a way to protect your information from FireSheep but Bulter answers the following:

Websites have a responsibility to protect the people who depend on their services

They've been ignoring this responsibility for too long, and it's time for everyone to demand a more secure web. My hope is that Firesheep will help the users win.