Firesheep — Hack Facebook, Twitter accounts easily
Firesheep, a Firefox extension that lets users hack into Twitter, Facebook accounts easily, has been released in the U.S. today. Now, social networks have something to look into, and people who login to these social networking sites over open and unsecured WiFi networks should avoid logging in, at least for now.
According to our source, Firesheep was launched to demonstrate the need for a secure web. In other words, it meant to test the vulnerability of websites to hacker attacks, with the help of open and unsecured networks. And, think about this, they are not professional hackers, they could be anyone who has Firesheep installed in Firefox. It could be your friend or foe or anybody who just want to make fun out of it, or worse, cyber criminals who will steal your personal information resulting to identity theft.
Eric Butler, a freelance web application and software developer who hails from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A developed this free, open source Firefox extension, which is currently available for Windows and Mac OS X. He wrote that support for Linux is on its way.
Here's how Firesheep works according to Butler:
That is scary and dangerous, isn't it?
According to our source, Firesheep was launched to demonstrate the need for a secure web. In other words, it meant to test the vulnerability of websites to hacker attacks, with the help of open and unsecured networks. And, think about this, they are not professional hackers, they could be anyone who has Firesheep installed in Firefox. It could be your friend or foe or anybody who just want to make fun out of it, or worse, cyber criminals who will steal your personal information resulting to identity theft.
Eric Butler, a freelance web application and software developer who hails from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A developed this free, open source Firefox extension, which is currently available for Windows and Mac OS X. He wrote that support for Linux is on its way.
Here's how Firesheep works according to Butler:
After installing the extension you'll see a new sidebar. Connect to any busy open wifi network and click the big "Start Capturing" button. Then wait.It's that easy. Wow! Now anyone can log into anyone's account on Facebook and Twitter among other social networks.As soon as anyone on the network visits an insecure website known to Firesheep, their name and photo will be displayed:
Double-click on someone, and you're instantly logged in as them.
That is scary and dangerous, isn't it?
