Herding Firesheep In NYC — Do Users Care?

An anonymous reader writes "Following the Firesheep uproar, I spent some time telling people who don't read Slashdot about the vulnerability that open WiFi networks create in what seemed like the most effective way possible: by sidejacking their accounts and sending them messages about how it happened. The results were surprising — would users really rather leave their accounts open to intruders rather than stay off Facebook at Starbucks? The link recounts the experience, and also lists some rough numbers of how many accounts could be compromised at a popular NY Starbucks location."

Comments

Re:If you did this to me

[pthisis]

It Takes a Thief got the owner's permission before staging the break-ins. If you got someone's permission before attempting to sidejack their account, you'd probably be in the clear. Without it, you're breaking the law.

Re:Some people don't care

[theshowmecanuck]

Post a toner cartridge and the whole country shuts down.

FTFY:
Post a toner cartridge full of PETN and the whole country shuts down.

Re:They care - they're filing lawsuits

[MichaelSmith]

Gary LosHuertos

        * Gender: Male
        * Astrological Sign: Scorpio
        * Industry: Consulting
        * Occupation: Software Engineer
        * Location: New York : NY : United States

Whoops! Your tongue is now a magnet. Whatever will you use for silverware?

Plastic.
Interests

        * road trips
        * programming
        * languages
        * movies
        * going out to eat
        * perkins
        * ihop
        * grammar
        * legends of the hidden temple

Favorite Movies

        * Garden State
        * Little Miss Sunshine
        * Finding Neverland
        * Center Stage
        * Sphere
        * 1984
        * The Devil Wears Prada
        * Moulin Rouge
        * 28 Days Later
        * Cruel Intentions
        * Dogma
        * Contact
        * Rules of Attraction
        * LOTR

Favorite Music

        * Alanis Morissette
        * Dixie Chicks
        * RHCP
        * Ben Folds
        * Styx
        * Journey
        * Eurythmics
        * The Police
        * Weezer
        * Indochine
        * Chumbawamba
        * Les Vulgaires Machins
        * Wicked
        * The Beatles
        * Jimmy Eat World
        * Avenue Q
        * Jason Robert Brown
        * Do As Infinity
        * U2
        * Fischerspooner
        * Chicks on Speed
        * Les Miserables
        * Talking Heads
        * They Might be Giants
        * Phantom Planet
        * Motion City Soundtrack
        * ABBA

Even if thats all made up, this guy has posted more than one item to this blog.

Re:The problem is not theirs, they think.

[the_womble]

But they didn't have to be the one spending 20h+ trying to rescue what was left after 50+ different virus and adware fighting over the control of the computer. It's the same with getting their account hacked, it not their problem (they think), it's mine.

It would be there problem if you did not make it yours.

Its amazing how willing people are to volunteer free support for Windows. If they are not paying you tell them to ask MS for help.

Even forced SSL doesn't work

[George_Ou]

Forced SSL doesn't even work for Google, Twitter, and Facebook and probably most other sites even if they support SSL. That's because the javascript on those pages will opt to transmit authentication cookies in the clear. http://www.digitalsociety.org/2010/10/even-forced-ssl-is-broken-for-facebook-google-twitter/