Eric Butler created Firesheep, a free downloadable program that allows users to easily hack others' computers on the same unsecured wi-fi network, to demonstrate the vulnerability of the current website security employed by most websites. This article from the New York Times, New Hacking Tools Pose Bigger Threats to Wi-Fi Users by Kate Murphy, exposes how insecure some websites are that handle sensitive data. Firesheep uses cookies to impersonate the victim on the website, which can also give the malicious Firesheep user access to the victim's account information.
This article has a couple of interesting points. The most interesting is that this program, which is easy to access and download, was created as an impetus to change the current approac to security employed by many websites. Another important point, that everyone should know, is that one really shouldn't conduct sensitive business on unsecured networks. Additionally, this makes me a little afraid and disappointed that web companies don't do anything about this.
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