He's very lucky I'm not that kind of person. But rest assured, there are plenty of malicious, mean or merely curious or clumsy Web surfers out there who are now using a new Firefox extension called Firesheep to "sidejack" into the online accounts of nearby internet users.
Most internet users hear -- and dismiss -- warnings about security problems on open Wi-Fi networks. The advent of Firesheep, coupled with the booming popularity of account-based online services such as Twitter, means that no one can afford to continue to ignore online security.
According to Webopedia, sidejacking is "the malicious act of hijacking an engaged Web session with a remote service by intercepting and using the credentials that identified the user/victim to that specific server. Typically, SideJacking is most common on sites that require authentication through a username and password, such as online Web mail accounts as well as social networking sites."
If you go online via open Wi-Fi networks (such as at cafes, libraries, schools, hotels, conference centers and more), Firesheep has made this a far riskier choice.
This is true even for networks that are password-protected. If you're on the same network with a Firesheep user or other sidejacker, you're at risk. Period.
Here's what I've learned about Firesheep, and how you might be able to protect yourself against it -- and sidejacking.
Eric Butler, the Seattle, Washington-based programmer who created Firesheep, claims that he did this not to put internet users at risk, but to prove a point.
"It's extremely common for websites to protect your password by encrypting the initial login, but surprisingly uncommon for websites to encrypt everything else," Butler wrote. "[Firesheep is] designed to demonstrate just how serious this problem is."
