Last month, Scott Charney of Microsoft proposed that infected computers be quarantined from the Internet. Using a public health model for Internet security, the idea is that infected computers spreading worms and viruses are a risk to the greater community and thus need to be isolated.
Internet service providers would administer the quarantine, and would also clean up and update users’ computers so they could rejoin the greater Internet.
While that sounds like a good idea, it’s only a smidge step off of monitoring your internet connection to see if you are up to anything else that might be objectionable.
That is why you should consider doing all of your web surfing anonymously with an inexpensive, high quality service like Proxify.com (the one I use).
I am not big on thinking someone is snooping on what I do on the internet, let alone deciding whether or not I should be allowed to continue doing it.
Web surfing using a secure, encrypted anonymous proxy is the answer.
You may have heard how easy it is for a malicious individual using the free Firesheep Firefox plugin to hijack other people’s social network connections.
The problem is that Facebook authenticates users with cookies. If someone is using a public WiFi connection, the cookies are “sniffable” by anyone else on that same WiFi network.
Firesheep uses another free program called wincap to capture and display the authentication information for all accounts it sees, allowing that person to use the sniffed information to “hijack” the connection; ergo, login as you without knowing your login credentials.
How to Protect Against FireSheep
To protect against this type of attack, you have to encrypt your entire internet surfing session not just the initial login authentication process.
Or stop logging in to Facebook from public WiFi networks.
You cannot just type https://facebook.com, because facebook will boot you back to standard http.
There are some free plugins that can force your Firefox browser (if that is what you are willing to use) into https for the entire session with Facebook and other social media networks, but why take these kinds of chances?
How will you know if there is a new attack of some kind out?
The best thing to do to protect yourself against FireSheep and other types of WiFi sniffing is to just use an anonymous surfing service that encrypts and anonymizes ALL of your internet surfing.
I recommend Proxify.com. They have free trial surfing that does have some limitations, but I recommend just forking over a couple bucks a month to subscribe and get all the features and protections.
Protect yourself with Proxify.com now.