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Facebook unveils security tools against firesheep attack
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 27 January 2011, 23:07 IST
Bangalore: Facebook announces new security measures- wider use of HTTPS rather than HTTP and the introduction of "social authentication". It assures a more secure way to connect to its website, which will protect users from a widely proliferated wireless networking attack called Firesheep.
Coincidentally, the announcement was made soon after facebook page of company founder Mark Zuckerberg got hacked. HTTPS assures extra assurance to users to connect to the site they intend to visit. It encrypts the data sent between PC and Facebook. The encryption makes it safer for the users who visit the website through public internet access points like coffee shops, library, airports or schools. The option will exist as part of the advanced security features, which one can find in the 'Account Security' section of the Account Settings page.
Second measure includes authentication mechanism that employs Facebook user's own friends instead of illegible printed words. Through this mechanism instead of showing captcha on Facebook, one of the ways to help identify one's identity will be through social authentication. You'll be shown picture of your few friends and you'll have to identify them. The main idea is, hackers might know one's password but can't know your friends.
Roger Thompson, Vice- President, Web Threat Research says, HTTPS will thwart firesheep attacks but can't stop the biggest scams on the website like phishing, koobface worm or viral scams that entice victim to show them interesting videos and end up trying to sell paid mobile phones.
Over the past few years, consumer websites have started using more HTTPS in order to make surfing more secure. Now it's used by default on Gmail and it's an option for Hotmail users as well.
