Social networks are becoming the focus of new privacy questions about how their logins can be accessed through WiFi networks. The Wall Street Journal reports that Firesheep, a new add-on for the Web browser Firefox, "is designed to make it easy to intercept browser 'cookies' used by popular Web sites like Facebook, Twitter and others to identify their users, thereby allowing Firesheep users to log in to those Web sites posing as others." Eric Butler, a U.S. programmer who developed Firesheep, said he introduced the program as a way of bringing attention to a common weakness in Web site security. "On an open wireless network," he said, "cookies are basically shouted through the air, making these attacks extremely easy." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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