Prevent identity theft with HTTPS browsing

The grave risk of Internet users unwittingly letting out their private & sometimes confidential details while using unencrypted networks has been brought to focus by at least two startling incidents.

Back in May, Google candidly admitted that its Street View data collection cars inadvertently collected and stored "payload data from unencrypted WiFi networks, but not from networks that were encrypted". More recently a Firefox extension called Firesheep exposed the vulnerability of HTTP browsing in aiding identity spoofing.

Analyzing the Firesheep extension, Jeff Atwood makes the following recommendations to protect yourself -
  • We should be very careful how we browse on unencrypted wireless networks.
  • Get in the habit of accessing your web mail through HTTPS
  • Lobby the websites you use to offer HTTPS browsing.
Gmail enabled default HTTPS access for everyone in January this year. Hotmail lets you turn it on from your Account settings (go to Hotmail Options > Managing your account > Account details & in the Account overview page, choose the "Connect with HTTPS" link under Other options)


Also see: 
Protect your Twitter and Facebook accounts! How to do it…
LinkedIn now supports https currently as an “opt in” feature
Take 2 Minutes to Clean Your Apps Permissions

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