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Protect Your Facebook Account From Firesheep With BlackSheep Firefox Extension

by Amar Toor on November 9, 2010 at 09:20 AM

blacksheepWhen Eric Butler unleashed his Firesheep extension for Firefox, he reminded us all of how scarily vulnerable we are when surfing on public networks. The extension, which is available for both Mac and PC, essentially allows users to access the Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts of any other computer on an open Wi-Fi network. Now, however, a "cloud security" firm called Zscaler has just released a countermeasure, which can automatically alert you whenever your computer is under siege from Firesheep.

The new extension, called 'BlackSheep,' protects computers by "tricking" Firesheep into targeting your computer. As TechCrunch explains, Firesheep gathers personal data by grabbing cookies from other computers on the network. BlackSheep sates Firesheep's appetite, by creating fake login cookies. Whenever the extension snatches the bait, BlackSheep will automatically notify you that someone is stealing your data, and feed you his or her IP address.

"BlackSheep leverages much of the Firesheep code, but the twist is that rather than being used to hijack sessions, it instead detects when a session is being hijacked and alerts the user," BlackSheep developer Julien Sobrier explains. By then, of course, you'll have plenty of time to log out and safeguard your data from lurking predators. You can download BlackSheep here.

Tags: apps, BlackSheep, browser, data, extension, facebook, firefox, firesheep, hack, security, SocialNetworking, top, web, wifi, zscaler

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