Risky Business

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Risky Business

• By Christopher Bell

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Risky Business Using Web Apps Over Wi-Fi
pcworld.com August 1, 2007

• Users who access web applications software
  (GMAIL, Facebook etc.) via Wi-Fi connections are
  risking having their account hijacked
• Any web application that exchanges account
  information is susceptible

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Web Applications

• Web application or webapp is an application that
  is accessed via web over a network such as the
  Internet or an intranet.

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Examples of Web Applications

• Facebook
• GMail
• Hotmail
• Blogspots
• Adobe Acrobat

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How do they do it?

• Using a packet sniffer, which can pick up data
  transferred between a wireless router and a
  computer, it's possible to collect cookie
  information while a user is accessing one of
  those sites over Wi-Fi.
• Hacker can then get into emails, discussions and
  private information within the account

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Web Application Security Consortium

• The Web Application Security Consortium (WASC) is
  an international group of experts, industry
  practitioners, and organizational representatives
  who produce open source and widely agreed upon
  best-practice security standards for the World
  Wide Web.

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Solution

• Never access these types of accounts over Wi-Fi
  unless you are using a Virtual Private Network
  (VPN) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

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Comments/Questions