As some of you may recall, back around late-2010, a new Firefox extension was released that allowed an individual to hijack numerous accounts of users connected to public WiFi access points — everything from Facebook, to Amazon, to email and more. The hijacking of such data is accomplished by the extension sniffing unencrypted data traveling across a public WiFi access point, then allowing the hijacker to temporarily pose as users logged into any given number of services. From there, the hijacker could do anything from posting what they wanted on your wall or Twitter feed, to changing your password, thus completely taking control of your account and locking you out.
This extension, Firesheep, is still immensely popular amongst those looking to sniff public WiFi access points; however, there are now variants in the form of mobile phone applications that provide similar functionality, thus allowing hijackers to complete their nefarious tasks with the facile form factor of a mobile phone. Faceniffis one such mobile app, released on Google’s Android mobile platform. Though its name implies a primary connection with hijacking Facebook accounts, Faceniff is actually capable of intercepting user data from a multitude of social networks, blogging platforms, and more. And while Facebook now forces all users to log in via HTTPS (thus protecting them from apps like Faceniff), there are far too many sites that do not.
Bearing this in mind, the gravity of the situation begs for a solution that will protect you from such sniffing attempts. That’s where the benefit of VPN technology comes into play. It is the only solution you need to employ to protect yourself from such hijackers. That means you’re already covered if you’re using ExpressVNP, thus ensuring your data, accounts, and passwords are completely secure over any type of connection — be it private or public WiFi access points, or otherwise. Yes, even connections on encrypted WiFi networks are possible to be hijacked by such plug-ins and apps as the aforementioned, so make sure you’re taking full advantage of our services!
Last of note, since most of us use various devices (laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) to connect to the Internet these days, make sure you’re taking advantage of ExpressVNP to keep your data secure. Whether you’re on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, or Routers, we’ve got you covered. There’s no reason you shouldn’t protect yourself from prying eyes and hijackers on every device you can.