Coffee Company adds warning to Hotspot login

One of the problems with the labelling system I suggested a while ago is the fact that it might give a false sense of security.  Even when customers know what they can expect from the local setup of the WiFi network, this doesn’t mean the network is secure.

Since I wrote about the security hazards of a WiFi network, a plugin for Firefox has made sure that eavesdropping on these networks has now received wider attention than it ever had before. The FireSheep plugin let’s you log in onto anyone’s account as soon as they use an insecure website. Or more precisely: whenever a user on a wireless network logs in to services like Twitter, Facebook and others via a normal (insecure!) http connection, Firesheep users on that network can immediately log in as that user.

Apparently these new developments have urged specialty coffee chain Coffee Company to display a warning message on the login page of their HotSpots. It might not be much, but maybe this is the best thing to do: inform your customers about the risks involved of using a wireless network.

(hat-tip to Alexander for the link/picture)