Privacy risks are inherent to browsing and interacting online. The recently developed tool, Firesheep, draws attention to user vulnerabilities in web sessions. This article discusses some threats of HTTP session hijacking, as well as potential methods of reducing such threats.

HTTP Session Hijacking
Typically, users logging into a web site are requested to submit their user name and password. The server then verifies this information with a matching account. Once verified, the server sends back a cookie that is used by the user’s browser for subsequent requests. This initial login process is normally protected through encryption, however, the rest of the HTTP [...]