If you're accessing Facebook or Twitter from a public WiFi network at a cafe or some other public setting, anyone on the same network can easily access your account. In fact, today, Eric Butler released a Firefox extension called Firesheep that makes it child's play. In this short video, I show you Eric's extension in action and also show you how you can protect yourself from such attacks by using the EFF's HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension.

Watch the video.

If you get "Error launching remote program: security policy error." when building your iPhone app to test on your device, check General → Profiles for duplicate profiles where one or more of them have expired and remove them.

Hope this helps! :)

No, this isn't a write-up on Twitterank, the latest example of 15 seconds of hype-fueled hysteria that the Internets whipped into a minor frenzy before moving on to the next sensationalistic headline.

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Writing the post on del.icio.us's password policy got me thinking about passwords and online security again.

Having a strong password policy such as "passwords must be longer than six characters and must contain a number or a symbol and a mix of uppercase and lowercase characters" is great in theory but let's take a moment to follow Joe User as he encounters such a policy and chooses his password:

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How unsexy are WordPress security updates? I have the horrible habit of doing everything else first before attempting one (which, of course, is absolutely the worst thing you can do, as the recent spam hack on the SWX blog demonstrated so well). I used to dread doing the updates mainly because I just knew something would break. At least that's how I used to feel.

When I last upgraded WordPress, a little over a week ago to version 2.3.1, I made a slightly delayed New Year's resolution that I wouldn't hack the blog. Instead, I decided to do everything using plugins and widgets (which are plugins that display on your sidebar). And -- wonder of wonders -- I actually stuck to it! That being the case, upgrading is no longer a nightmare.

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