<a title=”Firesheep” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firesheep&#8221; target=”_blank”>Firesheep</a> is a Firefox extension that monitors traffic on a network and records session information that is stored in a Web browser’s cookie. It was introduced last month at <a title=”Toorcon” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ToorCon&#8221; target=”_blank”>Toorcon</a> (a hacker conference in San Diego CA” by Eric Butler of “<a title=”codebutler” href=”http://codebutler.com/&#8221; target=”_blank”>codebutler</a>” to demonstrate the danger of sites changing their sessions back and forth between secure and insecure.

Very simply Firesheep collects site login information so someone using it can login to those sites using the same credentials. What is so different about this tool is ease of use. You don’t have to be a skilled hacker. Any Joe of the street can use this to collect login information from coffee shop WIFI hotspots