Wi-Fi Sense has been a feature on phones running Windows 8.1, entering in your password on the phone would allow a computer logged in with the same Microsoft account to connect to your own wireless, with the password stored and encrypted on a Microsoft server. It looks as though this feature will be available on all Windows 10 devices, sharing your wireless passwords with all of your Outlook, Skype and even Facebook contacts if you enable it. This is certainly handy for when visiting as you will not need to ask for the wireless password at a friends house but does raise some security concerns. If you happen to have Outlook contacts on your work machine which are not necessarily co-workers, they would be able to access your corporate network, as unfortunately would their contacts and even worse so could anyone who had compromised any of those accounts or machines. The password is encrypted and not easy to access directly and the application does seem to limit access to WAN, somehow blocking access to the LAN even with proper credentials. As The Register rightly points out, if a password is the totality of your access management protocols, you are already doing it wrong but this is something all users should be aware of.
"A Windows 10 feature, Wi-Fi Sense, smells like a security risk: it shares Wi-Fi passwords with the user's contacts."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Linux Distribution Upgrade or Fresh Installation? @ Linux.com
- Return of the Masque: iPhones and iPads at risk from app-destroying attacks @ The Inquirer
- VPNs are so insecure you might as well wear a KICK ME sign @ The Register
- Apple Music review: Hands-on @ The Inquirer
- IBM gets green light to sell off chips biz to GlobalFoundries @ The Register
Add “_optout” (without the
Add “_optout” (without the quotation marks) to your SSID to fix it temporarily.
Might be an interesting way
Might be an interesting way to find out someones address: receive wifi password, SSID and probably MAC from one of your contacts. Enter MAC in WIFI AP database. Done.
Add _optout to any version of
Add _optout to any version of Windows beyond windows 7! Too much of this “sharing” and not enough of M$ caring about its users’ privacy. Still with the tiles and the Phone first mentality in windows 10, how is that phone market share doing for you cubical brained marketing monkeys in Redmond!
I was soo exited about
I was soo exited about Windows 10, until I actually used it. All the creepiness of mobile combined with the same old NT 6 and it’s baggage. What a let down.
I’d be dumping stock too if I was an exec.