99% of Android Users Vulnerable to Shady WiFi Hotspots, Please Avoid Them

Sorry if that post title comes off as a little snarky, but there are reports flying around today claiming that “99% of Android users’ data is vulnerable to theft!”  While the report talks of an exploit that would in theory affect almost all Android users, the possibility of it actually affecting them is probably slim to none if they have even an ounce of brain power.  Nothing like a good title to bring in the sheep though, eh?  If they wanted to hypebeast they should have come to us for tips.

So what does this story speak of?  According to a German University, Android creates a token every time a service like say Facebook or Tumblr is logged into that lasts for 14 days.  And that token, if you aren’t running Android 2.3.4, can be snatched up by potential hackers if you were to jump onto their WiFi network.  The idea they pose, is that said hacker could setup a WiFi hotspot next to a Starbucks, call it “starbucks wifi”, leave it wide open for anyone to join, and then as you join begin to snatch up these tokens to then access all of your personal information.  Brilliant.

Thankfully the Android team has patched it in 2.3.4, but again as the title suggests, only 1% of users are actually running that version.  So what should you do?  Avoid random shady free WiFi hotspots titled “FREE Starbuckz Wifeez.”  Is that really that hard to do?

Via:  Register, BGR