Windows 10 -Wifi Sense - TURN IT OFF !

Fightsback

This is potentially a very serious security issue with W10.

Oh one thing to watch out for folks is turning off Wifi Sense unless you want all your mates and his dog war driving your precious bandwidth or worse, getting you a visit from operation Yew Tree.

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/windows-10-wi-fi-sense-feature-may-be-security-risk-heres-how-disable-it-462075

Another idiotic design decision brought to you by that non-security vendor called Microsoft.

Edit

for those fools who bought a windows phone:

I didn't realise this was currently in windows phone (8.1) as well, I'm not stupid enough to buy a windows phone nor any of my relatives or friends so had never come across it before.

Jivesinger

There are some things about Windows 10 I like, but not this.

I agree - turn it off.

Edit: Apparently you can change your WiFi SSID to opt out but it's a palaver.
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/07/01/windows-10-wi-fi-sense-feature-shares-your-wi-fi-network-with-your-friends/

gjchester

Fightsback wrote: »

This is potentially a very serious security issue with W10.

I didn't realise this was currently in windows phone (8.1) as well, I'm not stupid enough to buy a windows phone nor any of my relatives or friends so had never come across it before.

Not really, it shares it with your contacts on Outlook/Skype/Facebook, not the world at large.
Don't add random strangers to your contact and its a non issue.

Really worried? Simply click the "do not share" with friends box when you put the password in and it won't pass the password on.

Really worried someone will share you SSID without you knowing? Put _optout on the end of the SSID (so for example MyNewtwork_ _optout) and Windows won't share it.

All fully documented too https://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/how-to/wp8/connectivity/how-do-i-opt-my-network-out-of-wi-fi-sense, hardly such a big hole when you know there are tools to help.

Certainly no worse that the number of NETGEAR/DLINK/BELKIN SSID's that are around, or the joke that is BT_FON.

Fightsback

gjchester wrote: »

Not really, it shares it with your contacts on Outlook/Skype/Facebook, not the world at large.
Don't add random strangers to your contact and its a non issue.

It's an idiotic idea and quite indefensible, most certainly it should not be on by default. It's poorly thought out as autorun.

gjchester

Fightsback wrote: »

It's an idiotic idea and quite indefensible, most certainly it should not be on by default. It's poorly thought out as autorun.

I agree it should be Opt in, but its not. Remember even if you turn it on your PC that does not stop anyone who is a guest in your house sharing it because they forget to click the "do not share" button.

And if you have anyone who has teenage kids they WILL listen in and enter the password to your wifi, regardless of if they are allowed.

Best to create a guest SSID for guest leaving your "family" one for family only, if you can and put the _optout and _nomap on the end to prevent MS and Google using its data.

Fightsback

It's sending your wifi password all over the internet (granted it's encrypted) not just in your household. It's the password bit that's the problem not the SSID.

If you have a risky feature, let people opt in. Besides if you turn it off, what's to stop Microsoft turning it back on again with an enforced update ?

bsod

not all routers allow underscores in the ssid, and by the time every other company that makes any net enabled privacy invading product has come up with a stupid bodged workaround to avoid (according to them) their snooping sharing backdoored listening, tracking and watching by default world, the ssid will be too long for any router to cope with.

Did you get that Cortana?

gjchester

Fightsback wrote: »

Besides if you turn it off, what's to stop Microsoft turning it back on again with an enforced update ?

Its not that simple. By default it does not share it, but people may turn it on. Even if you opt out anyone who uses you WiFi may choose to click the "share with friends"button.

It s not a bad feature, and there seems to be people reading the headline and panicking without understanding how to control it. Its no worse that Apple allowing you to share your wifi via their Keychain, although that does not spread the password to everyone just your account.

And hey you can opt out your WiFi and just mooch someone else...

Fightsback

It just gets better ,

Do note, however, that Microsoft says the opt out may not be instant and so you may also wish to change your network's password while on the configuration webpage:

It can take several days for your network to be added to the opted-out list for Wi-Fi Sense. If you want to stop your network from being shared sooner than that, you can change your Wi-Fi network password.

Another good take on it to save me typing more words:

http://reviews.gizmodo.com/why-the-hell-is-windows-10-sharing-my-wi-fi-passwords-1719900675

enfield_freddy

don,t forget to amend settings in Cortana , removes your location and other info

bsod

It's an invitation to hackers, virus writers, industrial espionage.

Let's say you want an 'in' to a corporate (or government/bank/utility) network somewhere with 3000 employees, all you need is to become a contact with one of them who has attached to the internal network sometime, not too difficult to achieve - look them up on linkedin and befriend them. One chink in the wall and the whole place is open.