Pros & Cons Of Windows 10 Sharing Your WiFi Passwords With Your Contacts

Consumerist

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The feature, dubbed Wi-Fi Sense, shares an encrypted version of a user’s WiFi network password with ... with Skype and Outlook contact is by default, while the user must opt in to share with Facebook contacts. The contacts never actually see the password, which is stored remotely on a Microsoft server, but if they ever come within reach of your WiFi network, they’ll be able to log on.

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Cybersecurity expert and journalist Brian Krebs is skeptical about the safeguards that Microsoft has claimed to build into the Wi-Fi sense.

"The company says your contacts will only be able to share your network access, and that Wi-Fi Sense will block those users from accessing any other shared resources on your network, including computers, file shares or other devices,” he writes. “But these words of assurance probably ring hollow for anyone who’s been paying attention to security trends over the past few years: Given the myriad ways in which social networks and associated applications share and intertwine personal connections and contacts, it’s doubtful that most people are aware of who exactly all of their social network followers really are from one day to the next.”

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Microsoft’s argument is that Wi-Fi Sense is actually safer than simply giving your friends your WiFi password whenever they come to visit. The idea is that it’s more secure to grant contacts access to the network without ever having to give them the password than it is to explicitly share your password with them.

Once someone has the actual password, it can be shared with others or possibly used to figure out other passwords for websites and services. Microsoft claims that your Wi-Fi Sense contacts have no way to pass your passwords on to others.

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http://consumerist.com/2015/07/29/the-pros-cons-of-windows-10-sharing-your-wifi-passwords-with-your-contacts/