Re: [PLUG] Wireless access - from a security expert

["Brian Vagnoni" <bvagnoni@v-system.net>]

FYI:

As these articles suggest it's a gray murky area. What they all agree on is that it's stealing. Even Bruce S. agrees. It's an ethical question for each person.

Q: Is there any benefit to password protecting your home Wifi network? I have IT friends that say the only real benefit is that multiple users can slow down the connection, but they state that there is no security reason. Is this correct?

A: I run an open wireless network at home. There’s no password, and there’s no encryption. Honestly, I think it’s just polite. Why should I care if someone on the block "STEALS" wireless access from me? When my wireless router broke last month, I used a neighbor’s access until I replaced it.

But further up the blog he makes this statement:

Q: Do you think that in the future, everything will go from hard-wired to wireless? If so, with cell phones, radios, satellites, radar, etc. using all the airwaves (or spectrum), do you think there is a potential for, well, messing everything up? What about power outages and the such?

A: Wireless is certainly the way of the future. >From a security perspective, I don’t see any major additional risks. Sure, there’s a potential for messing everything up, but there was before. Same with power outages. Data transmitted WIRELESSLY should probably be ENCRYPTED and AUTHENTICATED; but it should have been over wires, too. The real risk is complexity. Complexity is the worst enemy of security; as systems become more complex, they get less secure. It’s not the addition of wireless per se; it’s the complexity that wireless — and everything else — adds.

Which is it Bruce? What is good at work is not good at home?
 
http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/07/technology/personaltech/wireless_arrest/index.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/08/technology/personaltech/internet_piracy/index.htm

Link to legal paper by Robert Hale, ESQ mentioned in the CNN Money article.

http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/sections/buslaw/cyberspace/2006-10-07_wifi-liability-and-regulation.pdf

Sorry to be so passionate and annoying(to some) about this. But I wouldn't be doing my job if I advocated open unsecured networks.

But in the end it's up to each person, to steal or not to steal is the question?

Brian Vagnoni



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