CNN/Money runs yet another story about the ethics of access unprotected WiFi. In some cases, people have even been arrested for doing nothing more than accessing open WiFi connections.
This seems pretty straightforward — the second you turn on a WiFi box, you’re broadcasting that signal out into the world. If you’re not going to take even minimal steps to secure that signal, complaining about people accessing it makes about as much sense as standing naked in the middle of the street and complaining that people are gawking at you.
And, frankly, I’m not interested in having my neighbors sniff my WiFi to see what websites I’m visiting or what porn pictures of cute, fuzzy animals I’m downloading. Fortunately, WiFi security is better than ever — even the cheapo Linksys broadband router I picked up has WPA with AES built in, though configuring these boxes is still too hard for normals.
Sources:
Stealing your neighbor’s Net. Steve Hargreaves, CNN/Money, August 9, 2005.
Man charged with wireless trespassing. Rob Kelly, CNN/Money, July 7, 2005.