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CNN Notices that WiFi is Insecure

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the caught-with-your-pants-down dept.

josh3736 writes "From CNN comes an article that makes painstakingly obvious to the public what we already knew: 802.11 security is horrible. The article points out that nearly 40% of wireless network APs haven't even been changed from defaults and as many as 80% of home APs have encryption disabled. The article goes on to say that '[t]o make matters worse, users who don't secure their networks are often the very people who don't keep their computers up to date with the latest security patches and antivirus software.' It also accuses WiFi manufacturers of disabling security measures by default to make wireless easy to the lowest common denominator. My favorite quote? 'Experts say that while Wi-Fi hardware makers have made initial setup easy, the enabling of security is anything but. Meanwhile, average users are no longer tech savvy.' Which is to say that they at one point were?"

3 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Oops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Meanwhile, average users are no longer tech savvy.' Which is to say that they at one point were?"
    No, it means that now that WiFi has attained ubiquity, the savviness of the average user has gone down. Example: when the WWW was new, it required a good deal of tech-savviness to use. Now any idiot can plug a cable in the wall and go. Understand?
  2. Don't care by jargoone · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I'm not doing anything mission-critical over wireless at home anyway. Encryption makes my connection crawl, and it's just not worth the trouble. I have the MAC filter turned on to secure the rest of my network, and that's enough for me. If someone wants to sniff and see all the slashdot posts and porn going over the air, they can go right ahead.

  3. Average Users by holt · · Score: 1, Redundant
    'Meanwhile, average users are no longer tech savvy.' Which is to say that they at one point were?

    I think the "average users" they are referring to are the average users of the particular technology. The article goes on to say "The gadgets are mainstream, appearing on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other mass retailers," implying that the fact that the tech is mainstream is the reason that the average user is not tech savvy. So when WiFi was only in use by geeks, the average user of the technology was quite savvy.