Slashdot Mirror
Growth of Wi-Fi Opens New Path for Thieves
E. Harley writes "Wi-Fi connections are popping up all over the place from retails locations, schools, municipalities, and homes. Unintentionally or not, most of these wi-fi hot spots never change the system's default settings, hide the connection from others, or encrypt the data sent over it. This NY Times article [Free registration required] talks about the size and extent of the problem, and what has happened with law enforcement investigating criminals using these public connections. Also, the article updates us on an earlier Slashdot story about wardriving. That case is still pending."
Hm... maybe I should have downloaded that 35GB Simpsons torrent on a neighbors wireless internet. Ooops.
What's needed is a layer of hardware-based identification on all internet-capable computers, which would be tied to the user's fingerprint and all of the user's actions would be logged by a central database. That way, any actions are have not been approved by the government or any corporation, would be immediately logged and the subject could be immediately arrested and shipped off to Syria/Lebanon/Turkey for tort***... i mean interrogation.
After these latter measures are in place, we can all be perfectly secure in knowing that no porn, violence, homosexual acts, books about evolution, untampered news, or any worthwhile content is being viewed by anyone in the U.S.
P.S. Or we could just make encryption and wifi security easy to implement and show people how to use it.
P.P.S. Nah... the former solution seems a lot more comprehensive in terms of public oppression... I mean security.
Well than, since 90% of Slashdot users do not pirate intellectual property, I can only assume that you already own a legally purchased copy of the Simpson's episode in question, and thus this would be "fair use". Right?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
This is the best reason to outlaw municipal wifi and private un-encrypted routers.Do you want our children turned into porn victims,killed by terrorists and have their identities stolen?
All internet activity should require user identification with a license issued by the government or a cooperative licensed ISP.
This would also go a long way to stamping out IP theft."Amnonymous" internet use should be a Federal felony and carry a stiff term equivlent to the penalties for kiddy porn,IP theft,and subversion which are the only reasons someone would want to be anonymous anyway.