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Schneier Says 'Steal this Wi-Fi'
apolloose noted Bruce Schneier's latest entry on Wired where he talks about insecured wifi networks, and suggests that you
Steal this WiFi. Basically, since insecure WiFi is everywhere, why not? You're helping make the world a little better for someone else.
Sure, everyone please use my unsecured local Wi-Fi access point. I'm giving back to the community... ... and the community in turn will have all traffic filtered through a box that will sniff passwords, private keys, you name it.
So please "steal this Wi-Fi" since I need a few more social security and credit card numbers.
More Twoson than Cupertino
1. Clients (laptops) default installed wifi software (hint: Steve Jobs are you reading???) need a scanning
mode which does not waste my time telling me about all the password or mac-address locked wifi
basestations, and only advises me about open ones.
2. Basestation/routers need a simple-to-configure mode where they will let others into a separate
subnet that goes straight out to the Internet but does not see my home computers directly.
3. (Brain software/mindset change.) Americans need to stop reflexively calling sharing 'stealing'.
You've been trained into this terminology by those who have already stolen everything and don't
want you to get it back.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Another side to this is to consider that some people may actually allow access. I used to. I had an SSID of JUMPONFREE. I did this for two reasons: one to give Internet access to people in my apartment complex if they did not want to pay for it themselves, and two because I incorporated transparent proxying and compiled lists of visited sites (as well as port mirroring on the switch to track protocol usage). You don't have to concern yourself with abusers if you set up traffic priorities and/or bandwidth limiters. I am not alone, as I have seen many cleverly named SSID's indicating the owner is not just some non-configuring noob, but rather someone that cares enough to share.
Click here or here.
There are already a number of organisations/initiatives around that actively encourage you to purchase their wireless routing products and then open up access to everyone.
I'm a member of FON, which allows you to allocate a specific amount of bandwidth for sharing if you're using one of their routers - say 1MB of your 8MB ADSL, which neatly overcomes the first poster's issue of not having enough bandwidth for their own nefarious purposes. After being a member of FON for 12 months they actually sent me three free wireless routers at Christmas, which I gave away to friends hoping that they too will join and share bandwidth.
There's another company I heard about, US based, that does something similar, but I can't think of their name right now.
However, I wonder about my ISP's stance regarding sharing WiFi for free with others. Does it violate their Ts&Cs? Do I care enough to actually find out? No!
Brought to you by the author of such childrens' classics as "Some Kittens can Fly!" and "All Dogs go to Hell."
But I thought the best way to browse securely was have all traffic sent to your home server, encrypt it, and forward to the laptop. This was because you assume your home network is inherently more secure. With is approach, you are leaving your home network, including your significant others, at risk. Especially those who are not savvy enough to apply updates and maintain anti-virus.
While I understand the anonymity helps his secure network stand out, all those open networks are just waiting for a guy with a little time and knowhow to start doing many bad things, say, man-in-the-middle. Just because you are blending into the pack does not keep the lions from eating one of you.
Now then, it IS his network at home, so he can do whatever the heck he feels like. And I do understand his social aspects of looking at WiFi as another resource for the public. But that does not free you from liability regardless of how little or insignificant it may be or stupidly enforced.
To me, it sounds like he doesn't want to roll up his sleeves and do some dirty work with port-forwarding, SSH-ing, and proxying. With those, you can enjoy quite decent browsing while away AND understand that your weakest point is at home.
On an unrelated note, where does this guy live?
import system.cool.Sig;
No, it's more akin to: I go to the grocery store and buy a 5 lb bag of sugar. Now I don't need to use that much sugar so I let the neighbors have some. That's not stealing because I paid for it. You're essentially doing nothing more than what a Starbucks or other cafe does.
However, don't be surprised that companies like Comcast freak out because, while they want you to PAY for all that bandwidth, they don't actually want you to USE it!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
Actually, it's more like ordering the all you can eat buffet and letting your friend eat off your plate.
If your friend says, "gee that looks good," and you say, "here, have a bite," the restaurant doesn't care. You had a good time, your friend had a good time, you'll probably come back for more. On the other hand, if your friends eats a dozen jumbo shrimp and couple of salmon fillets, the restaurant will be ticked off, because they priced the buffet around the probable range of one person's appetite. If everybody starts doubling or tripling up, then they have to raise prices, which mean they can't sell to individual diners.
So the way this works is, the vendor makes rules, and they look the other way at insignificant bits of rule breaking that keep their customers happy. When people get organized about breaking rules to unilaterally drop the price of service, then they start to get a bit tetchy.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I used to keep my WiFi router secured. But then there were some days when I couldn't connect from the other end of my apartment, and it was real handy to go through neighbor's unsecured WiFi. This convinced me that it was the neighborly thing to do and opened mine.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes