Thursday, December 06, 2007

In the future everyone will be guilty of something; in fact, you're probably guilty right now

Wherein from our living room we can see 4 Wi-Fi connections and ours is the only one that's open

***link fixed and a link to Bruce Schneier.

Security expert, Bruce Schneier, in a Freakonomics Q&A:
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.

Congress disagrees and provides their usual extreme example of useless security theater:
The Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act, a bill, according to CNET, "saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including 'obscene' cartoons and drawings—or face fines of up to $300,000," breezed through the House yesterday. The vote was an overwhelming—and frightening—409 to 2, with only Ron Paul and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) opposing the bill.


...One nation under "Think of the Children," divisible pretty much all the time with liberty (being a women's basketball team) and justice (being a retired baseball player)

1 Comments:

Blogger XWL said...

Both links go the same Reason post.

Those poor itty bitty children again. Congress is ever and always doing everything they can to protect the children.

Parents I guess needn't bother trying so hard, let Congress do their jobs for them.

I would hate to be the subject for the test case, but I'd love to see how it turns out, this has "unconstitutional" and "unenforceable" written all over it. Maybe this can get killed in the Senate, or maybe enough stink will get raised that the President will veto this insane bit of legislation.

12/07/2007 02:09:00 AM  

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