If you do retail, and take credit cards (which you pretty much have to), your wireless network is about to cause you severe grief. The PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations kicking into gear demand you monitor and protect your network, including the wireless parts. And a story called What Retail Wireless Security? says too few are doing so now.
Of course, AirDefense sells wireless security equipment and services, so one must filter their results (problems in 85 percent of 2,500 wireless devices surveyed) through your "smells like marketing" filter. That said, small wireless networks tend toward the "security disaster" rating than the "security satisfactory" rating.
When 25 percent of the surveyed access points use no encryption at all, we can safely assume store management has no clue about security. Since TJX, the store chain losing millions and millions of customer account details, lost mos of them through lax wireless security, hackers know what their best entry into a company is now.
I bet many city laws lag, and sitting outside a store but connected to the wireless network inside the store may not be breaking and entering. Do you want to be that test case?
You don't leave your cash register unlocked outside on the sidewalk. Why do you leave your network open? That will cost more than giving away the contents of your cash register.
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