* Wi-Fi and national security
Last month, Network World columnist Mark Gibbs stated that people who operate unsecured Wi-Fi access points – whether they are naïve consumers or beneficent communities – are putting national security at risk. He asserted that if a terrorist, for example, could get a message to Osama bin Laden, in part via an open Wi-Fi network, that the owner of the unsecured Wi-Fi connection was guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy.
Wayne Caswell, a consultant with CAZITech Consulting and a member of the Homeland Security Working Group of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee, agrees with Gibbs. Caswell believes that having an unprotected Wi-Fi network makes it more difficult for FBI agents and others to track the location of terrorists.
“The FBI can only track usage to an AP,” Caswell told me. “So a terrorist can piggyback on an AP to communicate with colleagues. Because you and your neighbors didn’t protect your network,” you’re basically implicit in helping the bad guys, he says.
So let me get this straight. We innocently go about living our lives, purchasing and using the goods marketed down our throats, day in, day out, and suddenly we are to blame for the next terrorist attack?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not advocating running unsecured APs, particularly in your business or residence. But it’s true that the older products were required to ship with security disabled. And your average consumer just isn’t hip to the nuances of 802.11 technology and having to do something special to secure it.
Perhaps technology is getting more advanced than the masses, and it is simply too dangerous to put it in our hands before we’ve all been trained and certified. If we really are abetting terrorist forces by naively misusing complicated technology, it would be safer for all concerned if we were required to present proof of Wi-Fi certification training before being allowed to purchase these products. (I see that Cisco has Wireless LAN Design Specialist and Wireless LAN Support Specialist certifications, for example.)
Consider these points:
* U.S. society is founded on open access to information. Anyone not imprisoned can make a phone call or drop a letter in a mailbox at will. If a letter makes it to bin Laden, is the U.S. Postal Service to blame?
* There are a million and one ways a terrorist or anyone else can get anonymous Internet access other than via Wi-Fi access (secured or not) – drop into your local library or stop at a kiosk, for example. It’s also pretty easy to obtain a phony identity.
* Finally, do we really think Homeland Security officials can successfully track down terrorists by their Wi-Fi usage?
