Members of the BuzzBlog Brigade were asked to weigh in on the notion of private property owners being required by regulation or law to secure their wireless networks. Here’s what Alan Portman had to say:
Is this a good idea? Should private property owners be compelled to practice safe wireless?”
It seems like a waste of time to me. Certainly, a condo association, or subdivision, or neighborhood has the right to write all sorts of rules, codicils, etc. The better question is why would any property owner want to spend the time and money to require this?
Should I secure my wireless? Yes, in fact, mine is one of the three secured wireless APs I can pick up from my bedroom. I can also pick up eight other APs. (I do mean to find to find which of my neighbors named their AP sexy_lady) that were wide open.
An open AP allows me to access your network. In a residential setting, that would mean your printer, hard drive, and Internet connection. Now, if said user is not sharing any files, and does not mind me surfing on his dime, what is the harm? Yes, I could be spamming from my laptop across his connection. I could be scamming on eBay or any of the other illegal uses of the Internet. But I could just as easily drive around until I found another open connection. With File Sharing off and the XP firewall on, I am reasonably well protected from other users of an AP.
Now from the property owners side, he is adding the expense of scanning software, taking the time to run it, taking the time to find out who just spent $49 at Best Buy and his only recourse is to boot the “vile offender” out and find a new buyer for a condo with strange rules. For the owner, the benefit is zero. For the other tenants, the benefits are zero, for the tenant who just wants to use his laptop from anywhere in the condo, it is a pain.
If the owner is really concerned about wireless security, and wants a secure (wireless) building, his time, money and effort would be better spent providing wireless connectivity/Internet access to his tenants. Build the cost into the condo fee. Then he is responsible and in control of the security setup, something he clearly wants to have in place, he is offering a value to tenants (and prospective tenants), and would be spending less effort in the bargain.
— Alan Portman
