Laws try to tether wireless networks

Only a few months ago, a Florida man was arrested by local authorities on charges that he illegally tapped into an open wireless connection. Now, in an effort to combat such common poaching practices, suburban Westchester County outside Manhattan wants to make it illegal for any business or home office to maintain an unsecured wireless connection.

It is understandable that some people would want to put an end to wireless poaching out of concerns that it could lead to larger security breaches. But with growing legal interest in the wireless realm, how long will it be before the federal government weighs in with regulations of its own?

Already, several bills that address ID theft involve the security of wireless and land-line networks. At the same time, others are calling for that resulted from a recent feud between rival backbone carriers. As we have seen before, once the government decides to get involved in technology at any juncture, it can lead to unintended consequences that involve subjects far beyond computer infrastructure.

Blog community response:

"Pursuing this at a local county level seems like whistling in the wind and a bit quixotic at best. What will they go after next, open, unsecured Bluetooth devices?"
--*michael parekh on IT*

"What is the use of a system if people can't use the system? It would not be much of a hot spot if no one could find it. In fact, in a properly set up system it does not matter if people know your SSID."
--If I Were In Charge

"This situation also raises a fundamental issue which doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot of face time: tech education. Otherwise we're just going to keep writing laws and setting rules designed to protect ourselves against problems that shouldnÂ’t have existed in the first place."
--404 Not Really Found