Bruce Schneier interviewed by Freaknomics
Bruce Schneier (security guru) just finished an interview with Freaknomics. In the interview he answers a lot of questions of Freaknomics readers. His answers include a lot of links to articles he has posted on various topics. Well worth a read.
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.
2 Responses
a little story for your readers. 2 years go my ex-wife was awoken early in the morning in her apartment here in CH by the door bell ringing. She got up and found two policeman who asked if they could come in. She was then asked if she knew anything about child pornography. she said no, and they explained that her ip had been used to download via p2p child porn. a few weeks prior to this she had gone out and bought a wifi router and just plugged it in and connected her win box to it. (had I known she’d done this, I would have suggested at least allowing only her MAC to connect to it) the police scanned her laptop, found no porn or p2p software. they put some detection devices on her network allowing the wifi to remain open and in 3 days had the bad boys (her neighbors) in the bag. so, I’d say that a visit from the cops would be embarrassing at most, but who wants it in the first place ? either keep everyone out (MAC resolution) or potentially deal with the above. -Skip
No Kiddin’.
I have been thinking about this as well. Then again I am always pretty happy when I am walking downtown and find an open network so I can check my mail or do some google maps. Seems that the honest people need to pay for a couple of idiots.