Why wifi needs to be kept open

Bruce Schneier, a well-known IT security specialist and outstanding cryptologist, explains why his home WiFi access point has always been open to everyone, without a password or encryption. Bruce says that it is this element in his sophisticated security system that most often causes surprise of others.

Anyone with a wireless modem can see my network and go online through it. For me, this is a simple courtesy. Providing the guest with Internet is like giving him a roof over his head and electricity or treating him with a cup of hot tea. However, some people think this is wrong and dangerous.

They say that uninvited strangers can drive to my house by car and send spam, intercept passwords, upload and download anything from pirated movies to child pornography. As a result, various troubles can happen to me: starting from blacklisting my IP and ending with a police visit.

Although from a technical point of view, this is so, but I do not think that the risk is really great. There are at least five open access points in different coffee houses no further than a kilometer from my house, and any potential spammer is much more likely to settle in a warm room with a cup of coffee and cookies than in an ice machine near my house.

And yet, if someone commits a crime through my network that the police are interested in, what could be better protection than the fact of having an open wireless network? If I activated the defense and someone hacked it, then it would be much more difficult for me to prove my innocence.

I am not saying that the new WPA wireless security protocol is bad. He is good. But holes will be found in it, they are always there.

I spoke with several lawyers on this issue. With their legal method, they discovered several more risks associated with the opening of a wireless network.

Although no lawyer thinks that you can be successfully convicted simply because someone committed a crime through your network, it can take a lot of time and money to investigate this matter. Your computer may be confiscated, and if they find at least something illegal (pirated software, MP3 music), you will find yourself in a delicate situation. In addition, prosecutors are not always technically advanced users, so in the end you really have to pay some kind of fine, despite your innocence. The lawyers I spoke to recommended that you avoid the lawsuit and seek a conciliatory agreement in cases involving child pornography.

If we take a more real case, then the RIAA sued users on suspicion of illegally downloading music, based solely on information about their IP addresses. Here, the accused’s chances of victory are higher than in the criminal process, because in civil proceedings the severity of the evidence base is less. And again, lawyers say that even if you win, it will not pay back the costs, and you will still have to pay a couple thousand dollars.

However, these threats do not convince me. In our country, 15 million people download music illegally , and the RIAA has filed only 26,000 lawsuits . Best said by Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research: “If you suck torrents, then you know that the probability of being caught for piracy is approximately equal to the probability of an asteroid falling into you.”

My position cannot be changed by those who say that I risk my own data, because hackers can park near my house, enter my open network and listen to Internet traffic or hack into my computers. It is true, but my computers are in much greater danger when I use them in wireless areas at airports, coffee houses and other public places. If the security settings in the system are independent of the network, then there is simply no difference. And if my computer is not protected in a public network, then protecting my network practically does not reduce my risks.

Yes, computer security is a complex matter. But if your computers sometimes leave your home, then you have to solve this problem in any case. And any solution can also be applied to desktop machines.

In the end, some critics say that someone might just steal traffic from me. Despite separate court decisions that this is illegal , I have the feeling that this is not a violation of the law. I really have nothing against it if the neighbors use my Internet when they need it, and I heard several stories about people who saved their neighbors' wireless networks from emergency offline.
In the same way, I appreciate the presence of an open network when my connection disappears. If someone was loading my network so much that it would infringe on my own traffic, I could think about taking some measures , but so far everyone is mutually polite, why should this concern me?

Of course, this does not apply to ISPs. Support for an open wireless access point often violates the terms of your contract with your provider. But if you do not take into account very rare cases when subscribers receive letters with orders to prohibit the continuation of unlawful actions , as well as the anger of providers against people who exceed a certain secret limit in terms of traffic volume, but this is not a risk at all. The worst thing that can happen is to find another ISP for yourself.

A company called Fon offers an interesting way.solutions to this problem. Their wireless access points support simultaneous operation in two modes: a secure network for you and an open mode for everyone else. You can set up your open network in Bill or Linus mode. The first mode involves settlements between all users who have selected it, and in the second mode, all people use any access points for free. Really smart idea.

Security is always a compromise. I know people who rarely lock the front door of their house, who drive in the rain (and with a cell phone in their hand) and who talk to strangers on the street. In my opinion, securing my wireless network is not worth it. And I am grateful to everyone who also has an open wireless network, including all the coffee shops, bars and libraries that I visited in the past, Dayton International Airport, where I started writing this text, and the four-star Sheraton, where I ended it. You will all make the world a better place.