[IP] more on Westchester to ban unsecured wireless?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jim Huggins <jhuggins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 7, 2005 10:12:31 AM EST
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ip Ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Westchester to ban unsecured wireless?
On Sat, 5 Nov 2005, David Farber wrote:
Westchester County, NY, is thinking of banning unsecured wireless
base stations:
http://news.com.com/Unsecured+Wi-Fi+would+be+outlawed+by+N.Y.+county/
2100-7351_3-5934194.html
Although a nice sentiment, I think it is actually unlikely to help
security in any significant way -- it seems like a pretty bad idea,
frankly.
In a very weird sort of way, this almost makes sense. See the following
article from Computerworld:
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/
0,10801,105936,00.html
Summary: In an Ernst & Young survey of 1300 IT organizations, two-thirds
stated that regulatory compliance is the primary reason they upgrade
security on their systems ... not the threat of malware.
I can almost see the logic in that sort of response. There's never
enough
money to do the kind of security upgrades you want to do, unless (a) you
have a major security breach, or (b) the lawyers come around and tell
you
that you must do the upgrade.
So, in a weird way, Westchester County is giving IT managers a weapon to
use to make sure that their companies do what they should've been doing
all along in the first place ...
--Jim Huggins, Kettering University, Flint, MI
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