One good way to get people interested in securing their WLANs is to tell them that random people could be using their Internet connection to download kiddie porn. Then they could face the same fate as the guy in England mentioned in a news story in the Strib this week: http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4034940.html Or a spammer could use their connection to send a million spam emails, causing their ISP to cut them off. These things could really happen, and I think constitute a valid concern for the group and anyone providing free WLAN access to the Internet. As far as coming up with a way to find open WLANs and inform their owners about security without weirding them out, I'd love to figure that one out too. Mike Ellsworth StratVantage Consulting, LLC Helping Successful Companies Make Winning Technology Decisions 8273 Westwood Hills Curve St. Louis Park, MN 55426 952-525-1584 mellsworth at stratvantage.com www.StratVantage.com www.TheWiFiGuys.com They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Ben Franklin, ~1784 -----Original Message----- From: tcwug-list-admin at tcwug.org [mailto:tcwug-list-admin at tcwug.org]On Behalf Of Dave W. Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 6:14 AM To: tcwug-list at tcwug.org Subject: Re: [TCWUG] 8/12 Meeting Notes > Besides the fact that people/companies do _not_ enjoy being told > their systems are > "insecure", if you'd like to start a movement to 'secure' every > access point > feel free, I don't think it's a valid concern for the group. I agree with that one. Most of the time if I've told people about vulnerabilities to their system, they have looked at me as if I'm some sort of evildoer. I think it would be good to help people secure their systems if they don't want an open AP, but you would have to think of a way to do it without weirding them out. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Wireless Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.tcwug.org tcwug-list at tcwug.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tcwug-list _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Wireless Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.tcwug.org tcwug-list at tcwug.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tcwug-list