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.

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