Subject: WLAN users and the industry
From EDIGlong
PostID 254463 On Friday, May 16, 2003 (EST) at 12:25:16 PM
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Open Season on Wireless LANs
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By Jay Wrolstad
www.NewsFactor.com,
Part of the NewsFactor Network
May 16, 2003
When individuals access a public WLAN at a coffee shop across the street from a library, for example, the laptop is configured to connect to the nearest, or strongest signal. The user cannot tell if that network is located in the coffee shop or the library.
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Wi-Fi-based wireless local area networks are spreading like wildfire among homeowners, businesses small and large, and such public entities as libraries and government offices. But most users pay little attention to security, inviting penetration of their networks by anyone within range (about 300 feet) of an unprotected access point.
And such intrusions occur all too often. In fact, ''war driving'' is becoming an increasingly popular practice among mobile computer geeks. War drivers cruise the streets with laptops rigged for WLAN broadband connectivity searching for open access points.
Typically, they mark a new find with graffiti that flags the spot for other Wi-Fi users. All most of these war drivers are interested in is getting free Internet use. However, leaky WLANs also give network intruders with more nefarious motives easy entry.
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Accidental Break-Ins
A law wending its way through the New Hampshire legislature could have broad implications for anyone operating a wireless LAN by offering a measure of protection for war drivers and would-be hackers. In effect, the legislation puts the onus on businesses and consumers to protect themselves.
New Hampshire state representative Richard Kennedy said he was prompted to introduce HB 495 after a friend accessed a local government WLAN -- and its files -- while trying to link up with a network located across the street.
''It's illegal in our state to cut into a computer network, just like it's illegal to tap a phone line, but people are connecting to wireless networks by accident all of the time because they are everywhere,'' Kennedy told NewsFactor. ''We needed to clean up the law.''
Tell It to the Judge
Consequently, the New Hampshire measure stipulates that the owner of a wireless computer network is responsible for securing such network, and that ''negligent or inadvertent'' access is ''an affirmative defense'' to prosecution.
The bill provides that those charged with unauthorized access to a WLAN can escape legal responsibility simply by claiming they believed the owner of the network granted access, or that they could not have known that access was prohibited.
That pretty much gives the green light to war drivers, who need only tell the judge, ''The access point was open, so I assumed it was okay to use.'' It boils down to a question of good faith. ''If you send a request to an access point and get approval, you have every reason to believe that access point is available,'' said Cory Doctorow, outreach coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Network Sharing
''As long as there is no notice stipulating that access is restricted, and as long as the individual is not trying to crack an encryption code or taking other extraordinary measures to connect, it should be legal,'' Doctorow told NewsFactor.
The EFF, a defender of digital rights, is an ardent supporter of community WLANs, which have sprung up in San Francisco, Boston and New York City, as well as many other locales. Participants willingly leave their access points open for others to use, in the belief that they are contributing to the common good. And some ISPs allow their customers to invite the public to use their access points, Doctorow pointed out.
Good Intentions
War driving has gotten a bad rap, Doctorow contends. A better moniker might be ''wireless network mapping,'' since most practitioners are not malicious by nature.
When sites are located, they often are marked with symbols written on the sidewalk or a nearby building in a practice known as ''war chalking.'' The marks can indicate the signal strength as well as security features at a specific access point.
The term ''war driving'' is derived from the 1983 film ''War Games,'' a cult favorite among hackers. It is a global phenomenon that certainly has attracted thousands of participants, although obtaining an accurate head count is virtually impossible since they prefer to operate with anonymity.
Tough To Control
While obtaining free access to bandwidth is not in itself a problem, reaching into the internal traffic on a business server, for example, could be a serious invasion of privacy .
The pending New Hampshire legislation raises some intriguing questions. ''Suppose I deploy a wireless LAN without security,'' says IDC analyst Abner Germanow, ''but it is used for malicious purposes. Do I have any legal recourse against the person who used it? Can I even track down that person?''
When individuals access a public WLAN at a coffee shop across the street from a library, for example, the laptop is configured to connect to the nearest, or strongest signal. The user cannot tell if that network is located in the coffee shop or the library, he noted.
Wi-Fi Industry on Notice
Because most WLANs involve sharing airspace and airwaves, multiple parties often are sharing a physical network, each with different policies for its use, Germanow said.
The New Hampshire proposal is intuitive, according to Aberdeen Group analyst Dana Tardelli. He compares unprotected WLANs to a car that is parked with the key in the ignition and the doors unlocked -- an invitation to thieves.
''This could serve as a wake-up call for both WLAN users and the industry. If you have an access point, and you don't want other people on it, you have to take measures to secure it,'' Tardelli told NewsFactor. And if a Wi-Fi system is difficult to secure, people will not buy it, he added.
Leading the Way
Equipment vendors can do a better job of educating the public and/or shipping their products with default protection measures, Doctorow agrees. ''Manufacturers should be held to a higher standard,'' he said.
New Hampshire is the first -- and so far, only -- state to address this legal gray area. The bill got the nod from the New Hampshire house and is under review by the state senate. If signed into law, it is scheduled to take effect in January 2004. Doctorow expects that the courts will affirm the law and hopes that others will follow the ''Live Free or Die'' state's example.
