Law proposed to make open biz WiFi illegal
Westchester County Executive Andy Spano's got a new law, y'all, one "to protect the public from crimes such as identity theft and other consumer fraud," by way of requiring all commercial WiFi hotspots be encrypted. Yes, the argument can be made that unsuspecting users might find valuable personal information stolen on such open wireless networks like at their local cafe, but truth be told, this risk rings true of any non-trusted network — wired, wireless, encrypted or otherwise. And considering that WEP encryption is a total joke to crack, such a law seems more like a gesture (and PR move) than a solution. Besides, pretty much everybody knows that you take your information into your own hands when you connect to an untrusted network of any kind, and we suspect it follows that those who aren't aware of this probably aren't aren't too knowledgeable when it comes to encrypting their WiFi connection anyway.
[Via TechDirt]
