A Wired article, seen via BoingBoing, makes an argument for running your wireless router completely open and unencrypted.

Bruce Schneier's argument takes into account security, potential violations of law and ISP policies, as well as the social benefit of both providing free WiFi and using it yourself when needed.

He does emphasize that keeping good security on your computer itself is important, and that the benefits of an open network outweigh the risks:

Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people -- and attracts the most criticism -- is the fact that I run an open wireless network at home. There's no password. There's no encryption. Anyone with wireless capability who can see my network can use it to access the internet.

To me, it's basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea. But to some observers, it's both wrong and dangerous.

...

Security is always a trade-off. I know people who rarely lock their front door, who drive in the rain (and, while using a cellphone) and who talk to strangers. In my opinion, securing my wireless network isn't worth it. And I appreciate everyone else who keeps an open wireless network, including all the coffee shops, bars and libraries I have visited in the past, the Dayton International Airport where I started writing this and the Four Points Sheraton where I finished. You all make the world a better place.

What I'd like to know is what security precautions he is taking to protect his machines on the open network.

I'm far from an expert in this department, and the one guy I do trust in this realm -- George Ou -- thinks WPA encryption is the only way to go. Read some good articles by Mr. Ou:

How to protect your online privacy

A secure Wireless LAN hotspot for anonymous users

Why VPN can’t replace Wi-Fi security

Wireless LAN security myths that won’t die

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We currently have comments on most of the Daily News blogs set to accept both "anonymous" comments -- meaning from just about anybody -- as well as Typekey-authenticated comments. And we haven't yet made the move to Movable Type-authenticated comments (see -- you have a lot of choices in MT 4 ... and while confusing, it's nice to have options), but that's where it's going, I'm told.

I was about to turn off anonymous comments, but then I got a sweet Distrowatch link about a week ago, bringing quadruple to quintuple the usual traffic, and I didn't want to shut potential commenters out.

I realize that many people might not want to sign up with Typekey, and entering a comment while logged into the Typekey system is confusing (the name, e-mail address and url boxes remain after you're logged in, but they SHOULDN'T BE filled out), and I'm pretty much waiting for the Web-biggies here to get the Movable Type login comments working.

So I decided to try adjusting the spam filter once again. Under Preferences -- Blog Settings, click on Spam, and see what your spam filter is set at. All of ours default to 0. I started with +4, but that caught too many legitimate comments, and I finally settled on +3. That flags most of the spam as spam, which I have set to delete when it gets 5 days old. That way I can quickly scan the spam to see if any legitimate entries got caught in the filter. But I don't have to do anything to the 99.99 percent of spam comments that I don't want on the system -- they just go away when they reach the age of 5 days.

So far, the only spam to get through has been these weird Obama entries that don't have a URL embedded in the comment (unlike 99.999 percent of the other spam). I suppose that the only problem is that "real" commenters who include URLs of any kind in their comments might not make it past the filter, but that's why I quickly scan the spam (Under Manage -- Comments, click on Spam Comments on the right side of the screen to see them -- and make sure you have your "view" set up for 100 rows with "action" buttons enabled on top and bottom, so you can restore/delete at the top or bottom of the long list).

And anybody who absolutely, positively must put URLs in their comment can sign up with Typekey and leave an "authenticated" comment. Right now, those go right through (though that parameter is also modifiable in MT 4).

I no longer spend a considerable chunk of time marking comments in "nonspam comments" as the spam they truly are. The easy change in spam-filter from 0 to +3 has taken care of it for me.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think we're getting to that point. We all worry about accessing e-mail over Web portals (or via POP and IMAP servers) that are not encrypted and secure. Or we should be.

And using the Seamonkey browser in Puppy 3.01, I'm constantly being warned about information being exchanged that's not secure.

I appreciate the warning. I even started using my DSL Extreme mail account more often because not only is the Web-portal login secure, but the whole session is as well. And I also have encryption turned on when I access the mail server via IMAP.

And most people won't think of entering personal and financial information when banking or buying stuff online unless they see the "https://" before the address.

So why are we doing so much other stuff without the "s"?

I don't know what the particulars are, but I think we're at the point with the Internet where every single damn thing ought to be encrypted and secure.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)