Free WiFI at Panera Bread on Amherst St, Nashua

[bmcculley at rcn.com]

Travis Roy <travis at scootz.net> wrote:

[...snip...]

>With the way people are sue happy these days I'm just
thinking about 
>what's best for the place of business to cover their ass.
>
>I'm assuming that they would get some kind of slack if they
tried to 
>reasonably account for who is on their network, rather then
just leaving 
>it wide open for everybody on the planet.

Absolutely true.  The legal world is rife with phrases like
"due diligence" "reasonable and prudent" etc.  Lawyers might
argue over the meaning and interpretation, but if you haven't
at least shown some concern and effort it's a slam dunk, you
lose.  So doing anything is beneficial, on the other hand
there is the cost and hassle factor and the questionable
justification, so doing a lot is probably not worthwhile. 
It's a simple cost benefit risk analysis (there's an oxymoron!)

An earlier post used the phrase "security theatre".  That's
it, and the audience is a hypothetical judge and jury.  If
there's no act it's certain they'll pan the reviews, whereas
almost anything can pass as avant garde art (or emerging
technology practices).

>
>Kind of like how most insurance companies will pay for your
car if it 
>gets stolen, that is, if you leave it locked with the windows
rolled up. 
>They won't do the same if you leave it unlocked with the
windows rolled 
>down and the keys sitting in the ignition.

Great analogy.

>
>Would it be nice if everybody could trust everybody else,
sure, but like 
>it or not most of us don't live in a world like that.. so
because of 
>that I keep my doors lock. I do only use mac authentication
on my AP (no 
>WEP) but that seems to be enough to keep people off my access
point (for 
>now anyway).

Good example of that cost-benefit risk analysis in action.

One other thing, when my house (isolated rural location) was
broken into, the state cop who investigated commented that he
leaves his doors unlocked, on the theory that it saves damage
to the house.  Dunno how the insurance company would view that
though.  Also don't know how that translates into WEP etc. :-)

-bruce mcculley