Free WiFI at Panera Bread on Amherst St, Nashua

[Fred]

On Thu, 2004-08-26 at 08:27, Bill McGonigle wrote:
...
> Even with the 'contract' they're just as likely to get their IP 
> blacklisted as they would without it.  For any kind of defense against 
> hypothetical lawsuit they need to be logging MAC addresses and IP 
> addresses/ports with timestamps.  Based on what Fred reported it sounds 
> like they are, so vpn to your box. :)  Even with such a log, you'd have 
> to prove that the MAC that did the attacking _didn't_ belong to a 
> company employee.  Always hard to prove the negative, especially in a 
> criminal matter since the criminal isn't going to worry about any 
> company policies that might be in his way.

To really complicate the matter with the MAC address is that MAC
addresses can be spoofed -- so if the attacker knows the MAC address of
an employee, he can spoof that address if he is not online. Perfect way
to frame someone. Ouch!

For that matter, if you are ultra-paranoid, you should probably
deliberately *change* your own MAC address so some employee can't use
yours to frame YOU.

> It's their connection, so they can do what they want, but it sounds 
> like security theater.

It will be tragic if security breaches kills the notion of free WiFi.
They should be treated under the "common carrier" laws like ISPs are,
since in essence that's exactly what they are, but there may not be any
case law outstanding on this yet -- at least in this country.

Besides that, I think someone would be a fool to upload a virus from a
computer they own, but script kiddies are probably not all that bright.

The best way to upload a virus is to go to an Internet Cafe that is a
*long* driving distance from one's own stomping ground and use a
computer at the cafe to upload it with a long delayed timer that covers
its tracks afterwards, then go home and destroy all copies of the virus
AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. But that takes all the fun out of it for viral
criminals, so they'll always stand a good chance of being caught --
fortunately.

-- 
Fred -- fred at lrc.puissante.com -- place "[hey]" in your subject.
There are inflows and outflows -- and you're just a little node.