To protect or not protect your WiFi?

Bruce Schneier is famous for leaving his WiFi wide open: no WEP, no WPA. (I've had this confirmed by someone who actually KNOWS him, which is exciting for me but a completely different story ) The point here is that he is reconsidering not to protect himself from people "stealing" his WiFi or breaking in to his system, but to protect himself from overzealous authorities who may trace some child porn or whatever to his IP.

It seems to me that leaving it open offers plausible deniability, as long as you aren't caught with the evidence.

Amplify’d from www.schneier.com

Security Risks of Running an Open WiFi Network

As I've written before, I run an open WiFi network. It's stories like these that may make me rethink that.

The three stories all fall along the same theme: a Buffalo man, Sarasota man, and Syracuse man all found themselves being raided by the FBI or police after their wireless networks were allegedly used to download child pornography. "You're a creep... just admit it," one FBI agent was quoted saying to the accused party. In all three cases, the accused ended up getting off the hook after their files were examined and neighbors were found to be responsible for downloading child porn via unsecured WiFi networks. Read more at www.schneier.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/b108pi