more on Westchester to ban unsecured wireless?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Huggins <jhuggins () kettering edu>
Date: November 7, 2005 10:12:31 AM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: Ip Ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: Westchester to ban unsecured wireless?

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005, David Farber wrote:

> Westchester County, NY, is thinking of banning unsecured wireless
> base stations:
>
> http://news.com.com/Unsecured+Wi-Fi+would+be+outlawed+by+N.Y.+county/
> 2100-7351_3-5934194.html
>
> Although a nice sentiment, I think it is actually unlikely to help
> security in any significant way -- it seems like a pretty bad idea,
> frankly.

In a very weird sort of way, this almost makes sense.  See the following
article from Computerworld:

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/ 
0,10801,105936,00.html

Summary: In an Ernst & Young survey of 1300 IT organizations, two-thirds
stated that regulatory compliance is the primary reason they upgrade
security on their systems ... not the threat of malware.

I can almost see the logic in that sort of response.  There's never  
enough
money to do the kind of security upgrades you want to do, unless (a) you
have a major security breach, or (b) the lawyers come around and tell  
you
that you must do the upgrade.

So, in a weird way, Westchester County is giving IT managers a weapon to
use to make sure that their companies do what they should've been doing
all along in the first place ...

--Jim Huggins, Kettering University, Flint, MI

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/