On Wardriving, Security and Ethics 802.11g - Page 2
If you're really serious about internet security, keep your virus software up-to-date. Don't disable your Windows firewall. Restrict your online banking sessions to hard-wired networks, especially if you live in a crowded urban area. And if you use your credit card to make an online purchase inside a coffee house, don't display the card beside you as you do so.
Basically, don't be a 'tard.
Ethics 802.11g
But what, one might ask, are the moral implications of catching and using a thing that's been tossed at one through the air? Is it stealing? At my level of usage, I think not. If I were choking host networks with video traffic, maybe - maybe - we'd have something to talk about, but I'm not, so we don't. Besides, anyone who wants to dis-invite me from their party needs only lock the door.
I'm a lightly armed pacifist pursuing paths of no resistance, the least of anyone's worries in an online community that's crawling with cyber-thugs and hucksters. There are rules, but the rules aren't enforced. There are roads, but the roads aren't paved. It isn't safe to be out after dark.
This is unacceptable, as is Germany's recent decision to pass a law requiring that home networks be password-protected. (The term "Nazi tactics" comes to mind, but I'm far too politically correct to use it in this context.)
Individual access fees should be rolled into municipal budgets where they belong. Internet usage is too pervasive, too integral to everyday life to be handled otherwise. Leeches like me should be pointing their Cantennas at public access nodes, not coffee shops, and home network users should be no more interested in my online activities than they are in where and how I drive my car.
Universal healthcare would be nice, too.
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