MAC security (Re: Question about Wireless)

[Derek Broughton]

Miano, Steven M. wrote:

> Too true that it's illegal to use someone else's wireless access point:
>
http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/07/technology/personaltech/wireless_arrest/index.htm
> 
> If someone else uses your internet connection (that your responsible for)
> they are liable for it.

Of course they are, but...
> 
> By your thought process I shouldn't leave my gun on my nightstand with a
> round in the chamber because if someone were to come into my home and
> shoot my roommate then I'd be liable for killing my roommate?

Well, duh.  Has it not occurred to you that that is, in fact, true of many
places?  If I did that here, I would certainly be held liable.  Not equally
with the killer - he'd be charged with murder - but I would be charged (at
the VERY least) with careless storage of a firearm.

In any case, almost every ISP will have a terms-of-use that forbids you to
share your connection - and _that_ makes you an accessory to theft of
service if you let somebody else steal your service.  

However, I wasn't talking about the legal liability you may have - I was
talking about the very real fact that if somebody uses your system to
commit a crime (and child porn is the one crime I know of where people
_are_ deliberately using others' wireless networks), the police will see
_only_ the fact that the transaction occurred using your IP.  It doesn't
matter that you did nothing wrong.

> I just think some of you guys are going a bit extreme for home/network
> security. If you really need security you shouldn't be wireless anyway.

Proving that you don't have a clue.  I can be plenty secure with my
wireless - I just use SSH, TLS and HTTPS.
-- 
derek