[Novalug] best way to secure wireless?

[Garrett Nievin]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2006, gregory pryzby wrote:

> I guess my question is more philosophical in.... why?
>
> I look at it this way. I have Mac OSX and Linux machines. There is no
> telnet or broadcasting protocol running.
>
> If someone wants to use my wireless, they are welcome to it.
>
> That said, I did decide to 'hide' the essid, so someone needs to know
> it to get online.
>
> So, tell me why this is a dumb thing to do.

Greg,

A friend of mine who lives in Arlington left his wireless open and was 
willing to let anybody use his wireless connection.  This guy Myron 
Tereshchuk parked outside and used it to send pornographic extortion 
emails to a company and its associates and customers:

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8991

My friend was immediately subpoenaed as a suspect based on his IP address 
and you can imagine how interesting his life got for a while.

Cheers,
Garrett