Are our devices committing crimes of passion?
About two months ago, one of my friends was over for our block party. He brought his new girlfriend, as well as his new toy the iPhone. All day long he was playing with it and showing off its amazing features to the other guests. Toward the end of the party, he asked me, “Who are the Smiths?” (No, that's not their real last name.)
Are devices becoming too smart for the benefit of their owners?
I looked at him slightly confused. “They're my neighbors. Why?”
“I've been using their broadband all day,” my friend said, still working his new toy.
My friend is far from a hacker, and to be honest I wouldn't even classify him as computer savvy. The device just made it too easy for him to connect to an open network. Today you can even get keychain Wi-Fi detectors.
Now, people chipping off broadband from open wireless networks is nothing new. The reality is that the days of war chalking have just given way to the Wi-Fi hotspots we see today. But what happens when you're not close to a Starbucks or McDonald's that offers free service? Users still expect their expensive Wi-Fi device to work.
Where is the balance between security and ease of use for the consumer? Design engineers worried that if a device was too hard to configure, the mainstream user might lose interest quickly, whether in the mobile device or the router itself. Out of that need came the world of smart devices: pull it out of the box and you're good to go. No setup, no thinking about how the device works, just good old instant digital gratification.
When I was a kid I would spend hours having my Hayes 300-baud modem dialing phone numbers in hopes of finding things like the fictional “Joshua.” Today, I can sit in my living room and see at least four of my immediate neighbors' networks and a few small businesses that all have unsecure connections. All of them have decently strong signals.
It's very tempting never to pay for broadband again, or at least tempting enough to look up something quickly online on any of the unsecure networks if someone can't connect to a truly free hotspot. As more Wi-Fi devices hit the street and people become even more “connected” so they can get information anyplace, chipping off broadband may become an epidemic, especially in light of recent reports that some cities are reconsidering plans to institute “free” city-wide Wi-Fi.
So where is the balance between ease of use and security? I would say it's a 50/50 split, because I often wonder if Wi-Fi device users even realize that they may also be opening themselves up by connecting to unsecure networks.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” Wi-Fi has recently left me wondering if Franklin's statement will stand the test of time.
Bryan DeLuca
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