Re: OT: Need a Campaign to Secure WIFI Sites

>     Nuh uh. Open hotspots is one of the great things about the
>     internet, and from time to time everyone needs one - sometimes in
>     the middle of the night or during holidays when lobbies with keys
>     posted aren't available. Open hotspots are also a good way to
>     maintain anonymity for dissidents, whistle-blowers, LGBT who are
>     not "out", etc. When I have my own routers, I often run them open
>     for all these reasons, and I always will.

>     I sometimes educate family and friends about PGP, and one of these
>     days I will run a Tor node as well, with all the
>     censor-circumvention tools available. The more that censors and
>     anti-anonymity Orwellianists don't like it, the more everybody
>     should do it.

>     I don't give .001% of a damn whether actual criminals use hotspots
>     or anything else, in exactly the same ways I don't give .001% of a
>     damn if they use guns, cars, roads, kitchen knives - or anything else.

>     Instead of desiring safety over the animating quest for freedom,
>     why don't you suggest educating people to use https? As it is, the
>     Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org <http://www.eff.org>)
>     recently reported that https use is up to 40%, IIRC.

>     - Vara

>     On 3/20/2017 12:29 PM, Victor Odhner wrote:
>>     I’m really annoyed that so many companies offer open WIFI when it
>>     would be so easy to secure those hot spots.

>>     Restaurants, hotels, and the waiting rooms of auto dealerships
>>     are almost 100% open.

>>     I am not one to say “there ought to be a law” because we have too
>>     many doggone laws, and I’m not that into a lot of demonstrating
>>     and yelling. But I would love to help educate companies on why
>>     they should secure their routers.

>>     If I were a progressive type, I’d suggest putting stickers on
>>     those venues saying:

>>         We don’t have passwords on our WIFI
>>         because OUR WIFI (and YOUR passwords)
>>         should be available to everybody
>>         with no effort!

>>     But being more right-wing, I’d much rather recognize that they’d
>>     be happy to do the right thing if we could explain it to the
>>     right people.

>>     I’ve repeatedly thanked the mechanic shop I use (C&R Tire on
>>     Tatum) because they have a key posted and I can feel sort of safe
>>     going online while I wait for an oil change. But all the places
>>     that have open routers are corporate owned so it does no good to
>>     gripe to the folks behind the desk.

>>     Any ideas on this?

>>     Thanks,
>>     Victor

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