Calls for UK to protect wireless privacy

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It's time for the UK to introduce a law discouraging wireless network piggybacking, similar to the one unveiled in California this week, says a leading analyst.

California's legislature has just passed law AB 2415 that takes the first steps towards the outlawing of piggybacking and hacking into wireless LANs in the state. The bill, which is currently before Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, will oblige all manufacturers of wireless access products to put warning labels on products to remind users to switch on WLAN security protection before using them.

If passed, it will affect all products shipped after October next year. Warnings can take the form of stickers on wireless routers, notes that pop up during installation, or an alert that obliges users to take action before the device is deployed. It is being seen as a possible preliminary to a total ban on piggybacking.

Gartner analyst Ian Keen sees nothing wrong with California's potentially influential move. "It's good to remind people that security is something they need to think about," he says. "Most people still can't be bothered with it, certainly in the small office and home office environment."

Keen has been pushing for years to persuade WLAN vendors to ship products with security features already switched on. "Noone listened," he says. "They still ship products that make you go out of your way to encrypt data. What California is proposing is only a sticker, after all. It's not a total ban on unsecure WLANs, which would have a much more drastic effect."

While at present no similar plans exist for such a law in Europe or the UK, Keen believes manufacturers may change their ways rather than go to the cost of making one product for the US and one for the rest of the world.

Californian law on the legality of piggybacking is currently ambiguous, as the new bill explicitly acknowledges.

"There is disagreement as to whether it is legal for someone to use another person's Wi-Fi connection to browse the Internet if the owner of the Wi-Fi connection has not put a password on it," the proposed legislation states. "However, both Section 502 of the California penal code and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 'prohibit the intentional access to a computer without authorization'."

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