Fear And Laziness Stunt Wi-Fi?
from the do-they-really? dept
I think the headline of this article is misleading. It says that "fear and laziness" are slowing down WiFi adoption - but the article itself seems to focus on the fact that too many people are using WiFi without being aware of the security risks and without getting permission from a centalized IT staff. So, it sounds like a lack of fear and proactiveness have actually helped WiFi get adopted at rapid rates - the exact opposite of the article's headline. On a related note, I'm glad to see that at least someone is starting to address the real WiFi security risk - which is that anyone else on the same access point as you can often read your data. I've been testing out a service called HotSpotVPN that lets anyone use a VPN to encrypt all their data. This is a necessary service, and I'm glad someone is offering it, but it still raises some questions. Now, instead of having to trust the other people on the same access point, you still have to trust the guy running this service. Secondly, he's trying to charge $9/month for the service, and claims that it's worth it. It might be worth it to protect your data, but I wonder how many people will actually see it that way. Already WiFi hotspots are having tremendous difficulty getting people to sign up because of their high prices - and adding another $9/month to the price isn't going to help. Besides, most people don't worry about their own computer security until it's too late.
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