According to a new California law, any device “that includes an integrated and enabled wireless access point…[that] is manufactured on or after October 1, 2007, for use in a small office, home office, or residential setting, and that is used in a federally unlicensed spectrum,” will have to include some a warning about the dangers of not securing your wireless network. The warning can come in the form of a piece of paper, sticker, or software that explains what could be going on if you leave your wireless network vulnerable and how you can secure yourself against it.
This sorta makes sense to me. I’m not really sure how companies have been getting away with not doing it for this long. Of course, my internet’s down today so I’m pretty grateful that at least one person in my building doesn’t know anything about this.
Edit: I’m kind of on the fence about this one. The dangers of not securing one’s home network seem to be pretty obvious to me. I think this will just be fodder for the RIAA. With people getting out of lawsuits by simply stating that they have an open network, I can see the RIAA jumping on this and saying, “Well there is no excuse, because you had a warning.” Do you all think this will affect those cases at all? – Blake
California Law Passes, Requires Routers to Come with Security Warning [Gizmodo]