[Cryptography] Schneier's Internet Security Agency - bad idea because we don't know what it will do

[Henry Baker]

At 04:35 PM 2/27/2017, Kevin W. Wall wrote:
>On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 4:14 PM, Henry Baker <hbaker1 at pipeline.com> wrote: ...<big snip>...
>> How hard is it for a wifi device to search for all SSID's (including hidden
>> ones) & find one that is either open already or WEP-protected, and then
>> trivially break it?  BTW, it does NO GOOD to block such a device from YOUR own
>> wifi network, because there are perhaps 5-15 wifi networks IN YOUR
>> NEIGHBORHOOD that ARE accessible.
>
>Not difficult, but I don't think that manufacturers will start doing this as that would constitute illegal access of a computer nextork even if the network was WEP and had a default router/AP password.
>
>Open Wi-Fi networks, that's a little harder call to make, but that too seems doubtful.

I believe that ATT, Verizon, Comcast wifi routers all now default to providing an "open" wifi SSID for ATT, Verizon, Comcast customers, respectively.

So it wouldn't be hard for a sleazy Vizio to make deals with these even sleazier ISP's for easy/legal access to the Internet.