EFF asks you to share your internet to improve security worldwide
The Electronic Frontier Federation (EFF) is on the verge of releasing wireless router software designed to support the idea of secure, shareable Open Wireless networks.
The digital rights organization's experimental hacker alpha release of the wireless router software is part of the Open Wireless Movement, a campaign to expand the sharing of home-based internet services. The OWM, a joint project of the EFF, Fight for the Future, Mozilla, Free Press and others aim to increase community neighborliness by sharing web access, but also to promote a more secure future — by undermining the idea that someone can be identified through their IP address.
"We are aiming to build technologies that would make it easy for internet subscribers to portion off their wireless networks for guests and the public while maintaining security, protecting privacy, and preserving quality of access," the OWM states.
Due to officially launch on Monday at the New York Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, the EFF hopes to bring members of the hacking community aboard in order to improve the software.
Internet of Things
The Open Wireless Router is designed for small businesses and individual home users to easily set up and enable an open network, so passersby can access the internet. However, the software will also ideally feature a separate password-protected WPA2 network for the owner, and the ability to share a specific portion of your bandwidth through the open network.
However, the software is a work in progress, and the EFF says it is intended "only for developers and people willing to deal with the bleeding edge." The EFF hopes that other features will also be improved upon, including state-of-the-art network queuing, better wifi router security, and a secure software auto-update mechanism.
The hacker alpha release currently runs on Netgear WNDR3800 hardware and is based on the CeroWRT project. If developers would like the chance to hack the code base, the code and instructions can be found at Github.