Unsecured Wi-Fi could become a crime

In a first, a New York suburb is considering legislation that would make it a crime to run an unsecured Wi-Fi access point, News.com reports.

The draft proposal offered this week would compel all "commercial businesses" with an open wireless access point to have a "network gateway server" outfitted with a software or hardware firewall. Such a firewall, used to block intrusions from outside the local network, would be required even for a coffee shop that used an old-fashioned cash register instead of an Internet-linked credit card system that could be vulnerable to intrusions.

 While this seems a bit drastic, as municipal Wi-Fi plans get rolling, the diverse levels of security among nodes will be a huge issue.