Stupidity, or generosity?
It’s a difficult call.
I write this post while 1800 miles from home, sitting in a house with no internet access. Thank you , Mr. “linksys”, whose signal is just strong enough for me to surf the webverse.
Luckily for “linksys,” I am not malicious by nature, since I have no doubt that his home network is as secure as his wireless router, which is to say not at all. And in this area, there might well be some tasty info to be had on the old hard drive.
Why, in this day of idiot-proof computing, don’t people take the time to secure thier on-ramps? It’s such a small inconvenience, requiring only the ability to read relatively simple instructions, why do folks leave themselves open?
Three thoughts. It may be laziness; to be sure, securing my home network required an hour of reading and setup. Of course, I have encrypted everything up the wazoo – WEP would be better than nothing, and takes about 15 seconds to get up.
Or, it may be ignorance. In this day when information is the coin of the realm, some folks are not yet ready to shift thier world-view. They may not realize that privacy is rapidly becoming what people choose to ignore, rather than what they cannot know. Any time actual privacy is available, no matter how small the issue, grab it!
Or, it may be an indulgent view of the technorati and their intentions. After all, I found this person’s gateway, and the most I’m doing to hurt him (or her!) is question his intelligence. Perhaps he is willing to indulge my need for bandwidth, trusting that I will use it benevolently. Well, I am. Dire consequences averted.
It’s more than I can do.
