RE: Wireless access

["Keenan Smith" <kc_smith () clark net>]

I don't think it's a very productive thing for a bunch of techies to get
sucked into a legal argument, of all things!  However, it's been my
experience that any statement that includes "you won't be liable" is
probably wrong.

First off, "reasonable effort" is a subjective term.  What's reasonable
to you or me may not be to the court.  My ex-wife, in personal injury
law, once told me that there's no such thing as "no-fault".  Somebody is
ALWAYS at fault.  As soon as you establish fault, you establish
liability.

With that attitude from the legal profession, I don't think anything we
EVER do will be completely protected.

My opinion is to provide the best technical solution that can be
implemented within the budget and hope for the best.

KC Smith
kc_smith () clark net




-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell Rowton [mailto:mrowton () bdo com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 12:51 PM
To: jswhitford () acm org; Robert.Mezzone () PJSolomon Com;
security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Wireless access


This reminds me of an old conversation.  Will you be liable if one
extranet partner uses your connection to bad things to another extranet
partner?

I don't think there was ever a firm answer from legal.  But its my (NOT
LAWYER) opinion, that if you make a reasonable effort to keep things
like this from happening i.e changing and disabling broadcast of the
SSID, then you won't be liable.  You have to strike a balance between
how much time=money you are willing spend to protect someone else from
someone else.  I would be a good internet citizen, and make certain
configuration changes to restrict this type of incidental use, but I
would not recommend spending money (on a firewall for example) on this
type of circumstance.

--
Mitchell

> > > Robert Mezzone <Robert.Mezzone () PJSolomon Com> 03/29/04 12:17PM >>>
As an example, what happens if a person (unknowingly) connects
wirelessly and downloads a music file?  They are outside our firewall
but they are still connected to our network. Wouldn't the company still
be liable?

Thanks.

Robert




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