RE: Wlan @ bestbuy is cleartext?

[pgut001 () cs auckland ac nz (Peter Gutmann)]

Ron DuFresne <dufresne () winternet com> writes:

> I think it does a disservice to the info-sec community to have people tasked
> as 'security' aware administrators constantly doing thes rollouts and
> constantly turning to the term VPN as a way to expand their security perimiter
> and policy compliance outwards from the corporate boundries to the homes of
> endusers and their cars on the road without a full understanding of what they
> are doing to the defensive perimiters and security policies they are trusted
> to maintain.

In my experience the admins frequently are well aware that the VPNs-everywhere
approach is unsound, but are overruled by management or accountants.  Those who
persist in raising concerns are labelled as troublemakers/non-team-players, and
sidelined in future decision-making.  Scare stories of this kind, while
unfortunate, may be one of the few ways of getting through to management.

Peter.