Panel Examines Wi-Fi Liability Issues BY MARK ROCKWELL NOVEMBER 4, 2003 WASHINGTON -- Congress is looking into the possible technical and personal implications of advancing Wi-Fi networks on public and private users, with an eye toward drafting legislation that might address liability and security issues.
The Internet Caucus Wireless Task Force, part of Congress' Congressional Internet Caucus that informs lawmakers of advancing technological issues, convened a panel of experts today to informally discuss wireless security for congressional staffers interested in the implications of increasing Wi-Fi Internet access. The panel included William Arbaugh, assistant professor at the University of Maryland; Jeffrey Campbell, senior technology policy counsel or worldwide systems at Cisco Systems; Edward Roback, chief of computer security systems at the National Institute of Standards; and Jim Halpert, partner at Washington, D.C., regulatory law firm Piper Rudnick. All said the liability implications of wireless data communications, including Wi-Fi, are unclear, and users need to know that they are dealing with some uncharted territory as to who can be held liable for misuse of their networks. "Drive-by" Wi-Fi downloaders can, and do, take advantage of private users' self-installed wireless access points, but the access point owners probably aren't liable for unauthorized use of their network as a corporate user might be, according to Halpert. There is current case law, Halpert said, in the state of Maine that holds Verizon liable for not meeting quality-of-service agreements with its customers after a computer worm disabled a data network and resulted in considerable down time for those users. Down time due to a third party's actions also could affect Wi-Fi or other wireless networks with similar carrier liability results, he said. http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=2&pubdate=11/04/03 -- "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL" Note The New address Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1 "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS" Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2 "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP" The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security. Subscribe to WFHSG: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
