Re: Wlan @ bestbuy is cleartext?

[Art Stine <art.stine () mindspring com>]

> How many corporate networks have dumped Outlook so far?

probably very few...

> It's *quite* possible that at least some of these IT staffers did
> the calculation: "Hmm... if we deploy this, we can expect $2M/year in
> writeoffs due to guys out in the parking lot with pringle-can yagis, but
> we'll save $4M/year, so we'll be ahead anyhow..."  It's all trade-offs,
> and nothing news to the big corporations - I'm *positive* that the master
> financial plan for Best Buy already has a line item for "write off 2.3%
> of all credit card transactions" and that such write-offs are a standard
> part of doing business.  They may decide that it's easier and cheaper to
> just raise their write-off margin to 2.7% rather than fix the problem....

Nah, the IT staffers don't make those calculations - the beancounters do 
when the IT
folks come to them to ask for money to change things... they do the math and
risk calculations and say "Nah, leave it as it is... lemme know if we get 
hacked
and how much we lost - oh, and don't tell anyone else I told you this - 
I'll deny it"

> And factor *THIS* into the equation - let's say that Very Large Chain
> Q-Mart decides to run wireless without any security.  Perhaps they had
> a *reason*.  Like - if any security is disabled, you can deploy devices
> that can hop onto the net without any assistance - so it's safe to give
> these handheld scanners/etc to a $7/hour functional illiterate.  On the
> other hand, if security is enabled, it's quite possible for the device
> to get confused and be unable to talk.  This not only means that you've
> just idled the $7/hour worker until it's fixed, it means you need to find
> an actual *literate* and *competent* person, who's probably costing you
> a lot MORE than $7/hour, to unsnarl the mess and figure out what happened.

Again, its a balance of $$ vs risk... most store mgt doesn't understand
the risk, but they do understand $$...

-art