Insecure Wireless and University Public Safety
Search Security has an interesting article highlighting some of the challenges of rolling out secure wireless within the University of New Hampshire. The article also highlighted an interesting point on the public safety implications:
“We thought about the students instant-messaging back and forth on where to meet and at what time,” said Green, network manager for the UNH telecom department. “You don’t want the bad guys to intercept those IM transmissions and know where those students are.” They realized wireless security is also an extension of public safety — a way to protect students from predators.
My initial reaction was this seemed alarmist but then I thought about the massive concentration of young students, most of whom embrace IM and its variants. They’ll also be congregating in key areas of campus. The benefit to a predator of sniffing this traffic probably exceeds what they’d glean from your average Starbucks hotspot.