Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Panel Examines Wi-Fi Liability Issues

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 15:37:16 -0500

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

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