Corporate Mission: Protect Home WLANs

Protecting home wireless networks doesn’t seem like it would be a big concern for corporations. But it is, for both direct and indirect reasons.

The direct reason is simple: A lot of businesses — through both telecommuters and small offices/home offices (SOHO) — use home Wi-Fis. On the telecommuter side, PCs usually are linked in some way to corporate databases, so an insecure home network potentially provides a free pass through a company’s firewall.

Indirectly, insecure consumer networks and equipment are “attack vectors,” which is the jargony name security folks use to describe vulnerable spots that invite bad guys. Even more indirectly, insecure consumer networks generally degrade the Internet, which is a bad thing for every honest company using it to advance its business.

There are two initiatives mentioned in this Wi-Fi Planet piece. In California, Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed into law legislation that in a year will require home networking gear to carry warnings about the dangers of insecure access. The piece also discusses an initiative by the Wi-Fi Alliance to make it easier for customers to turn their security on.