VCs Investing In, If Not Using, WiFi Security

from the oops dept

Two big name (if slightly tarnished, these days) venture capital firms, August Capital and Benchmark, share a beautiful building together up on Sand Hill Road. It turns out that's not all their sharing, as some folks downstairs at August discovered that Benchmark's WiFi wireless network was open for them to use. From the article, it sounds pretty clear that at least someone from August poked around to see what they could access on Benchmark's network. Now, for personal situations, I think people should consider leaving their networks open - but in a corporate setting, it probably doesn't make sense. Also, even if August couldn't access Benchmark's servers they probably can still use a packetsniffer to figure out what people are doing on the network. Not surprisingly, August has recently decided it might be worth their while to invest in a couple wireless security companies. Of course, I still think most "WiFi security" companies are focusing on the wrong problem - trying to lock down the networks from outsiders - when the bigger issue (as a user) is making sure that others on the same access point aren't spying on what I'm doing.

Leave a Comment..