[174960] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Marriott wifi blocking
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (William Herrin)
Mon Oct 6 16:20:23 2014
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
X-Really-To: <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <166552F8-CAF0-497F-8F68-DB5046B548CB@bloomcounty.org>
From: William Herrin <bill@herrin.us>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 16:16:08 -0400
To: Clay Fiske <clay@bloomcounty.org>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 3:56 PM, Clay Fiske <clay@bloomcounty.org> wrote:
> On Oct 6, 2014, at 12:07 PM, William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> wrote:
>> If the microwave oven in the adjoining room makes 2.4ghz unusable I'm
>> out of luck. If Marriott sends deauth packets (or any other
>> unsolicited packets) under my SSID, they're hacking my computer and
>> that's generally understood to be unlawful.
>
> Again, to be clear, I=E2=80=99m not defending Marriott or their actions.
>
> I wouldn=E2=80=99t dispute your statements, but if the FCC set the
>tone as indicated by Owen then it sounds like it may not
> be that simple.
Hi Clay,
It isn't that simple. Marriott offended against multiple laws and
regulations in multiple jurisdictions.
The FCC's concern is use of the spectrum. This they addressed --
intentionally preventing others' use of the spectrum gets you spanked.
Many states also have computer hacking laws where intentionally
sending falsified data packets to a computer with the purpose of
causing it to malfunction is either a tort or a crime. The FCC did not
speak to that issue as it's out of their jurisdiction.
We've discussed this on the list before: you don't get to
counterattack a network you think is attacking you. It isn't lawful.
Marriott should be grateful. They're lucky they only got slapped by
the FCC. Had politicos been present they could have found themselves
facing criminal charges.
Regards,
Bill Herrin
--=20
William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us
Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
May I solve your unusual networking challenges?
