Wireless goes private

3/13/08

By Ben Holbrook
Managing Editor

A change in Federal laws forced LSC to tighten security on their wireless network.

Eight months ago, a Federal law was changed in order to allow the government to monitor all network traffic. Initially, all educational institutions were asked to install new software, which would cost thousands of dollars, Mike Dente, head of IT, said.

The educational institutions lobbied against having to pay for new software and instead, they were simply required to limit the accessibility of their networks, Dente said. “Someone could drive into a parking lot and hop on the network,” Dente said. Now that authentication is required to access the network, it will slow people down who try to use the wireless network who don’t attend, or work at, LSC.

“Generally we don’t have a problem with people jumping on our wireless,” Dente said.

If LSC didn’t comply with the new guidelines on protecting the wireless network then it would be taken down.

The only problems encountered so far with the changes to the wireless network access are that many students deleted or simply skipped over the e-mail that had the new password, Dente said.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the fact that many students have wireless routers in their dorms that aren’t protected, which is in violation of the new federal law, Dente said. In order to deal with this, IT would conduct an audit either later this semester or in the fall and any routers that aren’t protected, IT would help to protect, Dente said.

“It’s not a problem as long as they [wireless routers] are secure,” Dente said.

Equipment is being put up that would allow for students to have wireless access in their dorms in which case, students with their own routers would be asked to remove them, Dente said. “I don’t want to have to take it [wireless routers] away,” Dente said.

It is a possibility that the password to access the wireless network would be changed in order to slow people down who aren’t part of the LSC community from using it, Dente said.