Open Wireless Movement: In the age of mass surveillance, we have learned everything or almost everything about protecting and encrypting our communications and networks. When it comes to private Wi-Fi networks, you have read from time to time that it is recommended to use a strong password along with strong encryption on your routers, to ensure privacy, communication and to safeguard your personal data while browsing websites.
But let's take another look at theOpen Wireless Movement It may sound scary, but think about it. A group of activists says that opening up your home Wi-Fi could not only enhance your privacy, but actually increase it.
A new movement called the “Open Wireless Movement” is encouraging users to open up their private networks, or at least a small portion of their available bandwidth, to outsiders. It sounds really annoying! Doesn’t it?
This way, any stranger can consume a large portion of your network bandwidth or use your network to perform various illegal activities. The profit seems to go only to cyber-scammers who are looking for open networks. But is that so?
“The Open Wireless Movement is a coalition of Internet freedom advocates, businesses, organizations, and technologists working to develop new wireless technologies to inspire a movement for Internet transparency,” the Open Wireless Movement website states.
"Our goal is to create technologies that will make it easy for Internet users to access wireless networks provided by their owners, while maintaining security, protecting their privacy, and maintaining the quality of access."
The website OpenWireless.org explains the initiative of the movement, which is made up of non-profit organizations and internet rights organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Free Press, Mozilla, and Fight for the Future, among others.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is working on such a technology, plans to release a free, open-source router firmware, called “Open Wireless Router,” at the Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference in New York next month. This firmware will let you share a portion of your Wi-Fi with anyone nearby, without requiring a password.
The Open Wireless Router firmware will help the public gain access to a small predetermined bandwidth of your network and in this way, you will be able to allow someone nearby or passersby to see their emails, make voice calls from your private Wi-Fi, while you will be able to block the download of multi-gigabyte files.
This particular idea, although it sounds scary, seems to be the solution to anonymity on the Internet if of course the EFF router secures the owner. This particular idea could bring about a bad browsing experience. To this end, the EFF states that the Open Wireless Router firmware uses a smart technology designed by respecting the owner's priorities. This means that the owner of the private Wi-Fi network will be at the top of the priorities compared to others.
The EFF also states that in the event that someone misuses the IP address for illegal activities or cyberattacks, there will be no legal problem, since the router will allow free access.
Source: secnews.gr
