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by soraminazuki 896 days ago
That's the wrong question to ask. Instead, we should be asking ourselves, why is it after all these years that we still don't have secure and easy to use multi-account WiFi networks with per-account configurable security policies in our homes? It's the current state of things that's unhealthy, not the people demanding better.

Security measures should be evaluated based on their own merits, not by appealing to friendship or any other relationships. We can lock our front doors and have a healthy relationship with our neighbors! These two things aren't mutually exclusive. Though I will add that trusting government authorities not to routinely abuse their powers is a hard ask given their track record all across the globe, even in democratic countries.

WiFi is ubiquitous and is used to exchange sensitive information 24/7. Its compromise can result in financial, reputational, or even physical risk. Considering that raw signals can be intercepted outside of our homes, devices on the network should at the very least be mutually authenticated and their connections encrypted.

Also, let's not forget about the devices too. Say you trust the people you let into your home. Can you also trust their devices and the software that runs on it? Do you trust your work laptop and its "security" software to respect your privacy? Do you even fully trust your own devices? Do you have faith in current commercial hardware and software to respect boundaries, or even comprehend the concept of user ownership? Because the answer to all these questions increasingly sounds like a "no."

1 comments

> we should be asking ourselves, why is it after all these years that we still don't have secure and easy to use multi-account WiFi network

But that’s exactly what we do have! Any old router/AP combo you buy at the store or get from your ISP will let you set up a normal network and an isolated Guest network. All with a nice UI/UX that involves checking one box and choosing a password. Considering WPA3 to be insecure is just not rational or based in reality. Exploits against it are really complicated and just don’t happen all that much.

I don’t have to trust all the junk IOT devices that end up in my house because I just throw them on the guest network and call it a day. Nothing bad is going to happen to me as a result of this practice.

When I wrote "multi-account WiFi networks with per-account configurable security policies," I meant WPA Enterprise style networks. Having 2 SSIDs and 2 passwords is a horribly insufficient setup which doesn't fit my description. That feels just as secure as running a Tor exit node right in my home, since there's no separation in the primary network and the password is bound to leak the more you share it to people.