Here's some fun: Congress wants YOU to maintain logs from your wireless router for two years!

[thewayne]

"While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said at a press conference on Thursday. "Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level."

Figures that it would be a Texan, not to mention that they would immediately start waving the "children" flag.

Now, I'm pretty smart when it comes to computers. And I know a lot about networking. But I have no idea how to set up a syslog server, much less how to interface it to my WiFi. And who is going to buy the computer that I'm going to have to dedicate to this task? And who is going to pay for the electricity that it will use? What happens if I back up the syslog computer and the backups are no good?

And are they going to send a piece of mail to every street address in the United States that says "if you have a wireless internet connection, you have to start doing this"?

A classic case of non-technical people trying to apply rules that cannot be easily implemented.

A comment on Slashdot had an excellent suggestion: write to your Congresscritters (the bill is in both the senate and house): "Ask your congerssperson if they know how to set up such a log without enlisting the help of an expert. Then ask them how a working-class family could ever afford to hire such help simply to use the Internet on their home laptops."

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/feds-propose-st.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10168114-38.html

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/20/131224

Comments

[deborak]

I'll just surf on my neighbor's unsecured wireless network. :D

[kylejcrb.livejournal.com]

Won't somebody think of THE CHILDRENS?!?!

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of thinking of the children.

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

I very much agree. I didn't have children so I wouldn't have to think about them.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

There are so many more things that are dangerous about being a kid. By focusing so much on protecting the "chilluns", they're further highlighting that people do not do a good job of raising them and teaching them to protect themselves.

*sigh*

Not only can your MAC address be spoofed or forged, you can employ software such as The Onion Router (TOR) which anonymizes your surfing (at some expense to speed) so there's absolutely no telling what people are doing. Plus, most consumer wireless router's logging is pathetic for the purposes they want to use it for.

[silveradept]

Is this the precursor to "Well, since none of you know how to do this without expert help and expense, we'll just do it for you and monitor you ourselves?"

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

I *have* children and every time someone says that I want to punch them.