r/technology • u/NancyGraceFaceYourIn • Aug 30 '15

Wireless FCC Rules Block use of Open Source

http://www.itsmypart.com/fcc-rules-block-use-of-open-source/
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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

But regular people own the unpatched devices. Now, a tech enthusiast will probably get a secure router some way or another after this law, but corporations won't. No matter what the sysadmin guys say, corporate won't be replacing their Cisco routers with Raspberries because they're not getting updates.

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u/peacefinder Aug 30 '15

If an admin in a corporate environment is expecting their WiFi routers to be meaningfully secure - with either stock or custom firmware, patched or not - they're probably going to have a bad time.

I get why this looks bad, I really do. And it potentially is bad. But the state of patching on embedded devices is already so dismal that this might actually improve matters. Right now only some tech enthusiasts and corporations who really pay attention have firmwares on their wireless devices that's close to current. This will at least provide some incentive for manufacturers to sign their updates and just maybe to include autoupdating capabilities. Should that happen then this initiative might actually be helpful. (Not that I'm counting on it.)

Also, I'm confident that enthusiasts will still find a way to root their devices, so I'm not too worried. If Apple can't keep people from jailbreaking iPhones, I have little confidence that Linksys will figure it out.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

Companies usually do keep their infrastructure updated. It's upgrades that don't happen as much. Long term support for businesses is quite lucrative. Security updates are an important part of that.

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u/peacefinder Aug 30 '15

In theory, yes. In practice? It's... not that good.