

Intel to offer ‘free’ Wi-Fi in its ultrabooks and tablets - tux1968
http://gigaom.com/mobile/intel-to-offer-free-wi-fi-in-its-ultrabooks-tablets/

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Cogito
Although I like this idea, I worry about the attack vectors that might open
up. If stealing session cookies doesn't even require a manual connection any
more, the reward rate for such an attack becomes much higher.

That being said, I don't think those concerns are an indication that this
technology is bad. It is an indication that security practices around free and
open WiFi networks needs to be improved.

It is likely that this technology will be available before we see any real
improvements to that sort of security, so hopefully the system would be easy
to configure/turn off and would use sensible defaults to ensure it minimises
risk.

EDIT: edited for clarity/grammar

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wmf
Really this is more like a feature to help you choose which AP to use when you
can see more than one open AP at a time. But it doesn't provide any APs that
aren't already open.

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Cieplak
First comment on article:

"Would this be hardware-based or software-based? As in, what if I put Linux on
my ultrabook, can I still avail of this feature?"

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shpoonj
Connects automatically when in range of any supported network even when device
is in sleep mode. What a wonderful way to needlessly drain your battery.

If your device is asleep during your commute, do you really expect it to have
any charge left after driving through downtown and connecting to two dozen
wifi networks?

Sounds like more Windows malware to me.

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replax
Worse than the battery life implications are the security implications. I do
not ever want to connect to some random, sniffed wifi network and have
automatically all my data pulled to my notebook.

However, as you will most certainly be able to disable that feature, I think
it is a great addition, since there seems to be no downside. If you do not
like it, do not install it :)

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dfxm12
But is it opt-in or opt-out? It is import to not introduce insecure defaults.

