We definitely need some kind of mechanism to authenticate APs, right now we only have the SSID and MAC, both of which are trivial to spoof. There isn't even an

We definitely need some kind of mechanism to authenticate APs, right now we only have the SSID and MAC, both of which are trivial to spoof. There isn't even any collision detection, nothing stopping you from giving your AP the same SSID as an already present AP, and clients will helpfully connect to whichever one has the strongest signal, which is probably going to be the rogue AP right next to you, rather than the actual Starbucks AP at the other end of the store. According to 802.11, APs with identical names are considered to be part of the same network, no questions asked. I consider it a fundamental flaw of wifi, alongside the boneheadedness of WEP ("wired equivalent protection"... Yeah right, pull the other one), and the idiotic layout of channels in the 2.4GHz spectrum. The only way to use wifi as a consumer is with WPA2 (AES only, no TKIP) a randomly generated strong passkey, and all smart features turned way off (security holes such as WPS). For any AP that you haven't personally set up and vetted, and especially open public APs, a VPN connection is absolutely mandatory. And I still wouldn't trust it 100%.