The IT industry is great at solving complex technical challenges, so why is it so difficult to get wireless security sorted out?

Wi-Fi networks have become a standard tool for most business people, readily available everywhere from home offices to airport lounges.

But while the technology works well, securing it is still way too difficult. Just do a scan from any inner-city location and you’re likely to find multiple networks completely open to anyone with an inclination to use them.

But it shouldn’t be this way. Why can’t Wi-Fi equipment vendors make their products secure out of the box? Rather than having the default on a new wireless router set as ‘open’, why can’t we have a simple-to-follow method for making it secure?

To be fair, many equipment vendors have tried in various ways. Some models have wizard interfaces that attempt to guide novice users through the required steps. But, in reality, they are rarely as simple to use as they should be.

Once you try to hook up multiple devices to a Wi-Fi network, the complex settings options band together to make it all too hard. It’s much simpler to turn it all off and leave things unprotected.

The result is that many networks are left wide open, waiting for curious snoopers to either steal bandwidth or, worse, gain access to private information.

Come on. Surely the industry can come up with standard ways to make plug-and-play wireless network routers easy to secure. It’s not rocket science, right?