Cisco to Purchase OpenDNS & Windows 10 Can Share Wifi Passwords

   I bring some interesting news today as it concerns the security conscious.  The first story is that Cisco is planning to buy OpenDNS!  From a blog post by Cisco themselves, Hilton Romanski who is Cisco's Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development, discusses Cisco's drive to offer more and better protection for business in the form of OpenDNS' "broad visibility and predictive threat intelligence".  It's crazy how all these larger companies like Microsoft, Google and Cisco are buying up all these smaller companies, but from a podcast I heard not too long ago, it makes a lot of business sense.

   All these mega corporations are so large, that it makes innovation much more difficult and expensive.  The CEO of the bank I work at says the same.  At the bank, we're a small enough company that we can go after opportunities that larger corporations can't get to because it's much more difficult for them.  Consider the analogy of a tug boat and an ocean liner, which one will turn faster?  These large companies keeps their eyes open for small companies that come up with a great idea, gobble them up and bring them in house so they can offer something new at a much cheaper cost than going after it themselves.  Alright, alright, enough business lessons for today. :)

WiFi Sense can connect to
open WiFi hotspots too!

   Today's second article is a new feature in Windows 10 called Wi-Fi Sense.  So what's this about Windows 10 sharing WiFi passwords?  According to the page describing it's features, it is able to let "you exchange password-protected Wi-Fi network access with your contacts to give and get Internet access without seeing each other's Wi-Fi network passwords."  Let that sink in a bit on the implications of that.  While it makes it much easier to get your friends and family on your home WiFi, that password has to be stored somewhere, right?  While a WiFi password isn't the most sensitive piece of information in the world, it's a good idea to consider if you want that floating around, as it's possible that someone you don't know could connect, if they are a friend of a friend of a friend.  I think I'll stuck with a guest WiFi network, thanks.

   What are your thoughts to these news articles?  Are you worried that Cisco will turn OpenDNS into a large scale pay option?  Do you plan to use the Wi-Fi Sense feature to make it easier for friends and family to torrent all the things?  Let us know in the comments below!

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About Jimmy R. Tassin

Jimmy Tassin is the IT Manager of Midwest Regional Bank and has been involved with the Technology field for over thirteen years. His two hobbies are overseeing the daily operations of OmniKraft, a Minecraft server community, and writing at Goblinbyte.com.