this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Privacy
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WiFi is really no less secure than wired aside from being harder to keep people from having physical access, and since most home users don't use any kind of connectivity protection on wired ports it might even be seen as more secure.
Huh? You have to break into my house to get on my LAN and that’s the case for 99% of people. You don’t need to do that with wifi. There is no realm where wired is less secure than wifi.
Not necessarily. If you have an off the shelf home network, and you have a vulnerable device (smart toaster, smart light bulb, IP camera, unpatched laptop, old iPhone or Android version, unpatched router, etc.), wired or wireless doesn't make much of a difference. Once one device on your network is compromised, the entire network is compromised. I don't have to be near you to get that done. Shoot, I don't even have to be in the same country to get that done. I would say, due to the proximity rule, wifi is less secure since it takes less effort, but only in terms of that one rule.
E: added a couple more examples of common vulnerable devices.
That's the point of mentioning the physical access. Yes it's easier to get at 'physically' in that it allows you to reach it through walls, but, if physical access WAS obtained what protections do you have in place for a lan jack? It's possible to use 802.1x auth or such but for most home users it's just a case of plug in a cable and you're part of the network.
Again someone is going to have to break into your house to accomplish this. You have much bigger problems if that happens.
The more realistic approach would be people sitting outside of your house trying to brute force your wireless password, which only works on networks with default or weak passwords.
The odds of someone breaking into your house to use your net are virtually zero. On the other hand people sitting in their cars to high jack wireless happen all the time. Anyone can do it they just need to be in proximity to your house and you’ll never know it’s happening.
https://shop.hak5.org/products/lan-turtle
Assume physical access, someone walks in and has 5 minutes out of sight. A decent wpa2 password would take an extraordinary long time to brute force. Something like above gets deployed and allows remote access in seconds on an unprotected lan. As noted in another comment sketchy IOT gear is a threat people install willingly. The old test of leaving a loaded USB in the parking lot catches more people than is reasonable. Don't assume a physical door is going to stop someone more than a proper technical barrier.