Thanks to Ernie for the pointer to this story, in which a former court security consultant in Harris County Texas has been indicted for compromising the court clerk's wireless network in a public demonstration in March of this year.  No files were lost, and the network has been shut down for now.

Like Ernie, I hate to see wireless get a bad name, especially in the courts.   The security issues will work themselves out.  I know that the problem confronting Harris County District Clerk Bacarisse is certainly shared by courts all over the country.  According to the story: "The county . . . had intended to use the wireless service to connect personal computers used by court clerks [because] the old courthouse can no longer sustain more computer lines."  (emphasis added.)  As security improves, courts will increasingly deploy wireless networks to connect disparate court units and old courthouses. 

What's interesting to me is that the "hacker" (who apparently conducted the demonstration with a county official and reporter present) was indicted the same week that President's Bush's top computer secuity advisor, John Clark, urged that independent users "have an obligation to find the vulnerabilities" in computer networks.   On the subject of wireless, Clark said: "Until we have a better, proven track record with the wireless (networks), we all should shut them off until the technology gets better."