"So you walk down Main Street and find 200 open access points, but how do you know who the culprits are?" he said. "And are you going to arrest the coffee shop owner for not having secure Wi-Fi connections?" he said.

"I think it's a good thing that they are considering wireless ID theft issues," Jacquith said. But instead of legislation that is likely to be unenforceable, it would have been more effective to do a publicity campaign warning consumers of wireless threats, he said.

"I think outreach campaigns and education that is designed to get people to do the right thing is probably more preferable to legislation," he said.