No, wireless ethernet is insecure by default. Any user on the Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) can spy on unencrypted traffic from other wireless users. Wired connections on Columbia's campus are generally more secure when communicating with other Columbia servers, however when connecting to sites off-campus, only encrypted connections are secure. Users are advised to use Kerberos authentication, or SSL to connect to web pages and mail hosts, and SSH instead of telnet whenever possible.

Columbia email supports SSL on the IMAP server for incoming mail. We require SSL on the SMTP server for outgoing mail. Cunix supports both Kerberos and SSH connections. For SSH, Columbia recommends using PuTTY.

You may see literature saying that the 802.11b standard includes provisions for optional 40- or 128-bit link-level encryption over the air; however, current implementations require the encryption key to be shared by all users of the wireless LAN, effectively eliminating the usefulness of this security feature in an open campus environment.