Schumer sounds off on secure Wi-Fi

You know you're in trouble when politicians start criticising you on technical stuff, and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator for New York, has torn a strip off Amazon and Yahoo for poor Wi-Fi security.

Schumer held his little press conference in a coffee shop and used the occasion to tell companies to move from HTTP to the more secure HTTPS settings.

"The number of people who use Wi-Fi to access the Internet in coffee shops, bookstores and beyond is growing by leaps and bounds, but these users are unaware that they are easy prey for hackers and identity thieves.

"It is scary how easy it is."

While Schumer has a point one has to wonder why he's making it now. The tech industry has been talking about this for ages and Google and Facebook have already switched over.

One possibility Schumer has in mind if the fate of the Republican Christopher Lee, a married congressman serving the 26th District of New York. Lee resigned after Gawker showed his response to a Craigslist personals ad, after first claiming his email had been hacked.