I think that because the area involved is so local, the FCC is optimistic unlicensed spectrum users can come to consensus on that matter, otherwise it's going to have to deal with it in the more explicit, costly, and user inconvenient manner that it has done so in the past with identifiers used over less locally constrained, longer wavelength frequencies.
I think optimism is warranted. If someone local to you is being a dick with your SSID, you use technical (protocol level) countermeasures to disrupt them. This has been standard practice for a decade. If the attacker uses those countermeasures against legitimate users, apparently the FCC is now willing to respond with financial countermeasures against the attacker if it can.
If there were somehow a situation where the FCC was technically unable to respond, like say the attacker had a swarm of invisible drones equipped with access points advertising your SSID, then it would be helpless. The only solution would be to wait for vendors to come together through the IEEE or IETF with a standard to thwart the evildoers. (Probably years)
And it may yet come to that. But for now, the FCC clearly represents, at least within the United States, that corporate evildoers cannot blatantly perpetrate denial of service attacks on public spectrum without fear of sanction.
Actually, that's a completely different issue.
I think that because the area involved is so local, the FCC is optimistic unlicensed spectrum users can come to consensus on that matter, otherwise it's going to have to deal with it in the more explicit, costly, and user inconvenient manner that it has done so in the past with identifiers used over less locally constrained, longer wavelength frequencies.
I think optimism is warranted. If someone local to you is being a dick with your SSID, you use technical (protocol level) countermeasures to disrupt them. This has been standard practice for a decade. If the attacker uses those countermeasures against legitimate users, apparently the FCC is now willing to respond with financial countermeasures against the attacker if it can.
If there were somehow a situation where the FCC was technically unable to respond, like say the attacker had a swarm of invisible drones equipped with access points advertising your SSID, then it would be helpless. The only solution would be to wait for vendors to come together through the IEEE or IETF with a standard to thwart the evildoers. (Probably years)
And it may yet come to that. But for now, the FCC clearly represents, at least within the United States, that corporate evildoers cannot blatantly perpetrate denial of service attacks on public spectrum without fear of sanction.