The war against 802.11 hotspots, which I predicted last week, has already begun.

I don't expect free access to survive it.

The fact is that a hotspot without registration allows hackers to insert viruses undetected, allows criminals to hack into databases undetected, and allows spammers to spam undetected.

The New York Times had a feature this weekend , picked up by the Financial Express, alleging half the crooks caught in a recent sweep dubbed Operation Firewall were using public hotspots.

A recent piece from the Medill News Service (my j-school alma mater), picked up by PC Advisor, suggested that people should never conduct personal business through a hotspot, for fear it is actually an "evil twin" set up by a hacker to grab passwords from the unwary. An IBM spokesman also detailed this scam for Newsfactor.

Here are the facts:

• Any anonymous Internet access point is an invitation to criminals.
• Free hotspots, when not affiliated through something like a FreeNet, are not providing cached logs that can be checked for criminal behavior.
• The growing access to ISP logs given law enforcement is pushing criminals into looking for other methods of accessing the Internet.
• Any costs, beyond that for equipment and backhaul, laid on a free hotspot provide will cause that provider to shut down.

As cities gear up to cover large amounts of territory with 802.11 service, they need to take on the costs of being ISPs, or they're going to be badly burned.

This story has just begun. Pass me your intelligence on it so I can improve our coverage.