Do you use your neightbours Wireless???????Read This

PowerHouseDan

A man was last week fined £500 after a British jury found him guilty of using a neighborhood wireless broadband connection without permission. Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, was also sentenced to a 12 months conditional discharge after he was convicted of dishonestly obtaining an communications service and related offences at London's Islewoth Crown Court last Wednesday (20 July).

The case - brought under the Communications Act 2003 - is the first "war driving" prosecution in the UK, according the police. Officers caught Straszkiewicz hunting for "free" net connections in a residential area after complaints from locals. Straszkiewicz deliberately set out to borrow bandwidth from his unwitting benefactors but there's no evidence he had any hostile motive beyond this - so his sentence seems harsh. It's unclear whether anyone who accidentally jumped onto another party's net connection (easy to do if a host is using an unsecured connection with no encryption) might also risk prosecution. ®

CuLT

And to think I only lost my wardriving virginity at the weekend...

Yes, I know that's a somewhat disturbing way to phrase it.

beller b

What if your PC/laptop is set to automatically connect to any unsecured network in range.? Could you plead ignorance & say it's the owners responsibility to secure thier own network? & you thought you were using a free hotspot..

StonedParadoX

that still aint gonna stop me when i get my laptop in august

found a unsecure lines in the estate below me and where i work

rymus

ah the curse of having tech savvy neighbours... If people run unsecured networks, they deserve to have their bandwidth 'borrowed'. It's a crime of stupidity.

beller b

If they left thier front door open & a note saying wont be back till tomorrow , they would still me amazed that thier TV,DVD & stereo were gone when they got home....

muckwarrior

Heh, that reminds me, girls in my apartment block had an unsecured wireless network and a shared printer. Oh the fun!

beller b

That could really wreck a lads head,,LOL

CiaranC

ah the curse of having tech savvy neighbours... If people run unsecured networks, they deserve to have their bandwidth 'borrowed'. It's a crime of stupidity.

I dont mind if my neighbours use my WLAN, as long as they dont take the piss. Crime of stupidity, indeed. :rolleyes:

KTRIC

CiaranC wrote:

I dont mind if my neighbours use my WLAN, as long as they dont take the piss. Crime of stupidity, indeed. :rolleyes:

Where do you live ??

Laguna

I wouldn't hijack someone elses wireless out of decency. I think if someone has indeed set up an unsecure wireless network, they're obviously not too tech savvy and should be given a break, not exploited. If I found a wireless network in my area that was unsecure, i'd knock on my neighbours doors and ask them if it was them to inform them what was going on. The friendly irish?

RicardoSmith

Laguna wrote:

I wouldn't hijack someone elses wireless out of decency. I think if someone has indeed set up an unsecure wireless network, they're obviously not too tech savvy and should be given a break, not exploited. If I found a wireless network in my area that was unsecure, i'd knock on my neighbours doors and ask them if it was them to inform them what was going on. The friendly irish?

How do you find where its coming from?

thund3rbird_

seeing as most of the DSL modems that ISPs are giving out now have wireless capabilities how many of you have them?

also did your ISP give any help with switching on WEP / WPA?

for ISPs that charge for going over the cap it's ideal for them, especially if the person piggybacking on the wireless is a w@rez monkey
they would make a fortune.

I've often found unsecure wireless networks & have informed the 'owners' who hadn't a clue what I was talking about until I explained it to them.

It's amazing how many people are totally lacking in security knowledge regarding PCs.

While using an unsecured wireless network for internet access is bad how many people buy desktops / notebooks with built-in wireless and have their personal files accessed by some unscrupulous neighbour?

:eek:

JackKelly

muckwarrior wrote:

Heh, that reminds me, girls in my apartment block had an unsecured wireless network and a shared printer. Oh the fun!

LMAO. Thats hilarious. One of the perks of apartment blocks.

optiplexgx270

Unsecured wireless network here not by my choice, my dvd player just doesn't play ball with WEP enabled even though it supports it, but i do filter by mac address and hey if any of my neighbours are able to spoof one of my macs they deserve some of my bandwidth

robinph

rymus wrote:

ah the curse of having tech savvy neighbours... If people run unsecured networks, they deserve to have their bandwidth 'borrowed'. It's a crime of stupidity.

But how did they catch him if they are not tech savvy enough to have secured their network in the first place. It didn't sound like he was doing anything else illegal on their networks to have caught the authorities attention or they would have charged him with that as well.

Laguna wrote:

I wouldn't hijack someone elses wireless out of decency. I think if someone has indeed set up an unsecure wireless network, they're obviously not too tech savvy and should be given a break, not exploited. If I found a wireless network in my area that was unsecure, i'd knock on my neighbours doors and ask them if it was them to inform them what was going on. The friendly irish?

Whenever I go back to the parents there always seems to be another open network appeared nearby. So by a combination of seeing which direction the signal is strongest in, and my parents having some idea of who has pc's in that direction, I can usually manage to earn myself a bottle of alcohol of some kind for then going round and fixing the networks for them.

Drexl Spivey

beller b wrote:

If they left thier front door open & a note saying wont be back till tomorrow , they would still me amazed that thier TV,DVD & stereo were gone when they got home....

ISPs don't make it easy for novice users. They so want to sell the "engineer" install.

A simple QuickStart/User Guide on how to make your home network secure would solve this problem.

And as per the door left open ... I still wouldn't get in But yeah I wouldn't be surprised if the tv's gone.

Reku

muckwarrior wrote:

Heh, that reminds me, girls in my apartment block had an unsecured wireless network and a shared printer. Oh the fun!

Imagine all the freaky things you could print out in front of them!

Drapper

Guys I drove down Baggott street a few months back and there are 5 open wireless routers belonging to some companies in the area!

Strange how there are so many without passwords!¬

also in my neighbourhood I've picked up 3 further networks with my 108 card !

I think it should be the responsiblity of the router owner to password!!

kinda stupid to think nobody would have a snoop!

(btw some pepole have shared files on thier wireless network too!! crazy sheeite1!)

zuma

Drapper wrote:

Guys I drove down Baggott street a few months back and there are 5 open wireless routers belonging to some companies in the area!

Strange how there are so many without passwords!¬

also in my neighbourhood I've picked up 3 further networks with my 108 card !

I think it should be the responsiblity of the router owner to password!!

kinda stupid to think nobody would have a snoop!

(btw some pepole have shared files on thier wireless network too!! crazy sheeite1!)

Its rather silly that they know enough about sharing files&printers but not have the ability to pass protect their wireless network!!!

seamus

Drapper wrote:

I think it should be the responsiblity of the router owner to password!!

If someone leaves their front door open, that doesn't entitle you to walk in and eat food from their fridge. Sure, the owner shouldn't be shocked when it happens, but you can still be prosecuted.

By default, XP does connect to networks without prompting, but that's no defence. In that case, your ignorance of technology is just as at fault/as bad as your neighbour's.

Couch Potato

The other thing that people do is not change the default password on the wireless router.

So once you gain access - you can re-configure the router as well !!!

Seen this with 2 neighbours routers - after quick chat sorted them out.

I do agree that people just do not realise/understand what they need to do.

Zapho

Still though, lets say you pick up a free hot spot and you're using that, then suddenly that goes down, and your machine reconnects to some neighbouring network and you don't realise it, you can be prosecuted?
No, connecting to a wireless network and walking into someones unlocked house are not the same thing, and should not be treated the same way. If some doesn't know how to secure a network then they shouldn't have a network running at all. If the wardriver doesn't do anything malicious while connected I don't think they should be prosecuted if they are caught.

seamus

Zapho wrote:

Still though, lets say you pick up a free hot spot and you're using that, then suddenly that goes down, and your machine reconnects to some neighbouring network and you don't realise it, you can be prosecuted?

Well, yeah. As it's your own technological ignorance/lack of care that causes your machine to automatically reconnect to an unwanted network. If you configure your machine correctly, it should simply notify you of the loss of connection and continue to search for a known network and not just connect to any old network.

No, connecting to a wireless network and walking into someones unlocked house are not the same thing, and should not be treated the same way.

I was actually countering some people's point that

If they left thier front door open & a note saying wont be back till tomorrow , they would still me amazed that thier TV,DVD & stereo were gone when they got home....

If some doesn't know how to secure a network then they shouldn't have a network running at all. If the wardriver doesn't do anything malicious while connected I don't think they should be prosecuted if they are caught.

Ultimately what you are doing is stealing bandwidth. Regardless of there being "no harm done", they are actively, and knowingly using a service that they haven't paid for, without permission. What if someone was dumping their rubbish in your wheelie bin, and you had to pay for their rubbish as well as yours? Same thing. The fact that broadband is generally subscription matters not.

jhegarty

seamus wrote:

If someone leaves their front door open, that doesn't entitle you to walk in and eat food from their fridge. Sure, the owner shouldn't be shocked when it happens, but you can still be prosecuted.

By default, XP does connect to networks without prompting, but that's no defence. In that case, your ignorance of technology is just as at fault/as bad as your neighbour's.

as I understand WIFI the router transmits the SSID invitation to connect... so its more like the door is open a sign saying free "food in here , come and get it" and then giving out then someone does...

seamus

jhegarty wrote:

as I understand WIFI the router transmits the SSID invitation to connect... so its more like the door is open a sign saying free "food in here , come and get it" and then giving out then someone does...

The router doesn't have to transmit SSID. Transmitting the SSID is no more inviting someone in, than having the number of your house displayed outside your door.

Zapho

seamus wrote:

I was actually countering some people's point that Ultimately what you are doing is stealing bandwidth. Regardless of there being "no harm done", they are actively, and knowingly using a service that they haven't paid for, without permission. What if someone was dumping their rubbish in your wheelie bin, and you had to pay for their rubbish as well as yours? Same thing. The fact that broadband is generally subscription matters not.

Yeah I see what you're saying. It just seems like a relatively harse punishment for something that the guy probably didn't even realise he could end up in court for.

seamus

Zapho wrote:

Yeah I see what you're saying. It just seems like a relatively harse punishment for something that the guy probably didn't even realise he could end up in court for.

I dunno, £500 isn't that much at all. Also, with a conditional discharge, as soon as he has complied with the conditions of the discharge, the conviction is wiped from the record. So he won't have to declare in future that he has a conviction for theft/cybercrime etc. Particularly if he's in the IT industry, I think was very reasonable of the judge to impose something that won't hurt his career in the long run.

Scruff

this reminds me. i must turn of SSID broadcast on my router.:o have WEP enabled though...

robinph

jhegarty wrote:

as I understand WIFI the router transmits the SSID invitation to connect... so its more like the door is open a sign saying free "food in here , come and get it" and then giving out then someone does...

I think it might actually be more like having your front door closed, but you have left your possesions out on the street with a sign on them saying "this is mine" and then being upset when someone picks it up and walks off with them.

You have not asked anyone to take your stuff, but you have left them available and in the open for everyone to see.

Drapper

robinph wrote:

I think it might actually be more like having your front door closed, but you have left your possesions out on the street with a sign on them saying "this is mine" and then being upset when someone picks it up and walks off with them.

You have not asked anyone to take your stuff, but you have left them available and in the open for everyone to see.

lol my sentiments too!!

seamus

robinph wrote:

I think it might actually be more like having your front door closed, but you have left your possesions out on the street with a sign on them saying "this is mine" and then being upset when someone picks it up and walks off with them.

But that still doesn't mean that it's not theft if you take the item!

jhegarty

robinph wrote:

I think it might actually be more like having your front door closed, but you have left your possesions out on the street with a sign on them saying "this is mine" and then being upset when someone picks it up and walks off with them.

You have not asked anyone to take your stuff, but you have left them available and in the open for everyone to see.

good point , a bit nearer... but let try this...


like having your front door closed, but you have left your possesions out on the street with a sign on them saying "this is mine" and then being upset when someone picks it up and uses it for a while , then puts it back

Couch Potato

Scruff wrote:

this reminds me. i must turn of SSID broadcast on my router.:o have WEP enabled though...

WEP is not very strong and there are programs around to crack the code - use WPA if possible.

robinph

seamus wrote:

But that still doesn't mean that it's not theft if you take the item!

What other personal possesions can you leave out on the street in the open and expect to be able to charge someone with theft for if they walk off with it, apart from cars. If you left your ipod lying in the street and then someone walked off with it I dont think you would get much joy in trying to get the police to go chasing after them to charge them with anything. You'd just be told that you are an idiot and dont do it again.

Although it would still technically be theft of course.

seamus

robinph wrote:

Although it would still technically be theft of course.

Yes, it would. And if you left it in the street, went after them, and they refused to give it back, then it's theft, and the Gardai would follow up on it. They'd probably call you an idiot too. But it still doesn't change the fact that legally it's stealing. If you get caught, you will be charged. If you find €1000 in the street and keep it (without reporting it to the Gardai), you can be charged.

There is absolutely no way to justify wardriving as being legally "OK". It's theft. Like students who steal toilet paper out of the toilets in their college. Nobody really notices, and in theory nobody is hurt by it, but if they're caught, they still deserve to be expelled.

sharingan

optiplexgx270 wrote:

Unsecured wireless network here not by my choice, my dvd player just doesn't play ball with WEP enabled even though it supports it, but i do filter by mac address and hey if any of my neighbours are able to spoof one of my macs they deserve some of my bandwidth

The simplest solutions are often the best. WHile on a technical level MAC-filtering is not very good security, on a practical level it is - it is easy to accomplish and makes you considerably more secure than your neighbours.

This is an interesting case - its actually pretty hard to determine exactly what he did on-line. However it is important that B/W leeching is the least of your worries when someone connects into your WLAN.

Its quite worrying that someone can conduct internet crime through your WLAN, and do it without any risk of capture, as it is *YOUR* address that any crimes will be traced to. This is something that existing and wannabe net criminal are much more aware of. Which is easier to do - secure your home LAN, or defend yourself in court when faced with charges of hacking or trafficking in child porn?

Do your neighbours a favour, leave them a note on a shared drive, or shared printer or send a windows message notifying them of this (for obvious reasons don't identify yourself in any way). If they ignore it after that, well you have done your good samaritan bit.