nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Is it wrong to 'steal' wi-fi?

johnfitz12345

Well, what's your opinion on this/hacking into a neighbour's wifi?

Find more posts tagged with

thou shalt not covet

thy neighbour's wifi

Quick Links

Comments

cuppa

well if they leave it open ,fair game

johnfitz12345

cuppa wrote: »

well if they leave it open ,fair game

What if they, em, don't leave it open?!

SoupyNorman

Give a man a loaf of bread and feed him for a day, but give a man a fishing rod and....eh, he can.... make bread?

swingking

nope. I wonder do people change the password on that person's wifi connection so that no one else will try the same

Gary ITR

Anybody that steals wi-fi should be burned at the stake

seanybiker

johnfitz12345 wrote: »

What if they, em, don't leave it open?!

Their fault for giving you a challenge. Fairly small challenge but one none the less. Seriously i dont do it but wouldnt think twice if i needed to.

Xavi6

Is it wrong? Absolutely not.

No password/security = fair game

Holsten

I've tired to steal loads, all my neighbours have protected connections...

No fun.

Feelgood

Yes it is, hes not talking about 'open' wireless, hes talking about hacking the WEP key (very easily done).

I'm reporting you to the FBI as we speak. In fairness its kinda a big deal though, I know your probably just asking in terms of using someone elses broadband etc, but how would you like it knowing that a rougue person was on the same network as your PC and could possibly get access to some of your personal data?.

As the big fella said, do onto others as you would like done to you. Or some crap along those lines. In todays language don't be hacking into other peoples networks....

seanybiker

Holsten wrote: »

I've tired to steal loads, all my neighbours have protected connections...

No fun.

No such thing as protected

Feelgood

seanybiker wrote: »

No such thing as protected

Spoken like a true scourned man who just got some young one up the duff.

seanybiker

Feelgood wrote: »

Spoken like a true scourned man who just got some young one up the duff.

yeah that makes complete sense.
Ha ha any more words of
Wisdom for us.

lebby

If i knew how to scam other peoples wireless i would definitely be doing it.

Amalgam

If you decrypt a wep key to gain access you are committing an offence. Not sure what legislation covers it. Someone here explained that even using an 'open' router might be enough to be prosecuted.

seanybiker, you can get past WPA2 in time for tea then?

Amazing how fragile XP fully updated is though, I shouldn't hang around the Backtrack forums, or watch P5nz0R L333t videos on YouTube. [shuffles off to buy network cable]

Feelgood

Amalgam wrote: »

If you decrypt a wep key to gain access you are committing an offence. Not sure what legislation covers it. Someone here explained that even using an 'open' router might be enough to be prosecuted.

Thats right, your talking about the data protection act.

An extremely riviting read.

Amalgam

No, I think Watty brought it up, some telecommunications act thingy.

Laphroaig52

Xavi6 wrote: »

Is it wrong? Absolutely not.

No password/security = fair game

Why isn't it wrong? You are using bandwidth that you know somebody else is paying for.

Why do you think it isn't wrong?

If you saw a unlocked car in someone's driveway with the key in the ignition, would that be 'fair game' also?

Would it be 'Absolutely not' wrong to steal that car?
What if it was your car that was stolen? Would that be 'fair game' also?

Note that the question wasn't 'Is it easy?' or 'Can I easily get away it?' or 'Is the owner of the Wi-Fi stupid?'. The question is 'Is it wrong?'

4zn76tysfajdxp

Yes.

Overheal

If I leave my router open, it means im in a good mood. go ahead.

I think the telecomm law was to protect consumer ignorance about router secuity; but in reality, probably had a lot to do with internet providers not wanting neighbours to split one bill.

pickarooney

Flyer28 wrote: »

Why isn't it wrong? You are using bandwidth that you know somebody else is paying for.

Why do you think it isn't wrong?

If you saw a unlocked car in someone's driveway with the key in the ignition, would that be 'fair game' also?

Would it be 'Absolutely not' wrong to steal that car?
What if it was your car that was stolen? Would that be 'fair game' also?

Note that the question wasn't 'Is it easy?' or 'Can I easily get away it?' or 'Is the owner of the Wi-Fi stupid?'. The question is 'Is it wrong?'

It's more analogous to jumping on the back of a truck to hitch a lift.

Sam Vimes

pickarooney wrote: »

It's more analogous to jumping on the back of a truck to hitch a lift.

this is true. If you steal a car, the person you stole it from doesn't have a car anymore but if you 'steal' their internet they still have it and worst it's a bit slower and someone who's computer illiterate enough to leave their router open most likely wouldn't even notice that. A victimless crime

Run_to_da_hills

If you just used someones Wifi for browsing I couldn't see a problem as I believe its up to the owner to secure it. However if you deliberately reset your IP address to avoid detection and started to download illegal material, child xxx etc it would be a different story.

Hacking someones wep key is a serious offense. If I'm in the city I would set my PC to log automatically into the strongest unsecured signal. I was once told off by security at the Ilac Ctr not to be using the Wifi at the library.

Lemming

Sam Vimes wrote: »

this is true. If you steal a car, the person you stole it from doesn't have a car anymore but if you 'steal' their internet they still have it and worst it's a bit slower and someone who's computer illiterate enough to leave their router open most likely wouldn't even notice that. A victimless crime

You can still be prosecuted for the digital equivalent of "trespassing". It's no different to someone leaving the door to their house open. If you set foot inside, even to just "look around", you're trespassing and can be done for it. The digital equivalent is no different (albeit very foolish), be it an unsecured system or a wifi router.

Xavi6

Flyer28 wrote: »

Why isn't it wrong? You are using bandwidth that you know somebody else is paying for.

Why do you think it isn't wrong?

If you saw a unlocked car in someone's driveway with the key in the ignition, would that be 'fair game' also?

Would it be 'Absolutely not' wrong to steal that car?
What if it was your car that was stolen? Would that be 'fair game' also?

Note that the question wasn't 'Is it easy?' or 'Can I easily get away it?' or 'Is the owner of the Wi-Fi stupid?'. The question is 'Is it wrong?'

Stealing a car means the person doesn't have it anymore. If you steal wifi the person still has it, you're just availing of it.

Bad analogy I'm afraid.

Run_to_da_hills

Xavi6 wrote: »

Stealing a car means the person doesn't have it anymore. If you steal wifi the person still has it, you're just availing of it.

Bad analogy I'm afraid.

Not necessarly true. If the person has a 10 Gig cap and you steal 4 gigs of it. He is hit with the excessive charges if he goes over that limit.

Xavi6

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Not necessarly true. If the person has a 10 Gig cap and you steal 4 gigs of it. He is hit with the excessive charges if he goes over that limit.

A valid point.

Ah well. I'm not gonna say it's a bad thing as I've done it and don't want to be a hypocrite.

/shrug

Feelgood

Yeah but where do you draw the line?, basically what most people in this thread are saying is that yeah its alright to steal or use something that
doesn't belong to you.

Just because its Wifi doesn't make it any less ok to do, its still an stealing an item which is not owned or paid for by you so analogies don't really apply at all. stealing is stealing, period.

If its ok to steal your neighbors stuff, then why not run a pipe from his heating tank to heat your own house?. Actually why not go the whole hog and just take a dump in his jacks whenever you feel like it.

At the end of the day, if you figured out that someone was jockeying off your Wifi I guarantee it would not be as simple as as sure fook it, its only my broadband connection.

Run_to_da_hills

You can look it another way, your neighbours are invading your airspace. I used to have a laptop that would latch on to the strongest signal by boot up default often over riding my own, I would ld say nothing. I had other neighbours that copped on quite quickly and put a block on it,

BaconZombie

Technically you only have to intercept the signal so even having your wireless enable is breaking the law in Ireland.

Also 2.4Ghz can be "intercepted" with all of random objects: forks, woks, wire, cans, microwave ovens, etc.
This is all coved under the wire-tapping laws and Unauthorised accessing of data.

Berty

Using a WEP algorithim is a different story. In the wrong hands you could steal information from their PC and anything else on the LAN.

Its also not very nice as they are paying for the connection and you are feeding off their bandwith. None of my neighbours have wireless so just in case I have strong security settings just in case they try to piggyback on mine which is low enough anyway(living in the country).

I use hotels WIFI only because its a benefit they ofer. Right now Im waiting for the pharmacy to open using the WIFI off Moyross library. Its public library so public internet.