Wireless hitchhiking
Wireless hitchhiker arrested
Hitchhiking was the only way I could think to describe this. It's generally called war driving by the people who do it regularly. You drive around a neighborhood with a wireless network equipped laptop and use any unsecured networks you come across.
As a network admin and security guy, I used to think this was totally bad juju, akin to using your neighbors faucet to water your lawn. Well, real life has a way of intruding on our lofty ideals. When I in Washington, the hotel wanted $1 a minute or something like that for Internet access. However, when I turned on the wireless equipped laptop I brought from work, I found some wireless access points within range. I must admit I found the temptation too much to resist given the outrageous rate the hotel was charging. I hitched a ride on the free wireless train every morning to check my email and while I felt a little guilty, it certainly didn't stop me.
Personally, I don't see much difference in what I did and what this guy did. Maybe he was using it to send spam or something, who knows but the end result was the same, we "stole" someone else's bandwidth.
Hopefully, we'll get some clear laws on this soon. I'm not holding my breath though.
Hitchhiking was the only way I could think to describe this. It's generally called war driving by the people who do it regularly. You drive around a neighborhood with a wireless network equipped laptop and use any unsecured networks you come across.
As a network admin and security guy, I used to think this was totally bad juju, akin to using your neighbors faucet to water your lawn. Well, real life has a way of intruding on our lofty ideals. When I in Washington, the hotel wanted $1 a minute or something like that for Internet access. However, when I turned on the wireless equipped laptop I brought from work, I found some wireless access points within range. I must admit I found the temptation too much to resist given the outrageous rate the hotel was charging. I hitched a ride on the free wireless train every morning to check my email and while I felt a little guilty, it certainly didn't stop me.
Personally, I don't see much difference in what I did and what this guy did. Maybe he was using it to send spam or something, who knows but the end result was the same, we "stole" someone else's bandwidth.
Hopefully, we'll get some clear laws on this soon. I'm not holding my breath though.
posted by Big Ed at 10:18 AM
2 Comments:
Well, it goes back to the old argument that just because you don't lock your door, it doesn't mean that anyone can walk in and take a nap in your bed.
I agree that basic security is in everyone's best interest but does an open access point mean "Come and get it"?
If I had a wireless router in my house, you can bet that sucker would be locked down tighter than a drum. There are a few reasons for that but probably the biggest reason is that people are stupid. Someone connects to my home network and happens to have a virus on their pc, what happens to my pc if it's protections are not 100%? Since I use my pc for work, guess what happens to my office if my home pc happens to get infected. Nothing connects to my network but me, period.
Hear me now and believe me later, life is much simpler that way.
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