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Thread: Wireless broadband borrower brought to justice

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    Wireless broadband borrower brought to justice

    If you can call it that...
    Using somebody else's wireless network in this way could find you 'guilty of dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service', which is exactly the pickle that Straszkiewicz has got himself into. This conviction is likely to raise eyebrows in the computing community, given the seeming innocence of the deed done here.
    http://www.hexus.net/content/news/ne...lld19JRD0xNDAy
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    Hexus.net Troll Dougal's Avatar
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    It kind of depends on the extent of what he was doing.

    If he was downloading large files etc... he may have forced the owner of the broadband serviceto go over their limit for that month thus incurring charges or preventing normal useage.

    If however it was simple stuff, like checking emails occasionbly no harm done.

    If it occurs over a long period of time and he wasn't given permission to use it then I feel that is wrong and he is right to be punished, maybe not as severely but punsihed none the less.
    Quote Originally Posted by Errr...me
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    I took the road less traveled by Scientist's Avatar
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    I agree that no harm was probably done, however as Dougal says people could be downloading illegal content or just using masses of bandwidth incurring charges to the owner.

    In the end its the same as using someone elses phoneline to make calls and should be monitored and punished, if these people need access - pay for it like everyone else or face the consequences.
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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    You are right, of course. I don't contest that what he was doing was wrong, but still, I think Wi-Fi security isn't something that can be quite as clear cut as "you were using somebody else's Wi-Fi, you naughty boy"
    Obviously nicking wireless broadband is cheeky at best and a crime at worst, but you could liken leaving your wireless network open to leaving your front door open. Somebody might walk in and steal something. That doesn't mean the person is any less of a thief, but you can almost guarantee they wouldn't have done it if the door was closed and locked.
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    I would compare it more to a shop throwing items out onto the street and prosecuting anyone who picks anything up

    could'nt this work the other way around as well
    arnt wireless networks without encription illegally trying to gain access to peoples pcs ?

    can't psp also make use of wireless networks ?

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    yea realy he should of locked his wi-fi connection, but alot of ppl who use wi-fi tend not to do so, i can see the point its like having a tv license and some 1 watching ur tv, sort of thing
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scientist
    In the end its the same as using someone elses phoneline to make calls and should be monitored and punished, if these people need access - pay for it like everyone else or face the consequences.
    i disagree both sides are just as guilty of an offense

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    Hexus.net Troll Dougal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kez
    You are right, of course. I don't contest that what he was doing was wrong, but still, I think Wi-Fi security isn't something that can be quite as clear cut as "you were using somebody else's Wi-Fi, you naughty boy"
    The thing is that it depends on where you are.

    In the UK and US, you leave your door unlocked when in the house, you're going to get robbed.

    In canada however, my sister has her door shut but not locked.

    Does this mean she's going to get robbed? No. Not many people get robbed from their homes in suburbia.

    However, if this person went looking for WiFi, and didn't want to pay for it, it doesn't matter if it was unencrypted or not, he was wrong.

    He could have easily been infected with a virus or his system may have been compromised and resulted in hundreds of emails and/or viruses being spread.
    Quote Originally Posted by Errr...me
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    i beileve that sharing your connection with anyone not on your property is against most telecoms compaines terms and conditions, and it could be argued that by not having an encrypted network you are sharing your network

    therefore at the very least they are breaching their terms and conditions
    Last edited by skirkham; 23-07-2005 at 03:15 PM.

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    Goron goron Kumagoro's Avatar
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    seeing as wifi clients will connect to any network they can find then you could accidently
    connect to someone elses and not realise. I think its the person who didnt secure their networks fault.

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    yep the only way to sort this out is for manufactures to have encryption on by default and if you turn this off it states you are willing to share your connection with anyone

    everyone know where they stand then

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    I took the road less traveled by Scientist's Avatar
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    Thats a crazy argument - Its like saying if you dont lock your front door its ok for people to rob you
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    Scientist is correct; just because someone hasn't enabled encryption doesn't mean that they "deserve" to have their bandwidth stolen. If your car doesn't have an alarm, is it OK for me to take it? I assume that if your house doesn't have a burglar alarm it'd be OK if I wandered in and had a mooch around? This is someone who deliberately connected after several attempts to services that he hadn't paid for and was not entitled to use. That's theft, plain and simple. His client didn't "connect automatically", he deliberately and intentionally stole a service. As to clients connecting automatically, XP SP2 doesn't, PocketPC doesn't and I'd argue that it's a badly designed client that doesn't ask whether you want to connect to a WLAN before doing it. It might advise you that there is a WLAN there, but it's your choice as to whether you decide to try to use it, and if it's unsecured, XP SP2 or PocketPC will advise you that it is and actually pop up scary messages about the risks of using it.
    skirkham is wrong in most particulars; access points don't try to access peoples' computers, they merely bridge a wireless network to a wired one of whatever form. And by enabling your own PC to connect wirelessly, you're neither explicitly nor implicitly granting anyone else permission to do so.
    Oh, Kumagoro - WLAN clients don't connect to any WLAN they can find; they advise the user of the presence of the WLAN(s) and give them the option to connect.

    Yes, in an ideal world, people would enable encryption on all WLANs, but in an ideal world, they'd choose non-obvious passwords and change them regularly, run personal firewalls and regularly updated AV. In the real world, however, this doesn't happen, but that still doesn't make Joe User a legitimate target for a freeloading scrote with a penchant for leaching or the next pimple faced skiddie who wants to display their vx-ing "skills"...

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    Some software does have an option to automaticly connect, but only to certain SSIDs.

    It is therefore possible that the person who comitted this offense had the same SSID and lack of encryption on his own network.
    Quote Originally Posted by Errr...me
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    Will work for beer... nichomach's Avatar
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    You have to decide to connect to said SSIDs in the first place; automatic connection only occurs after you've decided to use the WLAN in question. The article also notes his repeated previous attempts to leach the service.

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    Will work for beer... nichomach's Avatar
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    But in this case, the person DID steal something of value, a service that other people paid for. Now in your example, I could be sued for the civil wrong of trespass but not convicted of burglary, since I would have no intent to steal; the person in this case did intend to use the service for which he hadn't paid, as evinced by repeated prior attempts. He's a thief, pure and simple.

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