Hacking your neighbor's WiFi? Think twice.

[Alexander Turcic]

Sammy of PalmAddicts stumbled over a scary post at Tekguru today who is quoting BBC that in London a man was fined 500 British pounds and 12 months' conditional discharge for hijacking a wireless broadband connection. According to computer forensics specialist Simon Janes:

"Gaining unauthorised access to someone else's network is an offence and people have to take responsibility for their actions. Some people might argue that taking a joy-ride in someone else's car is not an offence either."

I know that my neighbor would never notice me borrowing a bit of his bandwidth, he passed 80, but what if his son finds out about my misbehavior? Perhaps it's time to pay for the Internet.

[wshwe]

After someone has gained access to your broadband the next step is identity theft.

[hacker]

Originally Posted by wshwe

After someone has gained access to your broadband the next step is identity theft.

Uhm, no. How can access to someone's wireless router allow them to steal your identity?

If you mean by sniffing their network traffic, that same "hole" exists on any network where there are packets travelling across it other than your own.

Besides, anyone who is using their "identity" on the Internet should be using it over secure connections (like a bank, PayPal, whatever). Those who are not, deserve anything they get, especially if they don't secure their wireless.

I'm actually quite surprised these WAP devices don't come with a strong password by default, which the user is forced to change through the initial setup configuration, before they can use it.