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WarTalking Arrest
PhotonSphere writes "Having helped organize HoustonWireless.org, this really caught my attention! A Houston computer security analyst has been charged with 'hacking' after demonstrating the insecurity of a court's wireless LAN! This happened Wednesday and is only now getting the attention of the wireless community. The Register has the full story."
Maybe they should upgrade the charges to treason and sedition. Hacking is terrorism, after all, and this was rather insulting to the court.
His biggest error probably was talking about it. He should have sold the info to some mobster gang. They'd probably be much more gratefull.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you
So, just break back in, and erase the record of the charge.. duh..
No, actually it's like someone kidnapping your pet dog for three days, shaving all the hair off it and returning it to you with the admonishment "you shouldn't have let him out of your backyard." Then you punching them in the gut.
They also have more secure networks.
Or, more to the point, the clerk probably found a welcome excuse to explain the presence of this picture on his PC to his boss...
Stefan Puffer, 33, was indicted by a Grand Jury on Wednesday with two counts of burglary for allegedly breaking into Harris County district clerk's offices. It's believed to be the first case of its kind in the US.
Puffer, who was employed briefly by the county's security department in 1999, could get five years in jail and faces a $250,000 fine on each count if convicted, the Houston Chronicle reports.
He's accused of accessing the offices March 8 in an alleged intrusion that cost the county a reported $5,000 to clean up.
District Clerk Charles Bacarisse told the paper that no confidential paperwork was disclosed but the alleged intrusion eventually resulted in the county closing its new offices only a month after they were opened.
But is the prosecution a case of shooting the messenger?
On March 18, Puffer demonstrated to a county official and a Chronicle reporter how easy it was to gain access to the court's offices using only a hammer and paperclip. Puffer first noticed the problem while scanning for insecure homes and offices throughout Houston earlier that month, around the time that the alleged offence took place.
Would you be upset at the above news story?
Really folks, with a $4 hammer, you'd be surprised at how "insecure" most homes are! Have you ever heard of a "white hat" burglar?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
The network was totally wide open - no WEP and DHCP on ... anyone w/ an XP computer and built-in WiFi who turned their computer on would have automatically associated to the network, so what is Puffer's "crime?" He was demoing to a county official, don't forget. Meanwhile, Steve Balmer brags about stealing bandwidth with Bill Gates and gets applauded:
2 2/ 020722opcurve.xml
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/07/
"For all his success at bringing Microsoft's warring constituencies together, there are still things beyond Bill and Steve's control. "I was in a hotel in Sun Valley last week that was not wired," Ballmer recalls. "So I turned on my PC, and XP tells me there is a wireless network available. So I connect to something called Mountaineer.
"Well, I don't know what that is. But I VPN into Microsoft. It worked! I don't know whose broadband I used," he chuckles. "I didn't see it in Bill's room. I called him up and said, 'Hey, come over to my room.' So soon everyone is there and connecting to the Internet through my room."
Chalk up another good day for Steve Ballmer, CEO. Bill Gates may be the chief software architect, but as Microsoft matures in the Ballmer era innovation in software shares the spotlight with teamwork.
"
Damnit, my license is at stake here!
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Microsoft was (wrongly, imo, but that's besides the point) convicted of being a monopoly, and wasn't even punished.
:p
*shrug* I guess that opened the doors for MS. Shit, maybe I should get hired there. If I work my way up enough, I bet I can go steal a nice car and be applauded for it, too.
The above is copyright.. Ah, screw it, if Ballmer goes and steals a car and gets away with it, more power to the asshole.
In related news, a local terrorist was arrested today, after he pointed out to the bank that their safe had a huge gaping hole leading to a back alley. He is charged with causing $50,000 worth of damage, the cost of repairing the hole.
>The claim of $5,000 arises entirely from the cost of >taking down the network to secure it, not from any >actual damage caused by Mr. Puffer.
Legal cases in general inflate the damage and/or include all damages associated with the action. I'm sure this will be an issue in court.
>You go, man! You're not afraid to tell it like it >is! Now read the article
No, you read the article. He first broke in on March 8th then arranged his big expose on the 18th. Ten days of silence. I'm not suggesting he broke in purpose but it is a possibility. Did he really expect the government to say 'good job citizen' and pin a medal on him. Imagine the precedent that would set. Kiddies would be pouding networks right and left for the good of the nation and expecting to be written up in the paper as local heroes.
It can't be stressed enough that he did this in the stupidest manner possible. He could have taken this to a City Council meeting, started a class-action suit against the county for violating privacy laws, etc. Instead he supposedly went for the glory that the supposed white hat hacker seeks. Naive and stupid. Hopefully, the court will see his supposed true intentions and not lock him up.
"No, you read the article. He first broke in on March 8th then arranged his big expose on the 18th. Ten days of silence."
Ten days? Seems sinister. Could that possibly be roughly the amount of time it takes to get an appointment with the appropriate county employee?