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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."
Puffer had no permission to start cracking keys and browsing the microsoft shares (or whatever he did).
This is true. So why doesn't Harris County prosecute the case on these grounds? They seem to feel that their case is not strong enough without conjuring ludicrous claims that Mr. Puffer caused $5,000 in damages.
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. To say that Mr. Puffer caused $5,000 damages is to say that if it wasn't for him the Civil Courts Building could have left their 802.11 free and unsecured forever.
Worst of all, for all we know he did not do this to demonstrate anything.
You go, man! You're not afraid to tell it like it is! Now read the article. He accessed the network in a prearranged meeting with a newspaper reporter and a county official in the room. It's pretty safe to say he was taking part in a demonstration.
It's obvious that an indictment was not sought because of actual damages caused by the defendant. This case went to a grand jury because officials didn't want a newspaper story about how the Civil Courts Building decided to open their computer network to the whole world.
So, let me get this straight. You happy people (non-tech) will put us in jail for attempting to help you use technology in a secure way, because you hate and fear us so much. You actually are prepared to alienate all of us (and imprison some of us) rather than deal with the embarassment of your own inability to use technology, and to willingly make it impossible for anyone to conduct IT security work in good faith. You want to make enemies of all of us, do you?
Have it your way.