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Wardriving Worries Residents

sphynx99 writes "This article describes how residents of an upscale neighborhood in Arizona are worried about wardriving, a "new method of privacy intrusion and identity theft". Nothing to worry about, though; "The Scottsdale Police Department plans to create a cyber-crimes unit next year."

8 of 530 comments (clear)

  1. repeat after me by ophix · · Score: 5, Informative

    purely passive wardriving is NOT a crime.

    now connecting to their access point and using their internet/network for whatever... that might be, i am not a lawyer, so i cannot say. what i do know is that RF signals are not owned, for if they were i could sue for criminal trespass when the other guy's signals cross my property.

  2. Re:That's why it's good... by tokachu(k) · · Score: 3, Informative

    you can get access into any gated community with an access code beginning with "911" ("9110", "91100", etc.)

    if "privatized" = "stupid" then you're right :)

  3. Technical explanation... by stienman · · Score: 4, Informative

    I fail to see what exactly they are going to arrest or prosecute people for.

    This is a radio transciever operating completely within legal regulations.

    If you don't want me to listen to your router's packets, don't transmit them.

    If you don't want you router to respond to my 'specially crafted' transmissions, then tell it to ignore me.

    Of course, it's far more complex than that, but current law does not seem to apply to this on the surface. It may apply to your actions once you are using their resources, but only marginally.

    -Adam

  4. Re:In other news by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Informative

    And don't tell me that this is beyond the savoir faire of Joe Sixpack. Enabling WEP involves checking a box, and entering a passphrase, on a web admin page. About the same level of difficulty as sending an email.

    If only that was true....

    Setting up WEP at the router is that simple. However, if you're relying just on the passphrase, then all of your 802.11x equipment had better come from the same vendor. If not, you have to realize that the passphrase is converted into four key strings, and type that randomly generated key into each computer on your WiFi system.

    For some reason, non-geeks just can't make that connection and all they know is that when they turn on WEP, things don't work.

  5. Re:WEP? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA by jrockway · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can easily crack the WEP key in under an hour these days. All ARP packets are 40 bytes (and nothing else is), so all you have to do is wait for one of those, then inject it back into the network. New replies will be generated, and you'll have more data for key-cracking. Repeat 1000 times a second, and enjoy your new AP :)

    --
    My other car is first.
  6. Re:STOP blaming the user by blackicye · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually I beg to differ, manuals these days are written for fuckin morons.

    Have you bought a Linksys, Dlink or Netgear product recently? If you did or plan to, RTFM, and you'll see that they offer next to no technical information any more.

    Even their included .PDF manuals on CD are worthless. They are not writing documentation for geeks any more, it is all targetted at Joe Average, and if he's not willing to read through literally 3 - 5 pages of setup, screw him I'll go wardriving myself.

  7. SBC/Yahoo, and their un-holy marriage. by agent · · Score: 5, Informative
    SBC/Yahoo took upon them selves to install an 802.11b WiFi NIC into their latest DSL "modem". It is enabled by default with 64 bit encryption, and (now this is where I am not 100% sure) the WEP key is printed on the bottom of the unit. The SSID is "2WIRExyz" where xyz is in the set [0-9].

    I post my wireless research here. http://mb.citiwireless.com/

    If you liked what I had to say, please show you appreciation by making a contribution to the FreeNet project.
    http://freenet.sourceforge.net/

    Have Fun,
    -Steve

    Huhhhh, I said marriage. http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=marriage%2 0AND%20mediatype%3Amovies

  8. Re:In other news by sndtech · · Score: 5, Informative

    Definitely time for the rest of the nation to get with NH's laws regarding wifi. If you don't take adequate measures to secure your wifi AP then you are responisble for anyone accessing your network and for any damages they cause.