Growth of Wi-Fi Opens New Path for Thieves

E. Harley writes "Wi-Fi connections are popping up all over the place from retails locations, schools, municipalities, and homes. Unintentionally or not, most of these wi-fi hot spots never change the system's default settings, hide the connection from others, or encrypt the data sent over it. This NY Times article [Free registration required] talks about the size and extent of the problem, and what has happened with law enforcement investigating criminals using these public connections. Also, the article updates us on an earlier Slashdot story about wardriving. That case is still pending."

Comments

Re:License to steal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe so, maybe not. If the traffic is originating from your IP and the authorities track you down, don't you think they'll check your computer before you can blame it on the WiFi-Boogeyman. I think the WiFi-Boogeyman is more a defence you can use in court if the police didn't find anything on your computer.

piggybacker != thief

[the_REAL_sam]

i'll play devil's advocate, for a minute:

the airwaves are supposed to be public.

therefore, if there's a "thief," the thief would be the group that cordones the public airwaves off and claims them as their own private property.

article is telco/cable demonization/propaganda

[Cryofan]

Notice that this article goes out of its way to associate the following practices with wifi:
--theft
--child porn
--terrorism

And the article here never even questions whether associating these practices with wifi could be a subterfuge by the telcos and cable companies to demonizes wifi so as to be able to outlaw municipal wifi through legislation, which is what they are afraid of, as that will cause them to cut their broadband prices.

This whole article is a propaganda piece, bought and paid for by the vested interests, such as telcos and cable companies.

What a sham is the NY Times. Just another cog in the CorpGovMedia propaganda machine...