Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi

baldass_newbie writes "The Saint Pete Times has a story about Benjamin Smith III who was arrested for stealing a wi-fi signal in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where apparently wardriving is considered a third degree felony." From the article: "...xperts believe there are scores of incidents occurring undetected, sometimes to frightening effect. People have used the cloak of wireless to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats, according to authorities. For as worrisome as it seems, wireless mooching is easily preventable by turning on encryption or requiring passwords. The problem, security experts say, is many people do not take the time or are unsure how to secure their wireless access from intruders. Dinon knew what to do. 'But I never did it because my neighbors are older.'"

Comments

Re:Wardriving a Felony!

[Otter]

What you're saying is that I should make illogical decisions in order to stay out of jail, because a jury of "normal people" is unable to follow a simple argument.

I'd be more sympathetic if nerd logic were actually logic, and not just excessively clever stupidity.

Re:It is a crime, so stop argueing

[Scudsucker]

Of course the person who mooches access bears responsiblity, but so does the person who put up an open access point. A better analogy would be to compare it to an unfenced pool that a homeowner puts in his backyard. It's called an "attractive nuisance".

she is more relax so her legs are spread apart, showing her love triangle. Anywow, a guy was walking the beach and sees this girl. He thinks she is advertising (Broadcasting SSID) No signs around this girl that say private (encrypted) or must have permisson to connect. So he connects, la'de'da'la

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were stupid. Why didn't you go all out and bring up Nazies while you were at it?