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Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wardriving-leads-to-warcrashing dept.

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.'"

5 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. It's dupe-a-licious! by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yet another dupe...previous story can be found here.

    Zonk fails it again...

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    1. Re:It's dupe-a-licious! by m50d · · Score: 1, Informative
      1)Adding dupes means articles fall off quicker

      2)There's this link to "older stories", you know? That's what you use if you want to see an old story

      Some of us are actually trying to cut down our /. use, you know

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      I am trolling
  2. RTFA Please by PepeGSay · · Score: 1, Informative

    In fact the man is not being accused of WarDriving. He peformed other illegal activites while on the network which he is being charged with, like trying to gain access to the residents computers, etc.

  3. RTFA before saying RTFA by keraneuology · · Score: 4, Informative
    The poster's claim:

    In fact the man is not being accused of WarDriving. He peformed other illegal activites while on the network which he is being charged with, like trying to gain access to the residents computers, etc.

    TFA:

    Smith ... has been charged with unauthorized access to a computer network

    IE Smith was charged for war driving. Period. There is NO indication that he performed ANY illegal activities other than allowing his computer to respond to an invitation to connect to the network that was sent by the AP.

    More from TFA:

    It remains unclear what Smith was using the Wi-Fi for, to surf, play online video games, send e-mail to his grandmother, or something more nefarious. Prosecutors declined to comment, and Smith could not be reached.

    If you have further information, please provide. If you don't, then don't ask people to RTFA to ascertain information that simply isn't there.

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    If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
  4. Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus by ran-o-matic · · Score: 2, Informative

    A good analogy is not a defense against a felony. Although not actually mentioned in TFA, he was probably charged under 815.06. You can read it at http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_ mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0815/titl0815.htm if you are interested in Florida law.