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Colorado Sheriffs To WarDrive For Safety
rwx writes "The Sheriff's Department in Douglas County, Colorado says it's going to start warning computer users that their networks may be vulnerable to hackers. It plans on equipping its patrol cars with devices that detect unprotected computer networks, and distributing brochures to computer users in vulnerable areas, instructing them on how to password protect their networks."
Oh great. Lets just notify everyone in the area that there are open access points near by. :)
Can all fish swim?
Have a webcam watching your front lawn so you can catch 'em on video. A related classic is the Duncan Grisby saga where a thief broke into his flat and stole Duncan's computers and webcam ... but not before it FTP'ed several nice mug shots of
the burgler elsewhere.
Don't police have more important things to do than wardrive? People who buy wireless routers and don't password protect them deserve what they get.
-Mike
before governments try to make open wireless relays illegal? I set my wireless connection at home open on purpose...
I don't see the harm. Now if they are doing anything like making notes on who's routers are open for future "fishing expeditions", I'd be concerned, but if all they're doing is saying "hey bud, your front door is unlocked, just ta let ya know..."
Seeing as how most people have no idea that their wireless routers are so insecure by default...
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
Why is it so important to close down open networks? The critical point is to prevent intruders into actual computer systems, not networks. Your data is critical. Your bandwidth, not so much.
fp?
... they are going to let everyone in the area know that there are unprotected WiFi networks?
Sounds logical to me... ?
Execute? [Y/N] _
Will this limit access on that great free wireless lan called "linksys"? I hope not; I didn't want to have to actually pay for Internet access after college.
Meh, a real sig would take too long, and I have an MMORPG to play with....
What would happen if they came to my house? I have a open network (really an access point). We share no files between computers and if someone (neighbors, friends, guys in cars out front) wants to hop on my signal I couldn't care less.
They can get online and I invite them too (network is titled "OPENNETWORK"). I wonder how the cops would respond if I told them that I purposely set it up to allow people to wardrive onto my internets?
What do you want to bet that the police will hassle the first person who:
A) has permission from their service provider to offer a Wifi hot spot,
B) wants to leave it open for the public, and
C) tells this to the police officer who tries to give him a brochure?
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
This is really going to be fun comments. Get out your tin foil hates, put on your "I hate America" shirt and your libertarian pants folks...
FTFA
... hackers penetrate and ravage delicate
public and privately owned computer systems,
infecting them with viruses...
He also says hackers can upload or download such things as child pornography.
From a famous movie
Ok, WEP is flawed as it is. If a person encrypts their wireless, it will only prevent the average computer user from using it. Even if 128-bit encryption is used...it can still be cracked in real time. Check this article out which I found a few days ago. http://tapir.cs.ucl.ac.uk/bittau-wep.pdf And we give out flyers about STD's. Does it work? Not as it should. Will people really attempt to protect their wireless?
--
So who is hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?
I'm glad the policy are out making the city safe from wireless access points. Of course, now that all the drug dealers, rapists, pedophiles, theives, robbers, murderers, prostitutes, and school bullies are off the street, the next logical step is to make sure that the wireless APs are closed up.
I can feel the warm safety of encrypted radio waves already!
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
I can't believe any significant percentage of residential open networks are open on purpose. Most are linksys or netgear or whatever routers, still set to the default channel, ssid and password.
I think the idea of cops (or anyone) delivering a note explaining what the threats are and what you can do to fix it (if you'd like to fix it) is great. Good for Douglas County.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
AND my pancakes!
What do Sheriffs care about peoples' wireless network devices? Unless I'm bashing my wife over the head with my access point, I don't want a Sheriff to even tell me what to do with my freggin' network.
What's next? Are they going to start testing peoples' front doors to see if they're unlocked? Again, it's none of their business, and it's wasting taxpayer money. Stick to your department, which is upholding the law.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
They hired Chuck Norris to do it, and he's gonna roundhouse kick any open router he finds.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The original owner of that password (can someone really 'own' a word???) still has it. The 'thief' only has a copy of it.
And the private information is still 100% available to the original owner. That's not stealing, it's copying.
As for your other assertions, I'd like to point out that encryption technologies do exist and are typically used by reputable online sites.
Maybe if you weren't so caught up in hyperbole your comment would actually make sense.
Are they gonna be running aircrack as well, and informing people of their own WEP keys, after sitting in front of their house for a couple of hours?
While they're at it, they may as well check to see that people's front doors are locked too. Criminals might break in and use their computer when they can't get a wireless signal.
Isn't this illegal hacking in some states? I bet if I drove by and did this I would get arrested. Obviously, the police are not subject traffic violations during pursuits and such, but making them above hacking and snooping laws is dangerous and unfair.
I'm not really advocating charging police officers for this, it is really to point out how absurd such laws are.
From TFA:
Commiting card fraud? They could always use the local college or library to do that anyhow. Even easier is for the criminal to use a proxy setting in their browser.
Child porn? Maybe... It's unlikely though (not impossible). Perhaps ISPs rather than, or in conjunction with informing the authorities could offer a warning for a 'first offense' - eg
"Dear sir,
We have noticed unusual activity on your account of an illegal nature. This may be due to an open wireless connection in your possesion. We suggest this....."
The whole thing sounds well-intentioned, but grossly misguided.
So, is the crime rate in Douglas county so low that the Sherrif's office is reduced to wardriving to prevent "child pornographers"?
What has this country become, it seems that all we have are terrorists/evildoers and pedophiles! Won;t someone think of the children? Thank Almighty God for the Douglas Count Sherrif's department! If it weren't for them, it would be anarchy!
Score: 5 Ludicrous
I think some folks have to RTFA a second time around. All they are doing is riding through a neighborhood and finding unprotected routers and then passing out fliers informing people that their routers could be comprimised and how to fix it. That's protecting the public interest AFAIK. I have a summer property in a guarded community - I get calls from the police all the time telling me that a window was left open or that my shed didn't appear to have a lock. So someone could argue that "hey, so long as someone comes in nicely, takes a nap and leaves without disruption - it's ok" but we know that it's not. Theft is theft and protecting against it is what cops do.
www.wildpad.com
To surf for porn^H^H^H^H information while they are sitting in the cruiser at a remote location with the A/C running. Hey boss, I'm just in the neighborhood looking for open access points. Child porn is one of the big "boogeymen" out there. I'm suprized they didn't throw "terrorism" in there somewhere.
While handling out fliers, the sheriff deputies will also be checking out those tomatoe plants in the backyard and using a thermal imager on the house. Open wireless network connections may not be only thing that they're checking out.
Cops aren't supposed to armed and trained like the military. Their purpose is to keep the peace and peacefully prevent crime where they can. A large part of that is politely informing private citizens if they see something that could get them victimized. It's not common anymore because riding around with a loaded gun and the ability to bust down doors to raid drug users/dealers (if your stash is big, you must be a dealer). It's just not cool to do such old granny policing when the SWAT offers you the chance to play urban warfare with targets that typically don't fight back.
It should be the responsibility of the person hosting anything to ensure it is secured.
Oh, wait, this is modern times. Nobody likes being responsible anymore; just blame your irresponsibility on the 'hacker problem'.
Personally, I impose as much security as possible. I use MAC address filtering to allow only my computers on the network, use WPA2, change the password once a month; using a small program I wrote to create a 32 character password composed of numbers, characters, and letters. I'm not saying I've got Fort Knox here, but an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
Off the rant now... Shouldn't these tax dollars be spent on something usefull? Perhaps stopping real criminals?
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
I don't understand why everyone is getting so mad. It's not like they're going to use signal strength monitors to track the router in your moms basement. They're going to find neighborhoods that have a lot of vulnerabilities and distribute "FLYERS" to let people know how to secure their networks. If you don't want to secure it, don't. They aren't going to knock down doors and force you to do it. In my opinion, what they're doing is just a service. Of course, if they take it to the extreme and start forcing people to close their networks, it would be bad.
The best example I can think of is the police driving through my grandparents neighborhood and noticing a lot of roll up garage doors partially opened to vent the heat buildup in the garage. Do they knock down your door and force you to close it? No, they sent out a flyer notifying people of the possible crimes that could happen as a result of it being rolled up. Am I missing something here?
oK, Thx. Hey, i added a bunch of lowercase b/c /. is dum lol
P.S.,
I for once welcome our slashdotters overlords who, as soon as they read "police", think invasion of privacy. But in fact, the FA says that the officer offers brochures to computer users, not break in their home. For the ONE time a public service offers service to the public, our beloved geeks are still whining.
I usually get allergies when I read "police" next to me, but this time, we have to admit it's a pretty good idea.
This is an incredibly stupid bad idea. What's keeping the cops from sniffing your entire network? Considering the lax security on the common user's Windows PC (blank passwords for the Administrator account) Can you say 'planted evidence'? What's stopping a cop out for an easy win to plant kiddie pr0n in an unsuspecting user's PC?
No thanks. One more reason to encrypt your WAP, even if it is using weak encryption.
the future is but past forgotten
I'm actually surprised that they didn't do this sooner. There are a hell of a lot of unsecured wireless networks in any city, and it's not like the cops are peeking into anything that isn't incredibly public already. As an experiment, I once spent an entire bus ride home repeatedly scanning for wireless networks on my DS. Most of the ones I found were unprotected, including one which even had the word "secure" (written in l33t, no less) as part of its name. Unfortunately, all of the networks with particularly interesting or creative names were secure, including one called "No free internet for you", and another with the particularly clever moniker of "I steal credit card numbers." Gotta wonder what the cops would think of that one...
...that neither the Sheriff's Office nor the local journalists who cover this will use the ridiculous and completely counter-intuitive phrase "wardriving" to describe what's going on.
Great, Colorado, the one place where open access points AREN'T a problem, gets warnings. How about, say...New York?
In our area, every minor traffic accident accumulates 10 police cars (quite literally, we keep counting) and 3 large fire trucks. If there is an injury or for a more serious accident, there are 5 large fire trucks.
The police are well-known for being under-employeed in the sense that they get a salary, but there isn't much to do. (They could enforce the laws against running red lights, but I think they are waiting for some massive accident to allow them to put in cameras, and then collect $ without effort.)
The result is that they have a big presence on craigslist/erotic services and conduct a lot of 25-person/full body armor/APC SWAT raids on complete innocents. I have had friends among the complete innocents, and it has cost $50K to almost-finally beat back the prosecutor and police chief and get personal property back that the police chief coveted.
Our various legislators are passing laws at a hell of a rate to keep the police busy and justify more of them.
Do NOT allow police to take on any more 'responsibilities'. They do too much already.
We need many fewer police doing many fewer lef-related things, not more police or more such functions.
Sorry, I see NOTHING wrong with this as long as it is just for public safety.
Oh great. Lets just notify everyone in the area that there are open access points near by. :)
Yes, because those open access points aren't already advertising themselves.
Face it, this is just another thinly veiled attempt to get past illegal search and seizure laws.
Aren't they "trespassing" here? I mean, others have been guilty of it merely by connecting...
If I try to go out and do this, and fix their problem for a profit, I'll probably get arrested for breaking New Hampshire's wiretaping laws.
This is actually a good thing. It will help educate the clueless home user, and hopefully get some results. While it might be somewhat disturbing to havr the police to be ones to do this, better than the alternative. Bob
The idea that an open network could be used for nefarious purposes is irrelevant. When you leave a tip at a restaurant, you might be enabling your waiter to go home later and purchase some child porn, or maybe even to buy a gun and kill somebody. There are any number of ways to connect each of us and the resources we control to criminal activities. But the ability to connect dots like this is not a sufficient justification for making policy that restricts the way we use or share our resources. Not only is it my right to share my network how I choose (assuming it's within the bounds of my ToS, although even then this is a contract issue and not one the police need to be involved in), but it is beneficial to society to allow this kind of sharing to happen, as people will use that connection for economically productive uses, and waste less time investing in security measures. It seems to me that they should be policing a little closer to the actual specific crimes they are worried about. If they are worried about child pornography, then monitoring close to the supplier is surely a lot more efficient than trying to monitor the wifi network of every single person in the county.
Why do this? What's next, climbing into my backyard and testing to see if my bedroom window is locked? Its not a crime to leave an unsecured WAP.
Boy, that's going to help me sleep so much better at night now.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Take it from someone who used to live in Douglas County. This is proof of my long-standing theory that Douglas County police have WAY too much time on their hands. They must not be catching enough speeders if they have to resort to this...
I still didnt see everyone descibe how they find the owner of 'linksys'
:(
Arent the only people with an identifiable (phone#,name,???) network the ones that WANT to share. The people who don't know any better won't have anything other than 'linksys' or something correct?
Either this does nothing cause they can't find the owner. Or it lets us know our neighbors have a access point available.
Nothing particularly evil i guess, but nothing very productive either IMHO. Seems like another waste of $$, life goes on
If the popo don't get the cooperation of the public in closing open access points, they'll go looking for a law. Any number of commercial WiFi providers will put up the PAC funds, and open access points will become an FCC nono.
In the interests of national security, any specs China puts up for securing access points will be blocked by the puppets on the IEEE. Cisco et al does not want to miss out on a cut of the next generation of access points.
it just bugs them that 'annoymous holes' can exist
where people cant be traced to a fixed address on which
to pin responsibility.
2cents
They're not interested in protecting your network. They are trying to protect your ISP's revenue stream.
Consider: If your neighbors can connect to your WLAN and piggyback on your broadband connection, why would they pay for their own broadband connection? They wouldn't. Thus, lost revenue for the cable/DSL providers in your area.
If you log your DHCP transactions then it looks like
Laptop) Can I use your network?
AP) Sure you can here's and IP address. If you want to access the internet then you'll need this gateway address. These are only good for 24 hours so ask me again if you are still here tommorrow.
Laptop) Thanks!
Your laptop, acting on your behalf, specifically ASKS if it can use the network which was advertized. The access point, acting on behalf of the network owner, then responds with an overwhelming YES.
The closest real world alternative is that you show up to a grocery store late at night. The store is closed, but their control systems left the lights on and the door opens when you walk up to it. You go in, use their bathroom and leave. Not noticing that there are no employees there. Could you really be prosecuted for trespass when their systems let you in and made it seem like you were welcome?
I personally think that educating people about WPA/2 and curbing WEP is must. Of course WPA/2 is not compatible with first generation WAPs, but they will be obsolete soon enough. I do not think the Police should be involved. Maybe the lazy ISPs should get off their rear end and make sure people are securing their networks or at least provide some assistance. Some ISPs provide some help with configuring your router, but it is usually an online source that is not really geared toward the general user. As much as I would like to think that most people are computer or internet savvy this is not the case. The general population is either complete luddites toward computer technology or luddites about the inner workings of a computer. From my experience most people just want to click a button and be ready to go and not have to worry about connection issues or whatever issue they may be having. It is always interesting to help people that cannot even compose an email or save a document. As it is I try to help my neighbors with securing their WAPs by connecting to their connection and accessing their printer, if they have one, to print out instructions for them on how to secure their signals. In any case keep the PoPos out of it so they can continue to chase stolen Dunkin Donut trucks on slow speed chases. http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/06060 5dispatches.shtml
they can tell drivers to pay attention to their driving; that way another cyclist won't be slaughtered by a text-messaging doofus.
Re: /. front page...
Right below the "Colorado Sheriffs To WarDrive For Safety" story, is the "NH Man Arrested for Videotaping Police" story.
So it's OK for police to wardrive in your neighborhood, but it's not OK for you to videotape them while they do it?
VOTE!
So as if having Mr. I went to 12 hours of community college to qualify for a law enforcement job(that's really about average people) wielding a gun isn't scary enough. Now I have to let him lecture me on network security?
The Douglas County police should also start looking for unlocked windows and doors as well. Who know's, maybe the ignorant owner didn't mean to leave their door unlocked or maybe they didn't leave the windows open for fresh air. Better just to check every, single one.
Leaky or clogged gutters could also be a problem. Maybe the person didn't know that their gutter was overflowing with leaves and causing a downpour onto the bushes below.
Car windows left open deserve special attention as well. Sometime speople accidently leave their windows open and rain gets in. Perhaps a friendly leaflet under their windshield wiper will cause them to pay closer attention next time.
The list of things police could do other than real police work could go on and on.
Cases of abuse aside (and they really do happen, perhaps not as often as is perceived, but often enough that nearly everyone has had at least one bad experience), the reason that cops get such a chilly reception is that they do "too much protecting" and "not enough serving". That is, usually people only are interacting with a cop if one, they are in trouble, or two, are recently a victim of trouble. If police departments put as much emphasis on the public service announcement schtick, people might react to them with less chill. But, as you point out, they can't perform that function well if people feel chilly towards them. Its a cycle that needs to be broken somewhere, and its easier to change department policy than to spontaneously change the public's attitudes.
Of course, it might also help if police departments changed some of the policies that feed into the disquiet that most people have with their police, such as the 'blue wall', or de facto harrassment, or discouraging legitimate complaints, or not having a system for filing said complaints anonymously. That might help too.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
Let me just destroy this article because the only information in it is "The Sheriff's Department says it's going to start warning computer users that their [open] networks [are] vulnerable to [everyone]." the rest of the article is basically a load of bullshit and unrelated facts: "Wireless computer equipment and home computer networks are everywhere these days. Almost all new computers sold are used by consumers to network in one way or another to other computers." Well duh. Everyone knows that. "However, that wireless capability may be making those computers vulnerable to hackers." Since when is clicking the "Connect" button a hack? Writing an algorithm that breaks WEP encyption faster is a hack, but clicking "connect" is something everone does. So the author meant to say: "However, that wireless capability may be making those computers vulnerable to everyone that can click a button." ""If someone is driving by on the street they could easily use your internet access to commit a crime, whether it's fraudulent credit card transactions or surfing child porn or something else," said Brian Radamacher, a member of the Douglas County Sheriff's Special Investigations Unit." When no shit. Anyone that understands that 'wireless' means connect without wires knows that anyone can connect to it without needing to sneak a wire into the house. "Wireless computer equipment sends out signals that sometimes broadcast for up to a mile." I wish my network had a mile radius. Still, WAP beacons are nothing new to the technologically literate (which ideally should be anyone that uses technology in this modern world). "Other computer users can home in on those signals and use them to access the internet. " Uhm, duh again! "Radamacher says hackers can use stolen Internet access to make fraudulent credit card purchases or bank transfers. " "stolen" is not the right word unless the person connecting from his car is using all the bandwidth, thereby not allowing the persons inside to use their bandwidth. And even then it is only temporary until the person drives off. "steal" means to take from, and unless the person blocks all the legit users, he's not actually stealing. "He also says hackers can upload or download such things as child pornography. " I seriously doubt that any real hacker is a pedophile. I also doubt that any pedophiles are real hackers, so that sentance from the article is just a bunch of bull shit. "networks may be vulnerable to hackers." Unless they are also telling people with vulnerable WEP encryption, the open networks are vulnerable to any one with a computer, especially computers with XP install which connects to any open network it can find. Also, this sentance is old news to everyone. "That activity would be completely invisible to the legitimate owner of that network." Ethereal, anyone? Maybe slightly hidden to some users, but anyone that has an open network hopefully knows enough to monitor everything over the network to make sure people aren't using it for sketchy activities. "devices that detect unprotected computer networks. " they could have said the name of the device they actually use, as it might actually add information to the fucking article! but it's probably just an old laptop with a crappy wireless card. So in short, 9news.com is the worst site ever. They have turned the concept of an "article" from an interesting read about new information to one interesting sentance with a bunch of unrelated information.
C'mon at least make up a better bullshit story than "It's for your own good". You guys are parking on WiFi LANs so that you can claim you're looking for
Kiddy Porn
Child molesters
Porn Molestors
Sexual predators
Kiddy porn predator molestors
And terrorists.
And you'll catch almost nobody except some innocent person as always.
...and if they don't secure their network the next time they're caught, notify their ISP and have their account suspended. Don't arrest wardrivers for third degree felonies when it's the fault of the knowingly-unsecured wireless network owner to secure it.
I guess there isn't much crime in that city. Or if there is, I hope it's all war-driving related, because this is a complete waste of tax payer resources, imo.
If people want to leave a wide open wifi AP/Router, or simply aren't knowledgable enough to lock-it-down, then I don't think it's the Tax Payers who should get stuck w/ the bill.
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
I'll probably lock down the wireless network with WPA-PSK though, as I'm planning on doing VOIP over it in the near future...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
.. chalk instead of leaflets
-- All your bass are below two Hz
But if you add : :
D) Videotape them
then you can also add
E) Get arrested.
Seriously, I walked around my (small) neighborhood the other day with a laptop and netstumbler. I picked up over a hundred networks, 90% of which were open.
And yeah, I live in Colorado.
It's great to know that the cops will now be focusing on the real danger. Instead of those drunk and/or reckless drivers, we'll be warning people about their wireless networks.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Most of the beat cops don't do the investigation work. They deal with immediate crisis and if not doing that cruise around looking for problems. This is probably not going to be something they are actively doing but if driving through a neighborhood with nothing to do they might stop and drop off a letter.
The letter is not a threat or violation but a courtesy notice that you are open to potential problems. It is exactly like a cop stopping and telling you your wife left the door to your house open. You can skip the advice but don't be surprised if you find someone standing in your house you didn't invite; or conversely, someone on your network you didn't invite.
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
the Douglas County Sheriff's Office now gets free high speed internet from Comcast for their tireless efforts in making everyone pay for thier own cable internet... It's Craptastic!
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
as far as the ISP is concerned, you are fully responsible for any and every packet that has your IP address in the header. the field techs in our college areas post little door hangers warning ppl to secure their networks and why. has anyone been prosecuted for it? i'm not sure, but i know my isp disconnected my internet service a while back for allegedly downloading come fashion design software (which is rediculous). With ATT now keeping a big eye on everyone's network and the government apparently backing them up... i definatly encourage everyone to close their network. i now have mine setup to only allow my specific mac addresses. i'ts not perfect, but it's more than most. PLZ EVERYONE LOCK DOWN UR SHIT!!
You're on to something there. All the police need is a legitimate reason to get close enough to observe something. Kind of like when there's a crack house around, they get real strict on lane usage and turn signal laws - just so they can stop a car that they consider suspicious but wouldn't otherwise have cause to stop.
Since there's no way they could know exactly which residence had the unsecured access point, they'd have to visit every residence in the vicinity. That gives the police the opportunity to more closely observe residences that don't even have electricity, let alone a WAP. And now, legally.
Open letter to Canada: Please invade the US. We need someone to liberate us from tyranny, and our own government is busy liberating oil^H^H^H Iraqis from tyranny.
Web 2.0 == Giant Blogspam Circle Jerk
This is actually nice -- now the police officers are engaged in wardriving. Now I won't worry so much when I do it, and the police wonder what all that equipment in my car is.
I certainly hope they don't pay thousands of dollars for their wardriving rigs, and I also hope there is enough accounting to deal with abuses the police officers might feel the need to engage in.
Perhaps we can send messages to our wardriving cops via the open wireless networks, like "Happy Wardriving!"
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
"I'm sorry Mr./Mrs. Jones, but you are using WEP/WPA your wireless network is not that secure, you are at risk of being hacked."
Let's not forget how easy it is to hack WEP encryption.
Also, I don't like how the word "hacker" is being thrown around. You don't do any hacking to connect to an open wifi network. Windows will even do it automatically for you. So, therefore, Bill Gates is hacking wifi.
You can find the statistics here
The numbers were up in all but a handful of categories.
Murder & Non-Negligent Manslaughter - 3
Negligent Manslaughter / Vehicle - 1
Sexual Assault by Force - 73
Sexual Assault on a Child - 104
Incest - 15
Robbery - 16
Kidnapping - 72
Assault with Weapon - 80
Assault without Weapon - 551
Burglary to Residence - 446
Burglary to Non-Residence - 186
Theft over $500 - 1021
Theft under $500 and over $100 - 758
Theft under $100 - 764
Embezzlement - 1
Possession of Stolen Property - 106
Motor Vehicle Theft - 245
Arson - 41
Criminal Mischief - 1240
Drug Violations- 569
Bribery, Extortion - 22
Gambling - 1
Fraud - 899
Pornography, Prostitution - 9
Weapons Violations - 35
The douglas county cops need to ge their priorities straight.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Lame approach...that brochure will go in the basket with the aluminum siding ad. Better to leave them an email or an IM: "Hi there, Mr. Joe Blow! We were just driving down Partridge Meadows Blvd while you were browsing www.kidpoontang.com and thought you'd like to read this page about encryption and passwords..."
rj
Sheriff: Do you know your wifi os not locked down.
Me: Oh, yes, router sales contract states I have to leave it open for a year.
... am I allowed to have an open access point?
Another brick in the wall of the continuing effort of cops to horn in on areas they aren't qualified to be in. What about CATFREE and all the public wifi networking going on? Are the occifers going to warn me that i shouldn't allow access if i want to? Will i be allowed to if i want to? Why don't cops actually try to learn how to do their job instead of trying to do mine?
Sure wish there was a poll associated with this article to get the Slashdot community consensus.
That's actually a good idea.
Even though someone could stick an overpowering transmitter on the patrol cars & get the cops to do all the work for them, people are well known to be quicker to protect themselves when it's the cops they have to worry about.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Right now I see 12 wireless networks, only 3 of them encrypted, most of them on channel 6, and 3 of them with the default id's (meaning a lot of them probably still have the default password, also). If I try to drive around with my PDA wireless on, the damn thing beeps every constantly telling me it's found a new network to log onto. I'm thinking the cops are going to ditch this one when when they get tired of stopping every 2 minutes to stick a brochure on somebody's door.
Actually there was story I read once where the sign 'Beware of pickpockets' was put up by pickpockets. The people would see the sign and check the pocket with their wallet in it. Then the pickpockets knew which pocket to pick.
Amusing actually.
Who modded the parent insightful? It looks to me like they were trying to be funny. HELLO! smiley! It is not like without brochures hackers could never find the unsecured networks. They already find them very easily.
Let me guess sponsored by the people who sell internet access.
We don't go around opening people's doors to see if they're locked, do we? Since when did it become the job of the police to educate the unwashed masses about the evils of their open wireless router?
Computers can make otherwise intelligent people stupid, much like slashdot.
I know of a guy who used to work for a cable company that did something like this already. He would drive around the neighborhoods with a GPS and a laptop, that would send specially-crafted web requests to a web server that the cable company owns. As long as the request comes from their IP block, they would send the customer a cute little letter.
Cable Companies have been doing this as "revenue protection" for a while.
I disable sigs...do you?
I'm interested in learning how the deputies plan on locating which house or apartment the signal is originating from? The signal could span several pieces of property. Most deputies I've met are doing well to operate their laptops and radio gear let alone radio detection equipment or directional antennas. I wouldn't be suprised if the Sherriffs son in law is in the business of securing access points for a small fee.
SWAT exists for a legitimate reason. There really are sometimes extraordinary threats to the peace that have to be dealt with by police. The classic example is the UT Tower Sniper. On such occasions, you really want a trained, well-equipped team that can go in, rather than dealing with the situation via normal police methods.
Of course, the applications of SWAT to the "War on Drugs" (etc.) and the merits of drug legalization are very open to debate.
Their purpose is to keep the peace and peacefully prevent crime where they can.
The patrol itself will do more to prevent drive by abuse of networks than any silly leaflet or knock on the door. If they want to protect their citizens, they need to keep on driving. They might also stop the real crimes someone else pointed out.
In fact, the knock on the door is more than a waste. It makes it look like person living there has done something wrong. The only time police show up at the front door is when something bad has happened or you have not paid a bill. Try telling your neighbors the police visit was over an open access point.
As always, the real threat comes through the internet connection and a crappy OS. "Password protecting" your wireless will only make it harder for your friends to use your network. If you have a reasonable OS, your friends and neighbors should be able to use your network without a problem.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
If you sit through the entire connection, SSL does jack shit. You see the exchange of keys!
"It plans on equipping its patrol cars with devices that detect unprotected computer networks, and distributing brochures to computer users in vulnerable areas, instructing them on how to password protect their networks."
So that sounds to me that they're going to give these cops cheap laptops with WiFi and teach them to look for AP's with names like "linksys" and "default". Doesn't sound like a good use of taxpayers money to me.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Firstly, they are going to be very very busy. Secondly, I think this program is less about securing the networks and more about getting some positive face-to-face interaction with the community. It is in opportunity for the sherifs to get to know the people they are sworn to protect and vise versa.
Are they going to do something useful with the data, like upload it to wigle so that we don't have to go looking for our own open APs?
Well I'm wondering just how the local broadband supplier plans to pay for this service? This bandwidth is purchased by the WLAN provider (intentional or otherwise); however, the broadband provider may perceive free wireless access as a financial loss. Motivation in our great capitalistic corptocracy usually involves money; therefore, I'm guessing that the broadband provider had something to do with this new "service" being provided by the police. I really don't see law enforcement dreaming this up without outside influence. I do share the concern of many regarding the unlawful searches that could be facilitated by this new "service"; however, I believe that if law enforcement needs a reason to make an illegal search on your property, they are already quite capable of making up an excuse which you will be unable to refute in court.
Actually I know quite a few people who would take a Rodney King-style beatdown if they could get what he eventually won in court settlements ...
Just pointing that out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I've lived in Douglas County for almost ten years now, and let me just say it's a great place to live. I was not surprised to see this story, though a little worried that the secret of our little county south of Denver will get out to the rest of the world.
:-). They pull over to help stranded motorists. A couple of winters ago we dug through the feet of snow from our end while they dug from their's in the middle of the night to get a pregnant neighbor to the hospital to give birth. They help out with traffic control in front of the churches on Sundays. They provide patrol for the local movie theaters, and are always friendly and helpful. I even had one hold my drink and help me figure out the right theater screen one night! Plus they offer a service where if you're going out of town, let them know and they'll send extra patrols on a daily basis by your house to make sure everything is safe.
Douglas County Sheriff's motto should be, "We still remember when the police used to care." They aren't about pulling over speeders. They nod, smile, and say hello when you walk by, and are always happy to have a chat in the local Starbucks (especially if you're buying
It's not just the Sheriff's Dept., though. We also have great schools and libraries. My daughter is starting middle school in the fall, and we found out that she gets a set of books for school and a set for home, so her backpack doesn't get too heavy. Our libraries carry the latest and greatest books, not only fiction, but--as a programmer, this is a plus--the latest computer books as well (Lucene in Action, Learning Cocoa with Objective C, etc.). Latest DVDs available also.
Along with great services, we've got outstanding bike trails, golf courses, a small but decent lake, and horse ranches. Something for everyone.
This is the place people talk about when they're looking for a great place to raise a family.
P.S. No, I don't personally know and deputies or their families, nor do I know any real estate brokers. Having come out here from California, I know how to appreciate a good thing when I see it.
I actually approve of this. Believe it or not, the average coloradan with broadband (%32 of us now, no shit) is using 802.11G without even knowing it. They see the rabbit ears on their router and don't think twice, their kids might make a fuss about the WEP key so they can play their Nintendo DS with their friends; they're otherwise unaware. Now a little more than half of that %32 is made up of engineers and IT workers that have the wherewithall to do something about it, but that still leaves a couple hundred thousand people in Douglas County unaware of their network and why their bandwidth is being hogged by the freeloaders next door.
c onfusing guy. Seeing as how the crime rate is down, nothing happens in Douglas (Denver county however is just as bad as Detroit) and how stand up our Sheriff and Deputies are; I see this as a good thing.
;)
Now, knowing Douglas county sheriff and deputies, they're fairly smart guys. Most of them as computer literate as us, and friendly enough to secure their network for them. This saves me the time, as I'm the general, all around, fix-anything-electronic-mechanical-or-just-plain-
However, this is a local thing, an area like ours is a phenomena. In big places like NYC or LA or Dallas, don't even come knocking on my door expecting me not to answer with a shotgun in hand. That with or without a badge present. Douglas is one of those areas just big enough to have the fun stuff like movie theatres and good restaurants but still small enough that everyone knows eachother. It's almost like that across all of metro Denver, in their respective urban divisions anyway. All the kids in Adams county know eachother or their friends, same in Jefferson, Brighton, Aurora, etc.. Denver Metro for being 2.7 million people is kind of the small world place that is good for trustworthy cops and good people. The only downside is the disproportional presence of criminals and druggies.
Anyway, as a resident, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Potential for abuse, but we know the people capable of abusing, and we wouldn't let it stand. Despite our representatives in government, this is still very much an independant, watchdog state. We fried a city mayor (of which there's almost 40 in the metro area) for just being within 50 feet of a strip club. Denver's mayor is about to be fried over swaying on the side of a developer trying to encite imminent domain to evict a mere 14 people out east for a super-slab highway. But that's just us.
If I were to see something like this happening in LA or NY, I'd be worried for the citizens of that area
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
He will have a good laugh.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
If any of us were to go wardriving and the police observed it, an example would be made of you. Look at the people being charged for let's say not eating at an establishment but using the free internet access. And don't forget the pastor that was told he had to be inside the library or else be charged for unauthorized use. Question: What makes Law Enforcement above the law?(besides the wonderful patriot act) If they are allowed to access open networks what is stopping them from going further and cracking our encrypted AP as well and what they will leave behind (rootkits ....). I personally think that if this is allowed even more of our privacy rights to be destroyed. When is this going to stop.
Are these people trying to tell me that crime is so low in Colorado that the sheriffs have nothing bettwe to do than go around war driving?
If that is indeed true (which I doubt), then these guys shouldn't be being paied at all, they should be laid off, since their service is no longer required.
I mean, even *if* this program was a valuable enough service to warrant funding (which it isn't), it's something a summer co-op student could do for 10 bucks an hour - not something to waste a highly-paid sherrif's time on.
What they didn't mention is how many of these crimes were committed via an open wifi connection!
-- Boycott Shell
It's always a refreshing day when you can see that law enforcement are wasting our time and money. Thanks guys.
I don't care how computer illiterate some may be. It's in the news, it's in your email, it's online, your friends know about it, your neighbors know about it. Everyone knows how to find out about securing their internet connections. Hmmmm, let me see, Google: securing wireless. Go on ahead and try it.
Not that hard. There are more than enough how to's out there. Even the instructions the device came with tell you how to do it. If your online, you know how to read.
I'm all about darwins law. The strongest shall survive. If your not smart enough to think that it can happen to you. You deserve what you get. If you don't care enough, and someone steals your identity, you deserve it even more for not giving a damn about yourself.
Police shouldn't be driving around, passing out fliers. It's not going to help. People have more 'important' things to do than secure their home.
In my home town we used to have a cop that was tasked with walking up and down the business district checking that the doors were all locked up (we all called him the "Door Shaker"). This seems similar to that.
The Tao that can be spoken is not the one eternal Tao
One of these things could be used simply to tell if there is an open spot, and a brochure placed in mailboxes nearby. I dont believe that the police will actually be using a laptop to connect to your network and do a test by surfing to google. Again I didnt RTA yet so if that is the case, then I start to be concerned.
This is part of the other half of their jobs. Helping people unlock cars, giving rides to people who are lost, just in general helping the communities they are there to protect.
95% of people don't KNOW what security is. But if someone tells them what could happen on their connection, most will take some action to secure it.
.. is run the jail and protect the courts..
The Sheriff's deputies in that county are showing good community service.
Remember, in most states the only thing the Sheriff's Department is REQUIRED to do
Anything extra, is gravy..
Bravo to the Sheriff of that county.
= Grow a brain...
I'm a cop. Have been for over 25 years. I wardrive from time to time over the last several years and have found about 60% of wireless networks are not secure. In talking with folks most say, they did not know how to turn on security, they have nothing of value to protect so they don't care or when security is on the wireless doesn't work or drops in and out frequently. I think the DCSO is doing a community service, (Community Policing) in pointing unsecured wireless networks out, giving out flyers that can help the community and at the same time possibly reducing the potential for some targets of oppoutunity. The officers will not be spending all their time, probably not even much time to this effort however pointing out a potential problem is part of any officers job. If it keeps one person from being a victim, especially a child, then it's worth the time and effort. Those who believe the cops are picking on them or monitoring there computers apparently don't understand what is and is not realistic. An open wireless network is for the most part only going to give someone access to the Internet which would be traced back to the owner and not the person borrowing the bandwith if lawenforcement got involved. Eventually it would be determined that the owner had no bad things on his computer and that it was a case of an open network. Of course much time and energy would have been consumed to get to that point. If a person is advised of a security issue and chooses not to do anything about it, then so be it! I would bet those folks are fewer and far between. I believe the rest of the community would be happy to have the information and assistance so they can precautions to protect thmeselves and rest a little easier at night. It is not going to stop determined crackers nor is it going to keep cops from doing their job since fighting crime is their job. Nothing I saw will change the way some folks thing about law enforcement or the government but I for one say that for each citizen who may not have that computer knowledge and is then enlightened, it may be one less report, investigation or victim, and that time is well spent. If and until wireless security is on by default, works like it is suppossed to and is understandable to the laymen then good job DCSO, I hope your community appreciates the help and I hope it keeps you or someone you know from having to spend more time with an officer because you are filing paperwork!
Most of the people that receive a flyer from an officer will never do anything to secure their network anyway, with or without the advice from the cops,(my guess is maybe one out of fifty will secure their access point), either because thay don't care to or don't know how to.
It's a fair bet that the money spent on the equipment and the time to train the officers to use it is a far greater amount than would have been spent on simply bulk-mailing the flyer to EVERYONE in the area. Those who will have heeded the flyer handed to them by the cop will probably do so if notified by mail. Those who dont, most likely would not have anyway.
As presently constructed, this "program" looks like simply another avenue for the area's government to expand its scope, number of personnel, budget, and, by extension, power. If anyone believes that this will simply be a function integrated into an officer's daily routine, to be attended to when not busy with other tasks, they are grievously mistaken. The end result will be another series of positions into which to place even more power-hungry public-trough feeders at the expense of the citizenry.
This is a classic example of the overreaching of governmental entities into areas that are not, and should never be, their domain. Government should exist only to provide those functions that are too large, either structurally or socially (structure:think right-of-way issues, bridges, dams, highways; social: think prisons, military defense) for private citizens to undertake, or as an arbiter of the rules that help ensure a semi-orderly society (courts and laws). Unless we truly wish to completely give away our liberty (what little we still have left), we must insist that government do only those things that we as private citizens cannot (not will not) do. It is not a government function to provide telephone service, garbage service, internet service, medical service and the like. The money that government spends has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is your and my pockets. Government does not create anything, either material goods or wealth. What it spends must come from those of us who actually produce, thereby reducing our return on our efforts, and redistributing our money to their hordes of trough-feeders, both employees and entitlement program recipients.
The police exist to deal with those who perpetrate criminal acts. Our relinquishing to them the power to interfere and prosecute civil wrongs, (or torts -- for which we as citizens, not the police, have the civil court system), results in each of us being more vulnerable to the possible (probable?) abuses by those in whom we have invested said power. It is a misuse of both public funding and public trust for the police department in question to waste time and money pursuing an activity that does not even constitute a crime. There is no more legal requirement to lock down a wireless device than there is to lock the door of your car, lock the door of your home, tie your shoes, or attend to any number of other common-sense details of modern life. If the police were to keep up this approach, we would soon each have a personal police "nanny" constantly by our side, warning us about every little thing that we might make ourselves vulnerable to, either by commission or omission, and these "officers", on the public payroll would be doing nothing to find or apprehend actual criminal perpetrators. I suspect that if we took away the electronic "toys" that accompany this program, and their associated budget, there would be no appetite to have the cops simply go out and canvass the neighborhoods, asking residents if they had a wireless device, and then handing the flyer to those who answer "yes".
Their only involvement should begin if someone actually commits a criminal act in violating the private property (either physical or electronic) of an otherwise private citizen.