Slashdot Mirror
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."
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?
I leave my WAP open. (of course I have set the administrator's password though) My wap's SSID is "call (my phone number)". So far I've only gotten one call but there are about 1/2 dozen regular users and the odd hit from a new MAC about once a week.
The bandwidth they use is inconsequential. I suppose if a neighbor decided to go wild on bittorrent or something I might have to take action, but for now it's free lunch if you're in my neighborhood. That's the way I'd like it to be everywhere, so it makes sense for me to help it along in any way I can.
The city next door has a public utility that does cable modems among other things. They have set up WAPs on street lights all over town, and if you have cable modem service you can use it to login to any WAP in the city. Coverage is pretty good, close to 100% downtown. It'd be nice if they would support it with tax dollars and open it up completely, but that's not terribly likely to happen. Maybe in a few years.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Better be careful, and don't be nice to strangers, or some completely improbable bad thing might occur! Be afraid! Be afraid!
I can pick up 5-6 access points from my house. All are locked down except for one named "BeMyGuest"; I've used it a few times when my connection has been down, and when I figured out who's it was, I invited them to my barbecue. So I hereby counter your hypothetical, not very logical threat of an FBI raid, with the actual, already realized threat of: Free Beer.