Defcon "Warballoon" Finds 1/3 of Wireless Networks Unsecured

avatar4d writes "Networkworld is reporting about a warballooning operation (similar to wardriving) that was disallowed by the management at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, but was covertly launched anyway. The team found approximately 370 networks, and about a third of those were unsecured. In addition to that, the project managed to show how trusting the local law enforcement agencies really were: 'Near the end of the operation, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police cruiser drove by the parking lot to see what was going on. Hill and his team waved. The police officers waved back and drove off.'"

Comments

So let's get this straight

[yourpusher]

If the police flip out over something we do, they're overreacting idiots that don't understand technology.

But if the police don't flip out over something we do, they're underreacting idiots who aren't keeping us safe.

Mmkay.

Re:i hate you all

[MrNaz]

More to the point about finding unsuspecting piggybackers, I don't see how it should be expected that the law should get involved to quickly unless a serious crime has been committed. I find this particularly alarming:

In addition to that, the project managed to show how trusting the local law enforcement agencies really were: 'Near the end of the operation, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police cruiser drove by the parking lot to see what was going on. Hill and his team waved. The police officers waved back and drove off.'

So they'd prefer if the police stopped and strip search everyone doing something they considered suspicious? What kind of hackers are they if they think authority needs to always get up close and personal with anyone doing anything remotely out of the ordinary.

It's a good thing that the police had a look, could see that a crime wasn't being committed, and decided to continue looking for something worthy of their time, not a bad thing as the absurd summary seems to suggest.