Slashdot Mirror
Wardrivers Target Seattle Businesses
angry tapir writes "Seattle police are investigating a group of criminals who they say have been cruising around town in a black Mercedes stealing credit card data by tapping into wireless networks belonging to area businesses. The group has been at it for about five years, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Chris Hansen, a fraud investigator with the Seattle Police Department."
SECURE YOUR WIRELESS ACCESS POINTS. Otherwise, unwanted traffic is your fault.
Why don't you have a seat over there? ... What were you thinking?
fak3r.com
It would be easy to set up a weakly protect access point that did nothing but generate bogus transactions with bad credit card numbers - that could pollute the crook's database, particularly if they don't do a good job of recording of which card number came from which network.
And if the bogus numbers were timestamped and logged then when the bad card numbers are used (and bounced) one could use the bounced transactions to build a map of where the crooks were on any given day.
We discovered that the company below us a few years back (here in Seattle) had not only an open wifi but also had all of their drives shared. We immediately went down stairs and warned them after one of us accidentally connected to their wifi and saw a whole bunch of computers (with official sounding names even) pop up in the file explorer.
Their reaction? "Whatever." They never put a password on it. I was actually surprised by their disinterest in locking down when alerted. Even after we told them that people could just drive by and steal all their company records... so stupid.
It was a 1988 Mercedes. The laptop and antenna might have cost more than the car.
This sentence no verb.
Well, according to the Seattle PI, they are accused of stealing more than $750,000 In computer equipment and other items. So no, these guys did just a little bit more than a $20 charge on some dudes card.
I hope you get lots of dollars, but wardriving is NOT a criminal activity. It's not a misdemeanor either. It's not against the law.
Receiving openly broadcast radio signals is one of our rights in the United States. While driving is a privilege, combining these does not make it a criminal activity.
I'm not trying to "justify" one event (not a crime) by comparing it to pedophiles (or paedophiles if you prefer an archaic and no longer correct spelling). There's no real comparison between NON-unlawful reception of open radio signals and molesting children. (Note: not all pedophiles molest children. I specifically referred to molesters because THAT IS criminal activity.
Best regards to you,
E
Using someone else's credit card is criminal. Doesn't matter if they use a megaphone and tell the whole world what it is. The fact the information is obtained through wardriving is simply the method.
Now people are going to think that Wardriving is synonymous with stealing credit card numbers, when it's just the act of finding wi-fi from a car.
Tossing paper planes would probably be fairly secure.
1)data would remain within your line of sight so any attempt to directly intercept would be obvious
2)with correct folding data could be hidden making remote interception impossible
3)It's not standard enough for no one to have developed a standard attack
With money to be made breaching networks, practitioners of one of the oldest professions in the world, will be learning to breach insecure WiFi networks
Hookers are taking hacking classes now? Finally some slashdotters are going to meet some women!
John
Firstly, let's be clear, I want the people stealing the information caught, and locked up. They are criminals.
The business should be fined though if they did nothing to protect their information. This is like leaving a toddler at home alone all day (though not to the same degree.)
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Did you even bother to read the summary? I get that this is /. and nobody RTFAs, but the summary was pretty clear that this wasn't just a case of wardriving, this was a case of wardriving until they found an unencrypted wifi connection and rummaging for credit card details. The details were then abused.
Trust me, they wouldn't be wasting the money on that around here if it were just stealing a bit of bandwidth.
These guys were wardriving + the police are after them = cops are after them because they were wardriving
Which is stupid. The cops are after these guys for misusing the information they obtained, not because they were wardriving. If they had been wardriving, and simply retained the information for their own use the cops never could have found them and never would have needed to. Quite frankly his posts are aggressive and irrational, and I was trying to explain to him why the cops are actually after these guys. From the first sentence in the summary:
stealing credit card data
And if you RTFA you learn that the owner of the Mercedes was only discovered after he was busted performing other forms of fraud.
Using someone else's credit card is criminal. Doesn't matter if they use a megaphone and tell the whole world what it is
While yes using someone else's credit card fraudulently is criminal, I wouldn't say the megaphone bit doesn't matter.
Screaming out their customers credit cards of course does NOT excuse the wardrivers crime in any way shape or form. But the separate act of sending all of their customers credit card information to the world should also be a crime as well.
At the very least I wish the police would post a list of these companies, so the general public knows they can not be trusted with our business.
At most, the companies should be brought up on charges of mishandling customer credit accounts and fraud.
They will just need to schedule that court case for a different day than the wardrivers court date, so everyone can attend.
Apparently it took five years of screaming at the top of their lungs for the police to notice them. Seattle apparently has rather more Lestrades' than Holmes'.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Driving is not a "privilege". The state cannot revoke your license because the governor or one of his officers just feels like it. It can only be taken under due process of law. That is the difference between a right and a privilege. Privileges can be revoked by the executive (doing what they feel like, not following any legislation.)
"The Right of the Citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by horse drawn carriage or by automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city can prohibit or permit at will, but a common Right which he has under the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." - Thompson vs. Smith, 154 SE 579.
Since when? Around here you don't need a license to own a firearm. In fact if you're a woman capable of claiming to be stalked, you can even get a handgun the same day.
When google gave us a wake-up call that someone in a van could drive around and gather all sorts of information we didn't realize we were broadcasting.
I never understood why did something become a privileged just because the state says it is. Rights can be limited or revoked if you break society's laws.
Since when? Around here you don't need a license to own a firearm.
Plenty of states do require you to have a license to own a firearm but yes, technically it is up to the individual state's laws. Just like requiring a driver's license is also technically up to the individual state's laws.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
"Why don't you have a seat over there"
I hope you get lots of dollars, but wardriving is NOT a criminal activity. It's not a misdemeanor either. It's not against the law.
Receiving openly broadcast radio signals is one of our rights in the United States. While driving is a privilege, combining these does not make it a criminal activity.
Did you read TFA, numbnutz? Breaking someone else's encryption, even if it's as lame as WEP, is a crime.
Massachusetts.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -- Albert Einstein