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Accused Teen Bomber Finds FBI Surveillance Team's Wireless Network
roccomaglio writes "The suspect who is accused of planning to bomb his high school in Tampa updated his Facebook status with the following: 'The weirdest thing happened today...when my homie Nic Peezy was trying to connect to a wireless network the connections list came up and one of them was called: FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN,' The FBI might want to revisit their wireless network naming conventions."
Teen bomber online? We really do need better names for things.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Let me guess - he looked out the window and saw a van marked Flowers By Irene or Charlie's Independent Analysis....
...I'm renaming my network to mess with the tinfoil hats.
Because there's no chance that could have been some random nearby resident with a sense of irony/humor.
Don't people normally name their home networks crap like that anyhow? I think I saw a 4CHAN_PARTY_VAN at my friend's apartment...
Is the name of my WiFi tether spot on my Android, but that doesn't make it legit.
anyone can make up an ssid. come on, slashdot.
It's either a joke or an attempt to make him cocky so that he'll blab.
... Doesn't mean it was actually an FBI access point. (Quick, show of hands of people who didn't already know that?... *crickets*...)
People can name their SSIDs everything they want, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time someone gave their wireless network a certain name to make some people raise their eyebrows or chuckle. Nothing to see here.
Does that count as impersonating an officer of the law? Barring some over zealous district attorney...
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
My wireless network is named "unsuspcious_plain_white_van
Next time "NOT_A_FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN"
Definitely would make me believe the flower van outside is not a fed van
I don't believe that one bit. First off, we can assume that the FBI has more than one surveillance van, in which they can't all have the same SSID. They would include some sort of vehicle ID, etc. Second, this kid was living in some delusional word trying to make himself out to be a lot more than he was. I think he was hinting to his friends on FB and trying to sound like a badass of some sort. He was obviously running his mouth about his plans, which is how he was caught - someone turned him in. Perhaps that was his way of reaching out for help before he actually acted. Regardless, just because he posted it on FB doesn't mean that his friend really saw that wireless SSID.
Better known as 318230.
Correction: Teen posts some BS about finding a FBI wifi network.
Really? Do we believe everything some jerkoff posts on Facebook now?
The article itself is pretty amazing: it's mostly a report of the kids social media posts. WTF is that? Journalism?
I usually name my wifi "_SURVEILLANCE" just to mess with my neighbors
There's a 0% chance that it was actually the FBI's van, people name their wireless networks that on purpose. In fact, do some basic Googling for "funny wifi network names" and searches similar to that and FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN will be on every single one of them. I can't believe this was posted AS A SERIOUS ARTICLE on Slashdot.
I actually set that same ssid as a joke and still use it; this post belongs on facebook
this joke made its way around my circles a few months ago. you're supposed to change the name of your home wireless network to "fbi surveillance van" (those exact words, too) to freak out people who are hanging around your house stealing bandwidth. this isn't the stupidest article that's been posted, but it's close.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
My roommate and myself had that as our SSID for years.
Gone!
was posted to 4chon in a thread titled "dubs names my SSID" or something similar, 2 or 3 days ago. So, this proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he lives near an uncreative /b/tard.
1) Diddly
and
2) Squat
The Feds do not use commodity 2.4GHz or 5.xGHz WiFi gear.
They use 4.9GHz WiFi gear, which you cannot even legally buy in the US unless you're a government agency.
Or maybe, al_qaeda_local_549
.
Totally changing my network name to this.
Josh Helfferich (@Digerati) posted this on Twitter 16-AUG-2011:
'Just renamed my apartment WiFi network to "FBI Surveillance Van #57" because my neighbors were being jerks'
It is great when the news reporters get hit by an internet meme.
How did this end up on the front page of slashdot? What a ridiculous story.
Nothing to see here folks, just a white van with men in suits and ties inside.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Hey guys FBI_SURVELANCE_VAN_#42 is around here somewhere! It shows up on my list of wifi connections...
Also 'MAFIA_SAFEROOM', 'ALIENS_R_HERE, 'AL_GORES_HOUSE', and "ICANHEARYOUHAVINGSEX' are listed too!!!
I just checked and there is a wireless network named "FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN". Degaussing hard drives now...
...stories posted on slashdot actually were interesting to people in technology.
This is just pathetic.
I saw a SSID called, "ALIEN_UFO_SPECIES_123". My friend saw it too. Obviously we are being visited by aliens and the probing is about to begin.
This is just pathetic.
something like LocalPD_NarcoticsSquad!
"I_got_pussy_for_installation" was one ssid I saw once(well, thrice). it wasn't exactly that string though, as it was in finnish. funny anyways.
anyhow, if some neighbor of his(this guy) knew of the fbi raid or surveillance, they might have just put it up to spite. the ssid i saw might've been intentional by some tongue in cheek chick - or not.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
they cite lack of co-operation from us unchosens, & offering no apology or condolences, just more endless suffering, as it was written, & re-written over & over.
it's clearly an unproven mess, evidenced by the apparent need for even more deceptive distracting sideshow style theatrics by our rulers & the chosen ones' miniotic neogods arrogance.
should it not be considered that the domestic threats to all of us/our
lives & freedoms perpetrated by unsavory megalomaniacs be intervened on/removed, so we wouldn't be compelled to hide our
sentiments, &/or the truth, about ANYTHING, including the origins of the
hymenology council, & their sacred mission? with nothing left to hide,
there'd be room for so much more genuine quantifiable progress?
you call this 'weather'? much of our land masses/planet are going under
water, or burning up, as we fail to consider anything at all that really
matters, as we've been instructed that we must maintain our silence (our
last valid right?), to continue our 'safety' from... mounting terror.
meanwhile, back at the raunch; there are exceptions? the unmentionable
sociopath weapons peddlers are thriving in these times of worldwide
sufferance? the royals? our self appointed murderous neogod rulers? all
better than ok, thank..... us. their stipends/egos/disguises are secure,
so we'll all be ok/not killed by mistaken changes in the MANufactured
'weather', or being one of the unchosen 'too many' of us, etc...?
truth telling & disarming are the only mathematically & spiritually
correct options. read the teepeeleaks etchings. see you there?
diaperleaks group worldwide.
ahab the arab's 'funniest' home vdo; http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0bb_1312569503
Everyone knows that their SSID is PARTY_VAN.
I have to assume the [fail] tag is because they actually posted the story here... WTF... I've been reading ./ for a while now. Hardly ever log in (had to hunt down my password)... but srsly... this is ... There are no words in entish, elvish or the tongues of man to describe how much of a fail it is for this to get posted, as a serious article.
My SSID is "SHOCKING PORN" and when my sister-in-law got wifi, I made sure she understood there was a password and we set the SSID to "Fuck Off, Freeloaders!"
My general experience is that most of the time the immediate neighbors on both sides wifi bleeds in/out at about 1 "bar" of strength, so its not like anybody even sees the SSIDs unless they are in my house or outside.
Everyone knows the FBI is full of jar heads that can hardly log into a wireless network let alone setup a router with an SSID like that.
have said, this is probably bullshit. Other than the obvious reasons, why would anyone use SOMETHING_LIKE_THIS as an SSID? It's not a constant in the Linux kernel tree or something. An SSID can have lots of different characters, there's no reason at all to be restricted to caps and underscores. There are some cases where such a naming convention is appropriate, and others where nobody would bother, if they even thought of it at all.
LOL!!! REALLY?? Does the FBI really call their wireless networks in their vans, "FBI SURVEILLANCE VAN"?? That sounds like something you would see in a kids' cartoon! HAHA I would think the FBI would come up with something more inconspicuous than that, like "Netgear" hehehhe This is too funny :)
The reason our law enforcement is as good as it is, the ones who can't get into the police academy become criminals.
That's my network. I named it that as a joke.
Look, I title my WiFi networks weird things all the time, just because I know strangers will see it and be confused. Some are great wordplay, some are simply bizarre non-sequitors, some of them are downright disgusting, and some are deliberately misleading.
My hunch is that this network is NOT that of an actual FBI surveillance van, but the product of a fun-loving person setting up their router.
That said, it would be pretty simple to use wifi sniffing tools to pinpoint the source of the signal and actually, you know, VERIFY this absurd claim.
I mean, the feds are stupid, but I don't think they're THAT stupid.
Even now, as I write this.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
My cell phone is "Flowers By Irene" whenever I enable wifi tethering.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Think I'll plug it in and set it up to broadcast "CIA_DEA_FBI_SURVEILLANCE" but not connect it to anything. I wonder how long it will be before it shows up in a story here...
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
The guy's in jail, do they have Internet Access from prison these days?
Seriously, there are 2-3 wireless networks around my apartment that are named something similar to this, probably by some people who still think this is surprising to others and/or funny.
So, a wireless network with the title "FBI SURVEILLANCE VAN 13" or something of the sort showed up at my office a couple months ago. I assume it's a lame joke. I'm sure this kid's neighbor has the same sense of humor.
Nothing to see here folks, just a white van with men in suits and ties inside.
and Guy Fawkes masks...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Since I moved into my new apartment four months ago, there's been a wireless network named "FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN".
Mine is named "FreeInternet.com". Doesn't mean I actually own (or have ever visited) that URL. Or that my internet is free.
Anybody else notice this article is NOT about the wireless SSID? It might actually be about a school bombing that may have almost happened. 90% of the way through the article, I did find the ONE sentence that talked about wireless networks.
Thanks, Slashdot.
Check your wireless networks and you will likely find the TSA showing up on your computer. They don't show up all of the time but they obviously don't care that you know.
If this counts as evidence of FBI involvement, then what does it mean that I saw nearly the same thing about 90 miles north of the 49th? (I.E. the Canada/US border)
to rename my wifi network so I can freak out the neighbors.
Hard to update facebook when he is in jail
I've seen this SSID in NYC before. Just figured it was someone trying to make others paranoid.
Does anyone remember what /. used to have useful stuff on it?
Or was I just imagining it, and it was always pointless crap like this?
Roughly 10 years ago, I was war-driving and one of the hotspots came up: 'CIA SAFE HOUSE'. The sad part was, I wasn't sure if it was a joke or if someone was actually that daft. It was a posh area of town, so I'm still undecided to this day.
And after reading this story, the FBI circulated a memo instructing that the SSID should be changed to TOTALLY_NOT_FBI_SURVEILLANCE from now on.
There are quite a lot of us naming our guest networks FBI Surveillance Van 13 (pick your favorite number). I've seen this a bunch at conferences and friends houses.
I've witnessed several raids in my gated community association, and after those raids there were a few WIFI hotspots that changed.
I trangulated them and it pointed to a servo-controlled single-directional antenna on a power pole and where there was an actual WIFI Bridge pointing to another WIFI Bridge down the road about 1/4 mile where there was in-fact a van. Keep in mind that this was not a 4Chan-style "Party Van" that averages around 40-feet long and made by Hi-Lo or such, but a simple small cargo van without windows made by GMC.
The names of the WIFI ssid you might all be wondering? There were two, but I only found that 1 bridge, but the ssid's were actually "SATAN" and "SATAN_GUEST." It would make sense to just blend-in your station as either an encryped "NETGEAR" or "LINKSYS" or "2WIRExxx" but these government employees just insist on being the left-hand of destruction and pomp by naming their networks as such. At this verry moment, those two networks are up and moving packets heavily, so my contentions is that they have WIFI cameras in someone's house to watch their every movements, because the rate of that data is such as what would be a live stream of video but it's so-encrypted with something else that I just can't make heads or tales of it.
In my experience with the Government, when they have a hunch on something then they throw the rule-book out the window and violate everyone each way possible because the goal is a successful prosecution by illegally collecting evidences that they could cross-examine to point at evidence that they were allowed to present towards a judge as though with blind probability with deductive reasoning would have yielded such accuracy, but they have the answers because of studying the illegally-collected evidence. Typical.
But I'm totally changing my sprint mobile SSID to that and leaving the roaming wlan on from now on...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I don't remember what forum it was posted on but I do remember reading 1 to 2 years ago a thread encouraging people to change their SSID to this. I think it was posted on reddit or 4chan but I can't find it on google search.
Here is a comment from someone using this SSID as a joke in 2009: http://www.holytaco.com/25-hilarious-wifi-network-names/
So many news articles I read these days are based around a facebook status or someone's tweets. Infact, about a week ago the front page of the newspaper I buy was about something some celebrity wrote on twitter. There so called journalists need to get a fucking grip, do their job right and and start reporting proper news that people actually care about from decent sources.
Sure if you see a random Wifi spot with a spooky name, I would agree with you. But you're missing part of the story. Just before the kid got busted is when the Wifi spot showed up. It wasn't there before. Suddenly the spooky Wifi spot shows up and right after that the kid gets busted.
So if it is a coincidence that a neighbor named his Wifi spot something spooky to keep the kids out, then it's one heck of a coincidence.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
A story of my own. I set my SSID to "flancrest enterprises" and a few days later I noticed one of my neighbors had changed theirs to "CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet". True story.
There is a wifi access with this name that I can see, and I live in Canada...
This has to be the dumbest fucking story I have ever read on this site. I can't tell if this article is serious or meant for a laugh. Sadly I think it is serious.
As I write this, there is a nearby access point named "CIA Surveillance Van". You think that is the fucking CIA? Should submit a story about that?
Jesus fucking christ. This is a new low for this site.
Google_Streetview_Van
I suppose that FBI agents are so technically inept that they commonly carry wifi routers in their vans (which would be completely unnecessary) and name their networks this obviously? I've seen "FBI" networks at least a couple of times, when not wardriving, so I doubt I it is easy to just stumble upon such stupidly named but authentic networks. Why didn't the person who submitted this article, or the one who approved it, realize that the moron of interest is not really smart enough to uncover an FBI investigation of him? Come one, seriously, what a waste of space, Slashdot.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
The article really doesn't say that at all, now does it?
Now brush your teeth and clean your shoes.
Leave nothing to chance.
++//--
This is an embarrassing news article... I name my AP's stuff like this all the time. ESPECIALLY FBI Surveillance van, it keeps kids away from my wifi; they wont even try to mess with it.
I also saw the FBI Surveillance wireless network and I have a picture to prove it. See the picture at the bottom of this page:
http://lannyland.blogspot.com/2009/04/thrun-and-novig-offers-free-intro-to-ai.html
Yes, that is really my SSID. Good icebreaker really.
One time I saw across the street a mysterious green van with red flowers and lettering on it. I didn't think much about it until I checked my network and saw one connection labeled "THOSE_MEDDLING_KIDS"
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
I offer two scenarios:
Scenario 1:
The FBI, with years of training, loads of equipment and hundreds of experts, has a van with a WAP which is broadcasting an SSID of FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN which serves no purpose other than to announce their presence (as opposed to trying to mimic an existing SSID in order to dupe people into connecting to their WAP - or not broadcasting an SSID at all).
Scenario 2:
Some people who know this kid, who have heard his rantings, decide to mess with his head by plopping down a WAP that is broadcasting that SSID.
There is no single word in TFA about FBI wireless...
sorry for reading it tough
My SSID is "FBI Surveillance Van" and has been for 4 years.
...and proud of it :D
there's a couple of other ssids in my neighbourhood that use boring names like "edupass43256" and "bigpond". these people obviously have no life :P
Ok, this could make a funny four line long joke, but a story ?
never seen a fun SSID?
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wifi.jpg
kids these days...
Their normal ID is two_guys_from_quantico_pizza .
I live in a neighborhood with a lot of poor first generation immigrants and illegal immigrants. Not that I have a problem with people trying to make a better life for themselves, individually, but for fun I name my SSID "INS_SURVEILLANCE_VAN"
This joke has been around for at least two years, folks...
This has been a test. If this had been an actual Sig, you would have been amused.
Makes me want to name mine Playtronics_Internal or Playtronics_Cray_YMP just to make people google it.
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
A real FBI surveillance van would broadcast a much more common SSID.
Like 'linksys'
or maybe
'attwifi'
No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
My guest wireless is named FBI_surveillance_van_7819
My router can run 4 networks at once, 2 at 2.4 and 2 at 5. Each bandwidth allows for a guest network. Anyways I am naming them "FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN_01", "FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN_02", "FBI_SURVEILLANCE_HELICOPTER_01", and "FBI_SURVEILLANCE_DRONE"
FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN is an incredibly popular SSID that comes up on every list of clever network names I've ever seen. A friend of mine even uses it, though hers has some numbers attached to make it look better.
In San Marcos TX, two weeks ago, driving North LBJ.
Nowhere in the article does it say anything about the FBI or a wireless network.