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Queensland Police to Look For Unsecured WiFi Spots

Posted by samzenpus on from the going-down-under-cover dept.

OzPeter writes "As a part of National Consumer Fraud week, the Queensland Police are going war driving in order to identify insecure WiFi setups. From the press release: 'The War Driving Project involves police conducting proactive patrols of residential and commercial areas to identify unprotected connections. Police will follow this up with a letterbox drop in the targeted area with information on how to effectively secure your connection.' While some people may like having an open WiFi AP its interesting to see that the Police also feel that 'Having WEP encryption is like using a closed screen door as your sole means of security at home. The WPA or WPA2 security encryption is certainly what we would recommend as it offers a high degree of protection.'"

7 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. How times have changed by Aaron+B+Lingwood · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Merely 15 years ago I was doing the exact same thing and have been, on umpteen occasions, questioned, detained, given a 'move on' notice or just generally harassed.

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    [Rent This Space]
  2. It's Basic Infrastructure by mdm42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have an open Wifi setup. My attitude is that connectivity has become basic infrastructure, and all "lock it down" freaks have just bought into the agenda of ISPs who don't want us to share bandwidth to boost their own profits.

    If you're a guest in my home, you're welcome to use the bandwidth, along with the lights and water. Can you imagine visitig a friend only to be told, "Look, here's the PIN code to unlock the lights, and here's the key in case you want to wash your hands." Ridiculous. I accept that there's a risk of someone lurking in their car outside the property boundary to leech off my internet connection, but there's a risk of someone stealing water from my outside, unprotected taps, too. OTOH, if bandwidth were shared freely everywhere there'd be no need to sneak around "stealing" it, would there?

    It's the 21st Century, man. Get over it!

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    New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
    1. Re:It's Basic Infrastructure by hawkinspeter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What I do is use a WPA2 network that all my devices use and an open network for guests to use that is firewalled from accessing the other network. That gives me the best of both worlds.

      My attitude is that if I'm out and about and want to get WIFI, I'd like other people to provide open guest networks, so it makes sense for me to provide one for other people to use.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    2. Re:It's Basic Infrastructure by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have an open Wifi setup. My attitude is that connectivity has become basic infrastructure, and all "lock it down" freaks have just bought into the agenda of ISPs who don't want us to share bandwidth to boost their own profits.

      Screw the ISP I don't want my cheap-ass neighbors slowing my Netflix down to a crawl while they download 10 seasons of some anime shit.

      If we all "had internet" and people stuck to HTTP web traffic I wouldn't care. But I've had roomates before--hell I have myself as a roomate and I know that my internet is not big enough for the both of me from time-to-time let alone neighbors.

      If I had a gig-e pipe they could be free to do as they please but I don't pay for my apartment building's electric bill, I pay for mine. And based on the fact that I can't even leave my laundry detergent on my little spot of shelf in my apartment building without it being used up in a couple weeks (and 2 loads of laundry from me) I know if they could secretly plug their water into my tap they would.

      If I'm playing TF2 I expect there to be 0 torrenting and streaming on my connection so that my pings stay reasonable. It's bad enough knowing if one of my computers found an 'interesting' RSS feed let alone having two moochie neighbors.

    3. Re:It's Basic Infrastructure by alphred · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, but in order to discover that there is nothing on your PC, the police will break down your door, search your house and remove all computer-related devices that they can find. After a few months in their possession, and a thorough search of the contents, they will conclude that you must have hidden the illegal content on a thumb drive or some other device that they must have missed. In the meantime, your name and details of the search incident will have been released to the local press and the court of public opinion will have already reached a verdict of guilty that you and your family will have to live under forever. Lack of evidence in this case is not the same as innocence.

      Now, this scenario may or may not be likely, but you do have to ask yourself if it's worth it to have an open connection.

  3. Google by Aaron+B+Lingwood · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Doesn't google already have this data?

    This looks like a money grab from this years' budget

    The QPS is always complaining that they do not have enough funding to pay their staff. Now they are wasting precious manhours to mine data that they could easily purchase (or even receive for free) from Google.

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    [Rent This Space]
  4. Re:wifi security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Insecure WiFi != Insecure network.

    At home I have two WiFi network over the same AP, one is open an the other use WPA2, they are in independent networks and with a firewall between both, plus the open is capped to use at max 2mbps.