Queensland Police to Look For Unsecured WiFi Spots

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.'"

Comments

It's Basic Infrastructure

[mdm42]

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!

Re:It's Basic Infrastructure

[hawkinspeter]

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.

Re:It's Basic Infrastructure

[alphred]

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.

Accountability

[rwa2]

Plus, it's easier for them to book you for thought crimes they catch you committing via their IP taps. They'll have none of that "but my wifi is open -- it could have been anyone" defense. That won't work for you, sir, you'll be held accountable for whatever flows through your pipes!

I wonder what they will say

[Anonymous Coward]

NSW police may be interested in my wifi ssid "Police_Surveillance_Van_71A"

Re:wifi security

[Anonymous Coward]

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.