As reported by KATU News
Wireless piggybacking lands man in trouble
By Dan Tilkin
and KATU.com Web Staff
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Brewed Awakenings, with its pithy name, artful drinks and wireless Internet service, has found itself unexpectedly percolating on the forefront of high-tech law.
"He doesn’t buy anything," Manager Emily Pranger says about the man she ended up calling 911 about. "It’s not right for him to come and use it."
Pranger says 20-year-old Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground sat in the parking lot in his truck for three months, spending hours at a time piggybacking on the coffee shop’s wireless Internet service for free.
When deputies told Smith to knock it off, he came back and is now charged with theft of services.
"It’s a repetitive occurrence and it’s something that is borderline creepy," says Pranger.
As it turns out, Smith is a Level One Sex Offender, but whether he in fact committed a crime by not buying a single tall latte before accessing the Internet, well that remains to be seen. The sheriff’s office and prosecutors are now reviewing the case.
Personally I know a lot of people that use their neighbors wireless. It’s accessible because they’re neighbors are too friggin lazy or stoopid to RTFM that comes with their wireless router. I have two neighbors that have their routers wide-open and if I were so inclined, I could poke around their machines. I spoke with one about it and I’m actually going to show him how to secure it. Recently at lake Tippecanoe I took my laptop out on the boat and discovered a whole boatload of open wireless routers.
In another case:
From The St Petersburg Times
ST. PETERSBURG – Richard Dinon saw the laptop’s muted glow through the rear window of the SUV parked outside his home. He walked closer and noticed a man inside.
Then the man noticed Dinon and snapped his computer shut.
Maybe it’s census work, the 28-year-old veterinarian told his girlfriend. An hour later, Dinon left to drive her home. The Chevy Blazer was still there, the man furtively hunched over his computer.
Dinon returned at 11 p.m. and the men repeated their strange dance.
Fifteen minutes later, Dinon called police.
Police say Benjamin Smith III, 41, used his Acer brand laptop to hack into Dinon’s wireless Internet network. The April 20 arrest is considered the first of its kind in Tampa Bay and among only a few so far nationwide.
MINIMIZING THE RISKS
Here are a few tips to minimize potential threats to a Wi-Fi network:
Enable WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). Even though WEP uses weak encryption and is breakable, it still provides an effective first measure of defense by encrypting the traffic between your wireless card and access point. Use 64-bit WEP to gain some security benefit without slowing down your network unnecessarily. You can also use WPA, a similar security protocol that’s tougher to crack. Make sure both your access point and card support it.
Change your SSID (service set identifier) to something nondescriptive. You do not want to give out your name, address, or any other useful information to potential hackers. Also, don’t use the default SSID.
Change the default password on your access points. The defaults of most network equipment are well known.
Enable MAC based filtering. Using this feature, only your unique wireless cards can communicate with your access point.
Turn off your access points when you are not using them. Why risk being scanned or being broken into if you are not using your wireless network?
Position your access points toward the center of your house or building. This will minimize the signal leak outside of its intended range. If you are using external antennas, selecting the right type of antenna can be helpful in minimizing signal leak.
Don’t send sensitive files over Wi-Fi networks. Most Web sites that perform sensitive transactions like shopping with a credit card or checking bank account information use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.
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