Monday, March 06, 2006

On connecting to others' wireless network

Here is a fun bit on wireless connection"theft"; it looks like its becoming more socially acceptable (I guess kinda like music piracy :-) already is). In fact, my shocking moment in that area came when I was having lunch in NYC with a couple of security folks (of non-hacker origins, mind you) and we needed Internet access to check something we discussed. One whipped out his laptop and exclaimed "Well, its the 21st century - you know what to do, just use your neighbor wireless" and proceeded to connect to somebody's wireless network :-)

Hey Neighbor, Stop Piggybacking on My Wireless: "'Piggybacking, the usually unauthorized tapping into someone else's wireless Internet connection, is no longer the exclusive domain of pilfering computer geeks or shady hackers cruising for unguarded networks. Ordinarily upstanding people are tapping in. "

On the other hand, its kinda hard to qualify something as a crime if Windows XP does it by default :-)

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Dr Anton Chuvakin