Quote:
Originally Posted by DCM
It is a harmless 'crime', what bothers me though, is you could realy be unscrupulous and get into the computers on their network with a little work, and they would be none the wiser. Ignorance isn't defence, but people are ignorant when it comes to computers and what they are bleeding into the airways. I might go wireless in the next 12 months, mainly cause I can't be arsed to route in some cat5 cable...
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It isn't a harmless crime.
What happens when the local "paedo" sits outside somebodies house, (they may even be someones neighbour) and downloads a bucket load of kiddie porn? The Police will come a knocking on the door of the person who pays for the broadband - after all it is their IP address that will be registered as downloading the porn. (The Laptop in the street doesn't have an IP address - it gets that from the wireless router). And then the "innocent" party has their PC removed for "examination" and their name is smeared acroos the local papers, they are thrown out of work and possibly their house when the local boys decide to exact their own type of justice.
OK, it's a slightly extreme example, but it not beyond the realms of possibility. And it certainly isn't a "harmless crime" just ask the person who has had their life destroyed by a wireless leach.
I agree however, that the owner of the wi-fi connection should make it secure, and if they made it secure it would be harder to hack - indeed the average wireless leacher wouldn't bother to hack it - they would look for an easier connection. I also agree that securing the wireless network should be automatically done during the configuration of the router/pc link up. If Sky can use encrypment that is purportedly stronger than "military grade security" just so people can't nick their channels, the likes of Netgear can put a simpler automatic encryption onto their setup routines, so the user doesn't have to encrypt it. The option should be to have the network "open" rather than "locked"
I think that the police are in a no-win situation with this too. After all, they are under resourced, over stretched, not spending enough time on the streets, and all they do is stop honest people like us for speeding -they should catch "real" criminals - the drug dealers, the house thieves, the car thieves, the muggers, the kiddie fiddlers....oh, hang on a mo - if they police wireless leachers, one of those they catch might just be a kiddie fiddler....
To me, it's simple. Somebody is paying for a service and somebody else is taking advantage of it. The person taking advantage of that "paid for" service is in the wrong.
If it's not yours, don't take it. Dead simple.
Just my tuppence worth.
