Perhaps this has been covered but my search didn’t turn up much.
The other day I was reformatting a Centrino laptop for a coworker. Why, in this day and age do people still click on email attachments? Sorry, that’s a well worn rant.
Anyway, I got the OS installed and was installing the drivers. When I came to the wireless NIC I flipped it on to make sure it started searching. Two wireless networks popped up -both insecure. One was a basic internet router (labeled “wireless”) and the other was an access point (labeled “hpsetup”). Both signals were somewhat weak so they could have been from any number of places. A different floor, an office across the street, etc (I work in a downtown office building).
So here’s my question. In the days of growing wireless access and how all providers and hardware makers recommend using access security, even having it switched on by default in some cases, what is the legality of using one of these insecure networks? The chance of getting caught is close to none so I suppose many people do this. What kind of legal charge could be brought on a wireless bandwith leech?
I recall there is a “1337 73rm 4 7h15” but I forget what it is.
I’m on a wireless laptop at the moment but I keep my network secured. If I didn’t and my neighbour started using it I wouldn’t blame him as much as myself for not chaining it down.
Outside of the legality question, how many people have a wireless network in their office/home that isn’t secure? Is this pretty common? I’ve thought of taking my laptop for a walk around downtown at lunchtime and counting the wireless networks I come across and how many are secured or not.
It’s kind of a grey area, legally. I think of it in the same terms as plugging my laptop and cell phone in when I get the chance. Technically, I may not have the right to that electricity, but realistically? No one seems to mind when I do it.
Ethically, though, you found two unsecured networks. Your card was able to negotiate with those access points for an IP address and DNS resolution information. They didn’t take any steps to protect or restrict their network. I believe you are free to use it.
I believe you cross the line if you find yourself doing any work to access the network. Guessing passwords, adding yourself to the access list, probing other network nodes… That all goes too far.
Setting up your laptop, opening a browser and going to a URL is, IMHO, fine.
And, before I get too long-winded on this, I think it is a reasonable assumption that the access is being offered. There are hot spots in nearly every city that give away access. I don’t secure my network access; Neighbors are free to use it.
What leenmi said. Lots of people are willing to share their bandwidth and you have no way of knowing whether the allowed access is deliberate or not. It would be very difficult to argue that privacy is presumed, especially since, as you say, it is nearly impossible to buy a wireless product that doesn’t come with warnings about security. I think at most you could argue it as a sort of theft of service issue but since the victim is a private citizen, they would have to sue you. The burden of proof would be on them and that proof would be difficult at best.
The cops aren’t going to come for you unless you use your access to do illegal things and even then they are more likely to come after the poor slob who didn’t secure his wireless network. “It wasn’t me officer, it was that creep Seven who accessed my network because I was too nice/trusting/clueless to secure it. I would never try to improve my hacking skills or access dodgy websites from any network other than my own so I can’t imagine that others would do those things on mine.”
That was sort of my thoughts. Leeching bandwidth to check email or read cnn.com is pretty victimless. What loss is the network owner really getting from that?
Now, if 300 people leech his bandwidth that’s another story. When he tried to use it, it would just sit there. Ahh, fond memories of BBS and 2400 baud modems.