Smack! piggyback hack

[Taro Toporific]

Hacker hitched ride on private LANYomiuri Shimbun / June 10
A university employee already under arrest for hacking into his university's computer system did so by illegally accessing a wireless local area network installed in a private home, the Metropolitan Police Department said Tuesday.
Ryoichi Nakayama, a 47-year-old employee of Takachiho University in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, illegally piggybacked onto a private wireless LAN installed at the home of a 33-year-old company executive in Chofu, also Tokyo, when he hacked into the university's computer system in November

[Caustic Saint]

But it's still okay to piggyback on somebody's wifi if you're doing important stuff like blogging or posting on FG, right?

[Failsafe]

But it's still okay to piggyback on somebody's wifi if you're doing important stuff like blogging or posting on FG, right?

Good point but this brings up a serious question;

If somebody is invading my airspace with their radio waves is it right for me to use them for my own advantage if they are not secured or encroaching into the range of my home/car/bicycle/bus/train?

Is it the responsibility of the person that owns the wifi device(s) to secure and limit the range of wireless access or otherwise reap the consequences?

[Caustic Saint]

But it's still okay to piggyback on somebody's wifi if you're doing important stuff like blogging or posting on FG, right?

Good point but this brings up a serious question]
Sure.

Is it the responsibility of the person that owns the wifi device(s) to secure and limit the range of wireless access or otherwise reap the consequences?

Yes and no. Yes, it's up to them to secure the access point, but they can't really be held liable for what someone does. This came up in one of the RIAA suits, when they sued a woman for sharing over Kazaa - yet she owned an iMac. Oops!

[Failsafe]

Yes and no. Yes, it's up to them to secure the access point, but they can't really be held liable for what someone does. This came up in one of the RIAA suits, when they sued a woman for sharing over Kazaa - yet she owned an iMac. Oops!

Oops indeed, thanks for the link its nice to know she won the case.

I found it nearly as entertaining as the cat in your avatar from Shrek 2

[Caustic Saint]

Yes and no. Yes, it's up to them to secure the access point, but they can't really be held liable for what someone does. This came up in one of the RIAA suits, when they sued a woman for sharing over Kazaa - yet she owned an iMac. Oops!

Oops indeed, thanks for the link its nice to know she won the case.

It's not that she won the case, she never had to fight it. The RIAA called off their dogs and withdrew the case when they realized they'd screwed up.

I found it nearly as entertaining as the cat in your avatar from Shrek 2

Yep. Puss was one of the brighter moments of that movie.

[Failsafe]

Yes and no. Yes, it's up to them to secure the access point, but they can't really be held liable for what someone does. This came up in one of the RIAA suits, when they sued a woman for sharing over Kazaa - yet she owned an iMac. Oops!

Oops indeed, thanks for the link its nice to know she won the case.

It's not that she won the case, she never had to fight it. The RIAA called off their dogs and withdrew the case when they realized they'd screwed up.

I found it nearly as entertaining as the cat in your avatar from Shrek 2

Yep. Puss was one of the brighter moments of that movie.

Serves me right for skim reading and i agree with you, puss did make me laugh .. but back to the point.

I don't think people realise what they are opening themselves up for when they get a wifi device, i've seen wide open networks begging me to access them (From a PocketPC it basically asks if you want to connect to the network when you walk past it) but somehow i avoided the temptation and just used internet access whilst waiting for the bus but anyone with half a brain cell and a directional antenna could seriously exploit it, i think wifi devices should come with a warning like cigarettes in the UK.

I heard about one wifi honeypot in the US that started a few years back, not a bad idea really.

The strangest thing I ever read was something about the 802.11 frequency range only passed government regulations because they where using scanners to look for bodies after 11/9 but you know how these conspiracy theories start.