Personal Wi-Fi

[trawlerfan]

While many, many people still feel there's absolutely nothing wrong with piggybacking on someone's open WiFi, the police don't always agree. We've had a few stories in the past about people getting arrested for using someone else's WiFi, or even threatening to arrest people for simply using a cantenna. The latest such story, sent in by Steve, involves a guy in Illinois who was fined $250 for "theft of services" after a police officer spotted him sitting in a car, using the open WiFi of a non-profit agency in the middle of the night.

A Singapore teenager has been charged with tapping into someone else’s wireless Internet connection, a crime that carries a penalty of up to three years in jail, a newspaper reported Saturday.

In the European Union it is NOT illegal to access and use an OPEN Access Point, It is the owner's responsibility to protect their AP.

However it IS illegal to access any AP by using any software to hack passwords, pass-phrase.

Now that said the UK may well be part of the European Union But in the UK one is under Common Law first and connecting to someones open AP and using it to the detriment of the owner will drop you well and truly up to your eye balls in the biggest pile of faeces you could ever imagine. MI5 will take an interest in you

Though using an open Wi-Fi network doesn’t feel like hacking, the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act sees things differently. That 1986 law makes it a felony to access computer systems, including routers, without authorization.

So the question is: If you left your door unlocked because you didn't know how to lock it and someone comes in....is that person still trespassing? The answer is YES and so are you by connecting to an unsecured access point.

Much like someone using someone elses house without permission because the door is unlocked they are risking their life doing so as you are risking your computer by connecting to an unsecured router. There are people to set these routers up for the sole purpose of hacking anyone who connects to it. There are also users who have computers with viruses just waiting for another computer to pass it to.

Millions of stories on the internet, some with some lengthy jail terms just for checking their e-male. But if this is the kind of person you are..more power to ya.