Internet System Hacking by Americans

[gatito]

Internet System Hacking by Americans



On April 3, 2011 three sailboats entered Willard Bay here at Bahia San Luis Gonzaga. It was obvious to the local residents that they needed assistance to find good anchorage. The locals got on the radio and assisted them answering all their questions. They stayed several days and continued to receive information from several local residents via channel 72.

Many of us who have homes here in Baja, also have Internet Satellite Service. Well, guess what...our friendly yauchters were hacking our system and arrogantly admitted to this when questioned. Replying with "you have such and such security and any school child with a computer can break your code", and sounding very proud of his accomplishment.

We have a way of checking computers using our system and noticed "Jims-PC", obviously unknown to us appeared under present users. It was later discoverd that they were operating 3 computers right here at Papa Fernandez Restaurant, as you know this plays havoc with our limited FAP. I have not given the statement as to how they broke into our coded system, in detail, as the hacker admitted to me, as it would allow others to do it. But I will tell you, if you are using WEP you should change to WPA as we have done.

So....Jim, Tom and Dennis, along with others aboard left Willard/Gonzaga Bay heading South, leaving behind many questions as to how Americans should treat Americans in Baja. They walked right by our house, obviously observing the Internet Satellte System...never contacting us...heading directly to the restaurant, to proceed with their dishonest deed. Thinking no one would ever know.

We have traveled in Baja for over 40 years and have had a home here at Bahia San Luis Gonzaga for over 25 years. We are now full time residents. This is the first time that anyone has given us a reason to alert Baja residents about dishonest people in Baja, and they were fellow Americans. A sorry and disturbing incident.

[Cormorant]

Just curious -- did they run up huge data usage and put you over your FAP? (I am on Hughes satellite myself, so I know the pain.)

They may have rationalized it if they intended to just send/receive a few text-only e-mails.

I know . . . that's still no excuse for cracking your WEP.

[S/V Alchemy]

Crack them back and run up gigantic pervert web site purchases. Then rat them our to the FBI..."have a seat over there, sir..."

[gettinthere]

...but the internet is supposed to be free!!

I wouldn't doubt they actually thought it was OK to do this, that it's not 'stealing'. The growing entitlement mentality of the modern world.

[spostamento nobile]

I'm sorry to say that even using WPA & WPA2 are no guarantee. A more secure way would be to only allow certain MAC addresses along with the upgrade to WPA. There are also several other ways to secure your rig. PM if would like/need any help.

[Unicorn Dreams]

Didn't think you could hack a satellite signal that easy.

Sounds more like a WiFi hack instead with no security protocols.
Doesn't mean that it was right, just saying.

What's the FBI going to do, invade Mexico over some internet signal piracy..

Would be nice to find them and fry their system.NOT LOL

[kevingy]

Jim at least did you the service of letting you know that your security was woefully inadequate. While their theft was absolutely wrong, you failed to adequately protect yourself from being hacked. I would bet that they were not the first to steal your internet connection. They were probably just the first that you noticed.

[Unicorn Dreams]

As kevingy said

[Therapy]

This is going to be a good one as it seems to be a form of piracy.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Unicorn Dreams

Didn't think you could hack a satellite signal that easy.

Sounds more like a WiFi hack instead with no security protocols.
Doesn't mean that it was right, just saying.L

Yep.

Doesn't make it right by any means, but for whatever it's worth there are a lot more people on land who will steal your Internet connection. At worst hopefully all they did was use up some bandwidth (and not attempt to access other computers on the network).

You could make it a bit of an opportunity if you want to. If there's enough boaters coming through that need Internet access, I can help you get something set up that they can pay $0.99/day for access. For less than $7 and having the convenience of being on their own boats while being online 24 hours a day it's a pretty good deal. Adjust the rates and how much bandwidth they can use until you arrive at a workable number.

[Lohi]

As Nobleshift said I suggest setting up MAC address filtering on your router together with WPA2 encryption (it will not stop a persistent and security savvy person) but you will have security against 99% of google hacker wannabees.

Lohi

[kevingy]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

You could make it a bit of an opportunity if you want to. If there's enough boaters coming through that need Internet access, I can help you get something set up that they can pay $0.99/day for access. For less than $7 and having the convenience of being on their own boats while being online 24 hours a day it's a pretty good deal. Adjust the rates and how much bandwidth they can use until you arrive at a workable number.

This is actually very easy to do and can be done with less than $30 worth of hardware, a recurring monthly fee (<$10) for web hosting and a PayPal account. If there is enough traffic to make it worthwhile, and you don't mind having to be tech support for your "customers", and your users aren't using all of your bandwidth such that you don't have any for your own use, it could be an additional income source.

[Red Mantis]

Wouldn't it be easier to hire an enterprising youth to drill a couple of holes in the bottom of the offender's boat?

[gatito]

The reason for so much concern on our part is that we are in a very remote area with no telephone or cell service...it's 3 hours to the nearest town with limited services...so our Internet Service is very fragile and important...we are volunteer Wardens for the US Consulate, American Citizens Service Unit...our HughesNet has coordinated Search and Rescues...Medivac...Hurricane and Weather Advisories. We have a notification list that services 300 people, so it is imperative that this system be up and operating 24/7. Not only is it against the law it is just not right...it is stealing. We are very careful with our usage so as to keep this system up and running for emergencies.

[Cormorant]

Sounds like a perfect situation for getting two Hughes satellite dishes. Run one into a WPA2/Mac-address-filtering router for your own use. Run the other into a "public" router with an affordable paywall (maybe $5/day, 5MB limit, something like that). People will pay the affordable rate rather than going to the trouble of cracking your encryption. And with luck, the profit from the one will pay for both set-ups, and then some. . . .