Priscilla Oppenheimer wrote: > My colleague asked me to develop a case study related to wireless > networking, in particular a legal case that resulted from someone > sniffing a wireless network. This could either be a case related to a > cracker obtaining confidential data without authorization, or a case > related to a cracker gaining access to a wireless network and using > bandwidth without authorization. ... or a case of an innocent party being harassed by clueless or embarrassed law officers when said party reveals the insecurity of their WiFi config :) Unfortunately I can't find the link just now, but a couple of years ago, an independent network consultant happened to be around the court house somewhere in Texas, and noticed an open wifi node. He noticed that it was the court house's wifi. He informed the law of this vulnerability, and they arrested him for his trouble. No offense intended to law officers on this list, who likely have a much higher level of clue, and would thank the person instead of arresting him or her. AFAIK, the law is rather untested on whether it is actually illegal to surf on an open wifi network. It seems to vary based on intent and activities, i.e. it likely is illegal under existing wiretap and computer break-in laws to use open wifi to break into someone's network. OTOH, there does not appear to be any law against connecting to someone's open wifi to just get some free Internet access. Caveat: I am not a lawyer, and haven't actually fact-checked any of the above, it is just what I remember over the years from reading on line news. Crispin -- Crispin Cowan, Ph.D. http://immunix.com/~crispin/ CTO, Immunix http://immunix.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Tue Sep 21 2004 - 12:56:26 PDT