Re: CRIME wireless case study URLs?

From: Alan (alan@private)
Date: Tue Sep 28 2004 - 11:35:14 PDT


On Tue, 2004-09-28 at 09:30, Warren Harrison wrote:

> This is actually more interesting than it sounds
> (well, maybe it does sound interesting :-)
> Burglary is basically defined (in Oregon) as committing
> a crime while trespassing. So *if* war driving *was*
> trespassing, and the intruder committed a computer
> crime, they would also be committing burglary.
> An ambitious DA could really stack the charges :-)

There seems to be a big misunderstanding what wardriving is.

Wardriving does not involve _using_ the network, only _identifying_ it.

A wardriver does not normally use ANY of the bandwidth of the target, he
just identifies the location and accessibility of the network.

The "all connection is theft" attitude is going to involve just about
everyone with a wireless card.

Most wireless configurations are set yo locate and identify all
connections in range, just like a wardriver does.  (They just do it in
bulk.)  They do this so that the "average person" can actually use
wireless.

Furthermore, most wireless connections are set to connect to the first
wireless signal that they find.  The OS will ask for a connection, dhcp
address and configure everything without the user having to do anything
but have the machine turned on.  In the hyper-prosecute mode of the "all
connection is theft" crowd, this is automatically a crime.  (And under
the INDUCE act, will also allow punishment of anyone who makes any
wireless hardware or software.)

The point of wardriving is to show just how many wireless connections
there are and just how many are unsecured.  Connecting after discovery
is something else entirely.


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