Two cautioned over wireless Internet "piggy-backing"

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor

Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:12 AM ET



By Peter Griffiths
LONDON (Reuters) - Two people have been arrested and cautioned for using someone else's wireless Internet connection without permission, known as "piggy-backing", British police said on Wednesday.
The practice, which sharply divides Internet users, has been fuelled by the rapid growth of fast wireless broadband in homes and people's failure to secure their networks.
On Saturday, a man was arrested after neighbors spotted him sitting in a car outside a home in Redditch, Worcestershire, using a laptop computer to browse the Internet.
A 29-year-old woman was also arrested in a car in a similar incident in the same area last month.
Both received an official caution, a formal warning one step short of prosecution, for "dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment".
They were among the first to be arrested for piggy-backing in Britain. Gregory Straszkiewicz, from west London, was the first person to be convicted of the offence in 2005. He was fined 500 pounds and give a 12-month conditional discharge.
"Wireless networks don't stop at the walls of your home," said PC Tony Humphreys, of West Mercia Constabulary. "Without the necessary protection, your neighbors or people in the road outside may be able to connect to your network."
There is a lively ethical debate in Internet chatrooms over whether piggy-backing is immoral or harmless.
"If it travels through the air it is open season," wrote one contributor to a Web forum. Another wrote: "If it's out there unsecure and I'm not trespassing, it's fair game."
Up to a quarter of home wireless connections are unsecured, according to a recent survey by the consumer finance Web site www.moneysupermarket.com.
Jason Lloyd, the site's head of broadband, said it left people open to identity theft, fraud and pornography being downloaded using their account.
"The repercussions can be severe," he said. "It's bad enough when your neighbors can use your Internet connection freely, but this becomes far more sinister if someone uses your wireless connection for criminal activity."
Businesses are also at risk. A survey of 320 companies by the London trade show Infosecurity Europe found that a quarter have no wireless security policy.
 
I got to confess I was 'piggy-backing' just yesterday. I really hate doing it because it is theft. But the truth was I was fixing my mom computer and I absolutely needed internet access for a bit in order to download drivers and other updates. My Grandmother doesn't have a computer let alone internet
access so what choice did I have? I used someone else's signal. I would have paid for it had I known whose it was, but I didn't. And I was desperate...

I think this situation would resolve itself if there was some kind of global coverage. They already have GPRS, and EDGE and 3G in the mobile market are getting wider access, unfortunatly there in no WIFI. They are working on it here in France but only limited coverage.

I say we are at least 2-3 years away.
 
It should be the responsibility of the owners of their wireless networks to secure them or leave them open for public access...

I believe in the US if they where to try to arrest you it would be similar to taking something that was left unattended with keys in it, I believe it is called borrowing without permission...

Regardless it should be the responsibility of the network operators to police their own networks...

Just driving around doing a little war driving and you can find soooooooo many unsecured networks it isn't even funny...
 
I have gone on vacation with my laptop and piggybacked to download email before.

I think that it is the responsibility of the user to secure their network. I myself have a secure net at the house, but there aren't too many folks around that would piggy back because of the distance between homes.

This is an interesting topic to debate... right or wrong?
 
I have gone on vacation with my laptop and piggybacked to download email before.

I think that it is the responsibility of the user to secure their network. I myself have a secure net at the house, but there aren't too many folks around that would piggy back because of the distance between homes.

This is an interesting topic to debate... right or wrong?

I don't think its the users responsibility, but its just not very wise not to do so. Being careless or uneducated should not be a license for people to steal.

And Donkey is right, the number of people that keep their networks unsecure is shocking. I mean simply dis activating the SSID broadcast would be enough to thwart most people, especially in congested areas. You would even need to use encapsulation or a SSID password.
 
It is the users responsibility to post no trespassing signs...It is the users responsibility to update virus protection...it should be the users responsibility whether or not they want to share...

They bought the equipment they should know how to use it...
 
It is the users responsibility to post no trespassing signs...It is the users responsibility to update virus protection...it should be the users responsibility whether or not they want to share...

They bought the equipment they should know how to use it...


Most people are not IT literate, or they are unaware of the dangers of a unsecure network.


Trust me on that I do this for a living, you be surprised some of the things I've seen.
 
Most people are not IT literate, or they are unaware of the dangers of a unsecure network.


Trust me on that I do this for a living, you be surprised some of the things I've seen.

I do electrical engineering you don't think I know...doesn't matter they want to play they should educate themselves...Stupidity is not an excuse!
 
I don't think the big crime of piggy backing is just gaining access to the internet without paying because it doesn't cost the router owner anything extra no matter who uses their hardware. It matters what the piggy backer does while he's using someone else's equipment. I guess if I were an ISP, I could say that I was somehow losing money because another user is not paying me.
A real crime can occur when someone uses that anonymous connection to commit any number of nefarious acts. It's a question of whose ultimate responsibility it is when that crime is committed.
I guess it's kind of like someone leaving their front door unlocked. It doesn't give anyone else the right to come into the house. At the same time, if you leave that door unlocked, you take the responsibility for your lack of caution.
I think most people (maybe I'm wrong) have connected though an unknown router or two when they had to, without any criminal intent.
 
You really can not compare it to leaving your front door open since it is a radio signal and floats out in the air...Possibly going even beyond your property...

Just for peoples own security of private information they should be encrypted and for ultimate protection they should enable MAC address filtering...
 
i have a question for the engineer here. How can I tell if someone is piggybacking off my signal?

You should notice a drop in bandwidth. If your line has suddenly gotten slow and you aren't using it for anything you might want to check to see if you got any uninvited guests on it.

Keep in mind that even although YOU might not be using the internet, something else on your computer might. For example Windows Update, the automatic update of virus protection files, program auto patching system etc...

Once you have ruled that out check the routers settings.

This depends on the router, but on the better ones it will list the PC's or the IP address that are connected. You'll need to access the settings in the router configuration, this is usually done via a HTTP command.
 
ok. cool. mine is encrypted, so i don't have to worry about it, but i always wondered how it could be detected that someone was using my link
 
If you have a Linksys WRT54G (or the newer WRT54GL) you can hack it very easily and add oooooodles of cool extras and tweakable items

And like mmarsh said you can check who is connected to your WAN or LAN by the DHCP table in your routers settings...

You could also use a program like AirSnare if you are so inclined
 
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I would be pretty pissed if I found out someone was piggybacking on my connection, because that would cause some lag in online games and also slow my torrent downloads significantly. Honestly, though, I wouldn't feel bad about doing it to someone else.
 
Well if you where so inclined you could set it up so that you had a limited amount of bandwidth open to new IP addresses. Basically you would give all your personnel computers priority...
 
Major Liability

You have a point. In fact this is why I think piggybacking is wrong. Its not so much ripping off the ISP (though I don't support that either, they have a right to make money for the service they provide), its the fact by piggybacking you are limiting the service for which somebody else is paying for, especially when you are not even asking permission.

Its no different then tapping into someones electrical system or telephone line.
 
I'm not saying it is right I'm just saying that it should be the responsibility of the owners to secure their internet, for some may want to share.
 
I have a wireless internet connection, but even though our monitor or whatever downstairs says we have signal, I cant hardly EVER connect, and for some reason I get our neighbor's signal so perfectly clear...I don't mean do be doing it, and it's wrong. I've called tech support so many times, but the idiots can't ever figure it out, so what am I supposed to do, go without internet? It's not hurting anyone, Im paying for it, and it's not like Im taking it so my neighbors can't use it.
 
You can get booster antennas and/or depending on the router you can put a 3rd party firmware on it and boost your Tx signal...

what router is it?
 
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