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98 Comments
- Lucas123, on 07/18/2009, -1/+79Are they also checking people's homes for unlocked doors?
- TonyLocNE, on 07/18/2009, -1/+35*knock knock*
"Excuse me sir, we noticed that your wireless connection is not secured...... wait, is that a bong I see? Sir, we're going to have to come inside..." - yocouchdigga, on 07/18/2009, -0/+30interesting but I really don't want the police getting any further involved in these kind of activities. next thing you know, they'll be monitoring traffic, "it's for your own good, citizen"... in case you wander into (places they've deemed) a ghetto of the internet or god forbid, monitoring downloads!
D:
*hides* - AlbinoRaven, on 07/18/2009, -1/+28They should have just hired a couple of local IT shops to drive around and do the same thing. The local IT shops near the retirement communities in Florida drive around offering the same service for $20 to secure wireless routers and their elderly owners laptops.
It isn't a police problem, it's a business opportunity. - RetepNamenots, on 07/18/2009, -0/+24What a waste of police time and money.
- DouglasQ, on 07/18/2009, -1/+23Australian cops are pretty friendly. I once got pulled over for driving erratically after a massive spider crawled across my windsheild and into my window. They just laughed at me and sent me on my way...
...In some ways that's worse than getting charged... - richiewrt, on 07/18/2009, -2/+22Next thing you know they will be driving around and trying to crack easy passwords. I can see it..."Sir, we noticed that you password to access your wi-fi is only 5 characters with no special characters. You are going to need to come up with a better password or we are going to have to have you banned by your ISP."
- mattearle, on 07/18/2009, -2/+21A lot of totalitarian stuff coming out of Australia related to the internet...
- Presbyterian, on 07/18/2009, -4/+21If you're still using WEP you deserve to be beaten and tazed.
- Jaime2000, on 07/18/2009, -0/+16No, it won't even be "is that a bong I see." It will be the much easier to bs "is that marijuana I smell?" If nothing is found, the cop just claims he made a little mistake. If not, someone who didn't do any harm to others gets sent to jail.
- ryanonfire, on 07/18/2009, -0/+16"Anyone caught using another person’s wireless network without permission may be charged with computer hacking under the Criminal Code Act 1889, which carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment." Woah! I never knew that. http://www.police.qld.gov.au/News+and+Alerts/Media ...
- skipgamer, on 07/18/2009, -0/+15They could have at least got a photo of an Australian police officer.
Journalism is dead. - GMH24, on 07/18/2009, -0/+14So what if I decide to leave my network connection open to the public like Bruce Schneier?
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_o ... - inactive, on 07/18/2009, -1/+13So Mad Max is going to be racing around looking for open wifi systems?
- Jaime2000, on 07/18/2009, -0/+11Agreed, I do the same thing. I used open wireless networks years ago and now it's my turn to share my network with people who might need it. I like open networks for much the same reason I like digital piracy and open-source software; sharing is caring!
- TonyLocNE, on 07/18/2009, -1/+12You gotta break the law to enforce the law... also, War is Peace....
- lolupissed, on 07/18/2009, -5/+15No wireless network is secure
- Technopundit, on 07/18/2009, -0/+8ISPs in Australia must wear makeup?
- sonofabiscuit, on 07/18/2009, -3/+111889?!
- uncleosbert, on 07/18/2009, -0/+7"see how easily we could kick in your door? why, we could have been roustabouts instead of the police! why are you screaming and crying?"
- SpareAccount, on 07/18/2009, -0/+7They are in England!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198843/Ho ... - Zarokima, on 07/18/2009, -0/+7Only if all your files are public.
- smacksaw, on 07/18/2009, -0/+7You said it, Lucas. Then what? They're going to suggest better locks as well? "Oh, you should get a deadbolt" etc.
- Culyt, on 07/18/2009, -1/+7I'm sure they do, and if you extra lucky they might also test how well your door stands up to them kicking it down, how bullet proff your dog is and how good your lawyer is when they plat some pot. /end of sterotypical digg view of police
In reality people know to lock their doors, they don't know about wifi, they just plug in the device, it works and they don't think about it any more than that. People will also enable WEP which is highly insecure. afaik WAP can also be done if its a bruteforcable key (ie a dictionary word). I wounder if they will check for WEP.
With that said they are probably only bothering with this because insecure wifi makes their jobs harder. If someone has an insecure wifi then it can be used for whatever ebil purposes, it also might make it harder to convict people who do do something bad but it carn't be prooven.
In reality it should be almost impossible for anyone to get convicted of cybercrime since there is no way to prove that you where the person at the computer doing it and not someone who broke in using a trojan, used your system for whatever, and even planted fake histroy and files to make it look like you did it to get the police off the real trail. There would be no way to find any evidence that it occured on most setups.
Any trojan could be loaded into ram and lost on power off, they also carn't be sure that the trojan wasn't hidden beyond the ability of the police departement to detect, custom code not in ant antivirus database with the main load encrypted in unsed sector and out such stuff.
The only reason these things get punished would be because judges don't understand the technology or the person admitted it. - mrjit, on 07/18/2009, -1/+7NOTHING is secure, given enough time and access.
- skate3214, on 07/19/2009, -0/+6Sooooo time to change my SSID to ***** the police?
- iancgi, on 07/18/2009, -0/+5They are gonna access the wrong network one day. I wouldn't tempt the Australian hackers. If you can watch us, we can watch you better.
- WordsnCollision, on 07/18/2009, -0/+5Used to be all you had to worry about was the Cat Detector Van from the Ministry of 'Ousinge.
- JKAL, on 07/18/2009, -0/+5They are doing it because they want to curb people letting others use their personal wi-fi. Globally there many free ad-hoc public networks springing up all over. And the Oz Gov's plans to have everyone in Oz use approved ISPs who are filtering traffic would be hampered if there are some rouge free ISPs out there.
But it's for your own security. /s - smacksaw, on 07/18/2009, -0/+4What a shame. I'd like to see a new iPhone (or any mobile) be able to connect to open wireless networks seamlessly and use voice calling through an automatic alternation between cellular and VOIP data. I would leave a router open for something like that. T-Mobile, Rogers and Verizon are starting to get in the business of giving out routers. They just need to give out a router with your phone plan that does that which hooks into your existing wireless router that partitions a small amount of bandwidth for you to use for VOIP...and for others to use for VOIP. They use yours, you use theirs.
Of course metered usage would run that. Another reason we need unlimited broadband.
The original Sprint PCS was actually intended to be a wireless telephone network, not cellular. You installed a base station at your home and everyone else in your area did. You'd pick up your handset at home, start a call and move around Chula Vista or El Cajon (wherever they launched it) and you'd bounce from peoples' homes instead of cellular towers. - inactive, on 07/19/2009, -0/+4Australians never used to lock doors until 1975. Then everyone went nuts, must have been the TV.
- Whackly, on 07/18/2009, -1/+5Nobby Nobbs ftw.
- DouglasQ, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3"That's dishonest. Low."
- Frayed_Knot, on 07/19/2009, -0/+3Nice to see that these police have solved all the violent crimes in their area.
- inactive, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3Australian cops are so useless rather fighting gang violence they are doing this *****.
Most of these coppers wouldn't know the difference between WPA & WEP. - MaverickAlex, on 07/18/2009, -2/+5its your wireless, you should know if its secure or not.
- Spandia, on 07/18/2009, -1/+4It's not a year, to clarify:
Criminal Code Act Number 1889 - trent31, on 07/19/2009, -0/+3Fingers crossed that doesnt include my AP phishing site
- Xplorer, on 07/19/2009, -0/+3The current time to crack WEP is 30 sec to a min, with the proper tools.
- ethana2, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3I have my network unsecured because the government hasn't gotten around to providing free wifi for everyone yet. Until they do, it stays open.
- passedoutghost, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2It's not referring to the year. In any case NSW still uses the Crimes Act 1900, but has been amended so many times that people can't be bothered referring to it as Crimes Act (insert amendment here) 1900.
- inactive, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2They're not connecting to your wireless network, just checking out the broadcast of the router. ...well, at least they should be.
- Frayed_Knot, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2What are you talking about? As long as you use a good password, WPA is secure. There are no known vulnerabilities.
- Sethbacca, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2I live in an apartment building, and a bunch of neighbors (lets say 3 or 4) had all unprotected wifi access, and let me just say you'd be amazed how many people use the default router password :)
- Ogopogo, on 07/19/2009, -0/+2You can't see how a police agency could find out who owns what network? A subpoena to an ISP usually gets that info without much difficulty.
see: http://www.freedomsite.org/legal/CHRC_hacks_wifi.h ... - inactive, on 07/19/2009, -1/+3NO! How will I get my free broadband when my ISP reduces the speed?
- inactive, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2Just in case you are serious: A connection requires a packet to be SENT from the police. No packets will be sent.
- tnoy, on 07/18/2009, -1/+3It just helps to be more secure than the houses around you.
- Pigeon, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2Mr "I was checking the handle and it came open all by itself".
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