What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
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- joel2600, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31what a dumbass.
cop: "what are you doing?"
me: "using my computer."
end of story - slick_rick, on 10/12/2007, -6/+36He was not arrested for wardrving. He was arrested for "remotely accessing someone else's computer system without permission." Wardriving itself does not involve connecting to an access point but merely detecting and logging there locations.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+28> The war driver told the cop what and how he was doing it and got arrested for breaking a littel know law in Illinios.
Never talk to law enforcement without adequate legal representation. PERIOD.
You *DO* have somthing to hide (regardless of how innocent you think you might be) and they are looking for it. - Tonezilla, on 10/12/2007, -7/+25Not only is this story old news and inaccurate, the summary written by WMtrader is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. I understand that the internet is full of children and the illiterate, but it is clear that this story should not have been posted. What was that you said? Is this Enlgish class? No this isn't English class. I am just tired of taking extra time trying to understand this ebonics/illiterate writing I am exposed to on a daily basis. I am also tired of people trying to get themselves noticed with stories that are cutting edge, especially if they don't know enough about the subject matter.
My two cents........from Tonezilla - panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Not at all. Wardriving is the hobby of finding, but NOT using WiFi access points.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Driving
"Wardrivers are only out to log and collect information from the wireless access points (WAPs) they find while driving."
So, by definition, he was not wardriving, therefore was not arrested for wardriving. - wired4u, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Do cops really know what war driving is, I mean aren't cops supposed to be stupid.
- WackyT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Just spent 2 weeks in San Francisco, and leached my internet access from someone's open access point the whole time. Screw paying $12.95 a day to the hotel.
- Rosewood, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12When you set your WAP to open, you are giving permission to use it. That is what open was created for. If you don't want to people to use it, you close it.
No matter what stupid analogies people want to use, you can't argue what the open mode was put in there for! - delinka, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I agree. I keep hearing "if you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide". Well, if I'm doing nothing wrong (and you [Mr. Law Enforcement Officer] can't prove otherwise), then I don't have to submit to questioning or searches. If I'm doing nothing wrong, why are you asking me questions? Why do you want to install a camera to watch me? Are you a perv?
- finkployd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Actually the man was arrested in January. That's when the story first came out.
Now he pleaded guilty to the charge. - apache2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7there ya go, brilliance! end of story
- spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Good luck talking your way out of a ticket with that attitude.
- Smiegel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Agreed. That's like getting pulled over and telling the officer that you just got done robbing a bank. The burden of proof would be on the officer as to *exactly* what he was doing.
- Daem0nX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I also leave my AP open as I don't mind people using my connection to do small things such as check their email, or even look up something on maps.google.com if they are lost. I appreciate others that leave theirs open so I can check my mail while away. However I do keep an eye on my DHCP logs to make sure hordes of people aren't using it all the time, and if that did start to happen I would enable additional logging to make sure nothing illegal was being accessed via known websites.
- sdo1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I'd prefer a law that explicitly states that open unprotected access points can be used by anyone. If you don't want others using your signal, then it is your responsibility to protect it. Otherwise the assumption should be that you meant to leave it open and that permission to use said signal is granted.
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7By your logic, when you leave your front door unlocked, you are granting permission for anyone to come into your house and eat all your oreos and drink all your mountain dew.
- Chakz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Enlgish Class? That's a new one.
- JustKen, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8its th thout thet conts
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I'm not sure why anyone should be surprised. If a network does not belong to you or, if you do not have permission to use it, you are breaking the law. No matter what you want to call it.
- jackspack, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6What bothers me about this is the fact that law enforcement does not have adequate training to know when someone is illegally accessing a hot spot. Unless the person readily admitts that he/she knowingly is using someone open access point without thw owners permission, then the officer has no idea if you are in fact doing anything wrong. How does the officer know for a fact that you aren't picking up a verizon hot spot or a mcdonalds hotspot, or some coffee shop's open point?
I can understand that someone sitting in a parked car on a laptop looks a bit suspicious and would hope a cop would question it, but you should not have to give every detail oif what it is you are doing. Many times, I am in my car waiting for my son to get done his karate and I pop out my handheld or laptop. If a cop taps on my window and asks me what I am doing I simply say "I am working while I wait for my son while he is in class." The cop has no right to see what I am working on nor search nor seize any of my property unless he has reason to think I am comitting a crime. This goes into some very vague areas - if he has reason to think I am hopping on someone elses access point, he better have a damn good case to search and seize. Contrary to what many say, cops DO NOT have the power to stop you to search and seize regardless of patriot act or anything else. They can stop you. Question you. But that is it, unless of course there is a strong enough case to search and seize. Beleive me, it would never hold up in court "Officer, what gave you the suspicion this person was on someone elses network?" Unless he has proof, he cannot sit there and say "because I saw him typing on a laptop in a car"
Regardless, I am nother by the precedent that has been set in a case like this. I wish the EFF would perk up and take notice. - jamesob5, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7No matter where I go, someone has a wide open Linksys wireless network.
Their fault. - SteveIreland, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I was just looking up wardriving on the web the other day because I was curious about the origin legality of it. This guy was not arrested for wardriving, bottom line. The law at this time bans the unauthorized access of wireless networks. Wardriving is technically the logging and mapping of access points with a gps and programs like Netstumbler and Kismet. Check out wigle.net if you don't believe the legal version of wardriving doesn't exist.
- Ares, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I leave my AP open in the hopes others do too, so we can all check our email, ebay auctions etc. So, how do we let others know it is ok?
I know here in Seattle of lot of us intentionally share our APs. Call it good natured or naive but how can they prosecute a culture?
If you lock down your internal LAN from guests I see no harm, especially with a 7mb connection.
Are we all supposed to lockdown now to escape the boogyman?
I'm more worried about the NSA and Patriot Act then some dude checking his mail, or rubbing one out in his car. :P - allthewhile, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7This is not wardriving. You say he "must have detected and logged it's location". Unless he was using software specifically created for wardriving, I'm guessing that he wasn't "logging" the physical location of the signal. Was he using gps? Admit it, you incorrectly understood wardriving and now are trying to cover yourself.
- VSKBadCRC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4So if you're ever caught war-driving, have Mapquest loaded up with legitimate directions, tell the officer you're using a nationwide access system, like one of those Verizon broadband cards and tell him you just pulled over because you lost your place on the map and you were just checking your location again.
- darthdallas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think some of you people are living is a dream world. The cops can say it was "probable cause"; probably 'cuz that's what they wanted to do. For the most part cops can do what they want when they want with no interference. Get used to it and act accordingly. Don't get caught, don't tell the truth, lawyer up.
- beoswulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This guy should have fought it. I always liked the analogy that a WIFI access point is equivalent to owning undeveloped wilderness property.
Where I live, if you own land that's undeveloped and in the countryside you are obligated to have "No trespassing" signs posted. Every couple yards you want to have a brightly colored sign on a tree, or post that says your name usually and "No Trespassing" or "No Hunting" if you want to be specific. Otherwise uninvited people can defend entering your private property while hiking, hunting or offroading because they were not aware you didn't want them there or that the land was even privately owned. But there are plenty of landowners that don't have signs posted because they don't mind people using their property.
It should be the same with WIFI access points. Every router has even the most basic encryption available, most usually have the option to turn off the SSID broadcast as well. If your access point is not encrypted, or if it's not named NOTFORPUBLICUSE or MEONLY then how is a person suppose to know you didn't leave your Internet access point open for the public. With this analogy, breaking encryption to use a WIFI access point is still illegal. Lots of people enjoy sharing their WIFI access points (even if it is against their ISP's TOS) I would have fought this charge but I guess this guy didn't want to deal with it. - irieKEN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Believe it or not, most courts in the United States view leaving your door unlocked as being the same as granting access. That is why you can be held responsible for someone else’s illegal use your “open” WiFi access point. The one exception to this is if your open access point is considered a public service (a single open access point won’t fall into this category due to its limited geographic coverage).
So, the defendant may be found to have been authorized. - SirVanderhoot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Was the owner of the connection contacted? Does his opinion have anything to do with any of this? I mean, before this guy was arrested, was there any way for the cop to know that it wasn't an intentional open wifi connection? If the cop did contact the owner, what if s/he wasn't home? Then what? Assume that it was meant to be closed and arrest the guy on the street? Seems awfully close to assumed guilt.
- thewebguy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6wow what a dumbass, YES OFFICER I AM BREAKING TEH LAW
- cyberghost232, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dont forget the law where the cop has to let you finish drilling your chick in your car before he can tell you anything.
- sonicdevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2^^ Sadly this is true
- Rob3000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2>>I have only had one person that abused it and i just blocked there mac.
Yet I still use your AP ;) - DigitalWarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thank god i moved out of IL. Hell i keep my access point open and there are a few people that use it to browse the net. I have only had one person that abused it and i just blocked there mac.
- Prometheus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I thought this one sounded familiar
- Daem0nX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"We just want to get the word out that it is a crime. We are prosecuting it, and people need to take precautions,"
Wait, who should take precautions? Should I the person using the open wifi connection take precautions not to be caught OR should the owner of the wifi spot encrypt it? Why do I become a criminal when the owner could very easily push a few buttons and encrypt the connect? If they don't know how there is usually an easy to dial tech support phone number.
"A police officer arrested Kauchak in January after spotting him sitting in a parked car with a computer. A chat with the suspect led to the arrest,"
So next time I'm in my car looking up a file in [any place here] I'm subject to an officer of the law assuming I'm doing something illegal? Does my laptop simply being open give the officer probable cause to do a search of my car and/or persons and seize my laptop? Does it being a certain part of the day such as night make my laptop being open more suspicious? - MasterDwarf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I could never understand innocent people subjecting themselves to searches, or saying things they shouldnt when it comes to the law. Their argument, "I have nothing to hide." Well then the po-lice dont need to search your stuff. Probable cause is a catch phrase, dont let them get away with it.
- ab500, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Please leave your annoying door knob analogies out of intellegent conversations. This is not like leaving your door unlocked. The only thing like leaving your door unlocked is leaving your door unlocked coincidentally enough. This is leaving a wifi point open, something entirely different. No one leaves their door unlocked expecting people to walk in and browse around, also there is nothing to steal when you connect to a wifi point. My network is open and I could care less if someone uses it, it uses the default SSID. If your using the connection someone left open for legal activities that don't interrupt their service then you are in the clear IMO. I frequently use other people's wifi for checking my e-mail. Someone has left their network open and I can get to it from the Burger King across the street, it's his fault if he didn't bother to read the instructions but I'm betting he left it open for people to use.
- fillup07, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"had a chat which led to his arrest"
I clicked the link on "led" and was informed about Light Emitting Diodes..... wohoo for automatically linking articles. - sonicdevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Makes sense... or just tell them that your PCMCIA WiFi card is a cellular access card, I'm almost certian he won't know the difference.
- teknotant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1war driving is a passive act and this man took it a step further.
- wickedsun, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3If I was broadcasting how to enter, I think that would pretty much mean I want people to get inside, yes.
- daveddd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"How about some more beans Mr Taggert?"
I hope when he was caught, he didn't have used tissue all over the car. - tecmec, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Or just close the web browser...there are many other things you could have been doing on your computer.
- joxrox22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Until 1997 it was legal to gun down a Mormon in Illinois. It was a law passed one hundred years before. It's taken seriously in that state. I believe witches can still be burnt at the stake, too.
- sonicdevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Except that there's no stealing going on here... not to nitpick, but if you're talking about a legal matter, use correct legal jargon.
- oneon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What a joke... Cops don't have a clue. Question...What are you doing....Answer...checking my computer...DUH..
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Here's a great idea. Get an old cell phone, mount it in your trunk next to a black box with little flashy LEDs. Tie a cat5 or something under the dash and have it plugged into your laptop. If a cop stops you just say some ***** about a cellular connection and show him in the trunk.
I can't believe cops are that smart to where they would want to check the connections and such so just the act of showing them would be adequate.
Good idea? bad idea? - goettel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1When a policeman asks you a question, or just makes conversation. always be social, polite and friendly, but LIE like a dog about ANYTHING of substance! Never volunteer information of any use to a uniform, he gets XP for sniffing you out, obviously.
- quazywabbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Depending on how long he had been using open Wifi points, he might have gotten off easy with the fine. if he had been using the connection for more than 5 months then he either broke even (assuming the average cost of broadband is $50 w/o special deals) or saved money.
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