Re: Open WiFi connections: Are you really stealing?

Janet Wilder wrote:

Lone Haranguer wrote:

Tom wrote:

If you need an internet connection, who cares if the owner is generous or stupid?


Big Brother may be watching.
LZ

“We have known for a long time that the criminal use of the Internet was
progressing at a greater rate than law enforcement had the knowledge or
ability to catch up,” said Jan H. Gilhooly, who retired last month as
special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Newark and
now helps coordinate New Jersey operations for the Department of
Homeland Security. “Now it’s the same with the wireless technologies.”
In 2003, the Secret Service office in Newark began an investigation that
infiltrated the Web sites and computer networks of suspected
professional data thieves. Since October, more than 30 people around the
world have been arrested in connection with the operation and accused of
trafficking in hundreds of thousands of stolen credit card numbers
online. Of those suspects, half regularly used the open Wi-Fi
connections of unsuspecting neighbors. Four suspects, in Canada,
California and Florida, were logged in to neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks at
the moment law enforcement agents, having tracked them by other means,
entered their homes and arrested them, Secret Service agents involved in
the case said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/technology/19wifi.html?ex=1268888400&en=51d90e7518bba5d6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland



Let me get this straight: When the government does it, that's okay? When someone just wants to get their email, it's not? No one here who will ocassionally use an unidentifyable open WiFi signal is stealing identities. How do we know that a criminal isn't leaving a WiFi network open to trap us and get our information?

If all this is true, I might not do it any more to protect myself from the bad guys. Not because I'm the bad guy.

Errrr, that's the point. You might be logged on to an open connection being used for illegal activities and get swept up in the net.
LZ
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