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War driver fined

Quote:

A man was last week fined ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£500 after a British jury found him guilty of using a neighborhood wireless broadband connection without permission. Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, was also sentenced to a 12 months conditional discharge after he was convicted of dishonestly obtaining an communications service and related offences at London's Islewoth Crown Court last Wednesday (20 July).
The case - brought under the Communications Act 2003 - is the first "war driving" prosecution in the UK, according the police. Officers caught Straszkiewicz hunting for "free" net connections in a residential area after complaints from locals. Straszkiewicz deliberately set out to borrow bandwidth from his unwitting benefactors but there's no evidence he had any hostile motive beyond this - so his sentence seems harsh. It's unclear whether anyone who accidentally jumped onto another party's net connection (easy to do if a host is using an unsecured connection with no encryption) might also risk prosecution. ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â®

Might have to rethink my purchase of a wireless card for my lappy lol

Re: War driver fined

This sounds like a very good argument for making sure that your wireless connection is *secure*!!

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham

This sounds like a very good argument for making sure that your wireless connection is *secure*!!

I've just been to a client's and booted up my laptop, having forgotten to remove my wireless card. Got a connection straightaway and showed the client how I could download emails using their connectionb. Unfortunately all bar one were CF notifications!! However, I suggested to the client it might be too clever to have an open wireless connection.

Re: War driver fined

i was thinking of helping people secure their wireless in my local community.

I was unsure how people would react though, they may tell me to PO and mind my own business

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmaster

i was thinking of helping people secure their wireless in my local community.

I was unsure how people would react though, they may tell me to PO and mind my own business

How near Bury are you?! ;) :)

Re: War driver fined

There are four available wireless connections accessible from my armchair, not including my own. Two are secure. Given that level of insecurity the number of people telling you to PO should be small compared with the number of people genuinely needing help who would be grateful.

Re: War driver fined

Well, I've now got a vague idea what "war driving" is, but it's name derives from . . .

PS Honest, I really thought that the thread might be about reckless tank drivers in Iraq. :)

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theodoric

Well, I've now got a vague idea what "war driving" is, but it's name derives from . . .

... Wargames, and the activities of a young Matthew Broderick, didn't I read somewhere?

Re: War driver fined

Well If i drive round my local area with netstumbler open, so only detecting a presence not. accessing wirless networks, 90% are insecure, and dont get me starteed on default passwords...

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris T

... Wargames, and the activities of a young Matthew Broderick, didn't I read somewhere?

Er, my state of confusion is still at critical.

Re: War driver fined

Er, thats "War Dialling".

What has driving got to do with it?

Mind you, it's also responsible for one of the most commonly used passwords... Joshua.. lol

I wish I had a laptop, then I'd be off out seeing what trouble I could get upto.

I wonder how they found out that it was him?

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoombini

Er, thats "War Dialling".

What has driving got to do with it?

IIRC war-anything is derivative of the original 'war dialling'. Hence also 'war chalking', the practice of marking symbols on the pavement to alert others to th presence of an unsecured wireless network.

When you war dial, you randomly dial numbers waiting for a computer to pick up. When you war drive, you cruise the neighbourhood until your PC detects an unsecure wireless network in the vicinity.

Re: War driver fined

OKIDOKI......

So Matthew Broderick is responsible for all this :)

I noticed what might have been a chalk mark when I was in Norwich last, don't see that many round near me.
I wonder if I can get an old 386 lappy working on a wireles network? lol

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyl

How near Bury are you?! ;) :)

More towards Rochdale!

Re: War driver fined

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmaster

More towards Rochdale!

So, do you provide online support then?!

Actually there's an article on CF somewhere about securing wireless networks which I really must action (as we marketing people say). As always I'm not practising what I preach ;)