Man charged with stealing Wi-Fi signal

[Carlo]

CNN.com reports:
Thursday, July 7, 2005 Posted: 1523 GMT (2323 HKT)
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- Police have arrested a man for using someone else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice.

Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.

Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon's house using a laptop computer.
Read article

[Edited on 7-8-2005 by Carlo]

[hannibal]

it'll probably take another 5 or 10 years before the Philippines sees a similar case. majority of computer users don't even know what Wifi means. besides, more and more of those who deploy access points implement WEP security. so that prevents the "crime" somehow.

[Dave_D]

The laws here regarding hacking or illegal network access is already pretty comprehensive (thanks to the local virus that made world headlines). It just needs a test case for the government to pursue if it wishes to do so.

[Sabonis]

This is the first time I heard that wardriving is considered illegal.

[Lakisalayaw1970]

The guy obviously knew he was stealing bandwidth, he stuck around after being approached twice. What a scumball! This is why I have my Linksys WRT54G to have a password, SSID broadcasting disabled, WEP enabled, MAC address filtering (just my network devices allowed), limited DHCP users (2), and I turn off the wireless when I don't use it.

[Edited on 7.8.05 by Lakisalayaw1970]

[stitch]

wow, wondering what's the penalty for third-degree felonies like this one.

[turonski]

why didn't the complainant restrict access anyway. If the guy hacked to get in that is a different story.

[topnotch97]

maybe the man who got arrested was told something like this in a contest or something

[longbeard]

Originally posted by Dave_D
The laws here regarding hacking or illegal network access is already pretty comprehensive (thanks to the local virus that made world headlines). It just needs a test case for the government to pursue if it wishes to do so.

I remember the I love you virus... an FBI agent kept on bugging us with phone calls since the virus originated with the Prepaid Internet Cards from Access Net.

[Maccess]

I don't think he'll be convicted. At least, I hope he won't be convicted.

If the complainant's Wi-Fi access was unsecured then it should be his responsibility to enable security.

It seems too much like arresting someone for trying to read a newspaper on the public sidewalk by someone else's porchlight.