Unsecured Wi-Fi Router = You Arrested For Child Porn

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I read stories like this day in and day out and just shake my head. I tell people all the time to make sure they lock down their wireless connection to prevent this type of thing from happening but people just don't learn. How many wireless connections are open in your area right now? Just look at my neighborhood.

Whether you're guilty or not, "you look like the suspect," said Orin Kerr, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who said that's just one of many reasons to secure home routers.
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With how prevalent this is, how many times does crap like this need to happen before law enforcement digs a little deeper before going in with no-knock warrant?
 
Well, even most of the encrypted routers can be cracked relatively easy, since they're often using WEP. There are tutorials for it all over the net.

At any rate, the problem is more of a law-enforcement one I'd say. It's stupid to automatically assume any crime done from the internet service owner's IP is done by the actual owner. It's not as if people are unaware that an IP can be tracked.
 
There are two unsecured w-fi routers in range of me as I type this. And even when it is passworded, I've found that people are predictably stupid and the passwords are easily guessed,(e.g. the name of their street, or in the example of another neighbor rocking "Ohio State" on everything he owns, the name of the college he supposedly went to).
 
i did a scan once while drivign my car from my house to work one day. was about 60 unsecured wireless networks.
 
I live in Huntington Beach, CA and interestingly enough there are no unsecured wifi connections whatsoever around the harbor at the moment. Showing 20+ hot spots according to my Alfa with 8dB antenna, and all are "secured" with at least WPA and above. Lone exception, Starbuck's connection which I am picking up which is about a mile away.
 
Steve said:
I am asking a question of our readers .... if you don't mind.
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spit.jpg
 
Define "Area".

How many open access points can I pick up with my laptop right now? None.
How many open access points can I pick up with the Ubiquiti Powerstation I have mounted on a 50' high rotating mast out back? Hundreds.
 
Raap said:
Well, even most of the encrypted routers can be cracked relatively easy, since they're often using WEP. There are tutorials for it all over the net.

At any rate, the problem is more of a law-enforcement one I'd say. It's stupid to automatically assume any crime done from the internet service owner's IP is done by the actual owner. It's not as if people are unaware that an IP can be tracked.
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I did that as a test at work a few months ago preping for a sercurity check of our network, only took me about 45 seconds worth of packets to crack WEP. Not that we actually had WEP on the network, i was just testing my tools against a test AP with WEP enabled.

Steve said:
I am asking a question of our readers .... if you don't mind.
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I do, Who do you think you are asking question of readers on this site. That shit isn't going to be tolerated here. The nerve of some people on this site. ;) :D


I live in a rural area with some space between my house and my neighbors. I'm only able to see one other access point and it is open. At work i can see a few, when outside. Think 1 or 2 are wide open, 1 is secured using WEP so it might as well be wide open. Wish i still had my list of APs that i seen while doing a scan on my drive home one night. I want to say that a large number of them actually did have WPA or WPA2 in use. Whats funny is that i seen a AP similar to the name in that pic. FBI surveillance van #42
 
The benefits of living in a rural area:

Nobody around to access my router, and no other open routers around me.

Comcast is fast and reliable out here.
 
I have 2 unsecured w/ my internal laptop's wifi, 10 w/ my spankin brand new 1 watt omni antenna. And none of those are mine. Can't wait til I put a directional on it :)

*(singing) i have the whole world in my hands, i have the whole world...
 
one of my neighbors at one time had his router unsecure, nice blazing fast comcast cable connection too (well compared to my DSL line). Had no idea who it was, but even was able to access his router because the default admin/admin login was still there, well needless to say I decided to be a nice neighbor, change his login/password, even locked him out of his own internet, I assume he called Comcast techsupport they came over fixed the problem, and within a week saw it was WPA2 protected
 
FBI Surveilance Van #3 was by my house a few months ago when I was connecting my nook up to my wifi :p
 
Funny thing is, most of the people within range of me all have the same provider, so when my ISP goes down, it doesn't do any good to surf for open connections ;)
 
In my apartment complex I have no open wireless networks. When I visit my parents there are typically two to three open networks. One of them I was even able to access their router's config page!

A problem I have is I will setup a wireless network with security and write the password down for the user and they will purchase a new wireless device and cannot remember the password and reset the thing, thus leaving it open til I come around and secure it again.

A co-workers wife reset all the passwords a week after I had setup their network and he called me trying to connect his Wii and she denied doing anything but the password he had written down from me did not work. Frustrating.
 
I wonder how often people decide to just be a dick, connect to their open neighbors access point and stream / download as much as they can in hopes of getting them to their cap as soon as possible in areas where people have a limit.
 
I pick 9 wifi connections. Mostly FiOS which uses WEP. I have an app on my phone that calculates the encryption code on these routers. They may as well be wide open. I did switch my neighbor's encryption to WPA AES. Did the same to mine.
The rest of the connections in my area are wide open. I'd educate them but I don't know who's connection it is.
 
Exavior said:
I wonder how often people decide to just be a dick, connect to their open neighbors access point and stream / download as much as they can in hopes of getting them to their cap as soon as possible in areas where people have a limit.
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I have actually thought of asking my neighbors if they would let me have 100gb a month, since they likely don't come near the cap ever. But really, I should just stick within my limit. ;)

No unsecured networks in my neighborhood. My nearest neighbors are all in their 50's to 70's and I can tell by the router names who is who. People in that age group are usually stereotyped as being not very technical on things computer related, so I will say I'm impressed that they know to secure their wireless connections. Although one neighbor retired a few years back from IBM, he did server support, so I suspect he hooked everyone else up.
 
If you want kiddy porn, at least go to the library to get it. When you go to prison, you're going to be very unpopular when the other prisoners find out that you were mooching off of your neighbors internet connection.
 
While I maintain my security on my home network and keep my employers networks secure, there is a whole other line of thinking to this. I encourage everyone to read this blog post on securing wireless networks written by Bruce Schneier. If you do not know who he is, and you think you know anything about security, you should really familiarize yourself. He has some interesting things to say.
 
Reading this make me think even further on that problem.

If the guy didn't put a password on his router, than I guess he didn't put much protection on his computer either.

And it get even scarier when I think that the pedophile, if he was smart enough (sadly, I won't be surprised if there's a lot of bright people in the lot), could have put copies of the picture somewhere on his computer, and hide them to cover his back...

I'm not lawyer, but what are the odd of him being not guilty if the federal agent found those picture on his computer?

This story made me think about my router that only have WEP protection (easily crackable), I guess it's time I change it.
 
Even if you have WPA2 and don't broadcast your SSID, some FBI script kiddy is still going to find your pirated software/snuff/pedo/dog porn.

What you do to prevent getting caught? I don't know... how about not doing illegal stuff in the first place? that's a good start.
 
So far, only one open WiFi network in my neighborhood. About two years ago, I remember seeing five unsecured networks with one having full access to his stash of pirated movies and My Documents folder. My friend's neighborhood had about six unsecured networks with a printer shared.

I was so tempted to install the printer on my friend's PC and print out a message, "I'm watching you." just to mess with his neighbor. LOL

My general assumption is that most people who have unsecured WiFi networks are either:
a.) Not computer savvy and don't know how to secure their wireless router.

... or...

b.) Are ignorant and think they've got nothing that people can steal from them.
 
Steve said:
I read stories like this day in and day out and just shake my head. I tell people all the time to make sure they lock down their wireless connection to prevent this type of thing from happening but people just don't learn. How many wireless connections are open in your area right now? Just look at my neighborhood.
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Steve, Just for you I'm changing the name of my mobile router :D
 
colinstu said:
Even if you have WPA2 and don't broadcast your SSID, some FBI script kiddy is still going to find your pirated software/snuff/pedo/dog porn.

What you do to prevent getting caught? I don't know... how about not doing illegal stuff in the first place? that's a good start.
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It's not about securing your wireless router so you don't get caught, it's so some douche bag doesn't use your router, and all the IP addresses point to YOU doing something illegal. In the great way our government works, you get blamed first, and hopefully they find the error of their ways later.
 
There are none open in range of any of my wireless devices at home.

I don't even think there are any open within this branch of my neighborhood (it has been a while, but I have roamed around with a laptop and checked). I live in a relatively upscale area--meaning none of these people know anything about network security, but they all have loads of cash to throw at the Comcast guy to type a few keys into the 'password' box.
 
As an afterthought, I like that list of networks... FBI is funny, and what would a clump of signals be without the obligatory Deeznuts?
 
I always leave my connection open.

In Manhattan, there's always someone out on the street looking for WiFi, and I know what it feels like not to have 3G.

Besides, I have a 25Mbps connection both ways.. I don't mind.
 
My 26 digit wpa2 password is so random it's probably easier to just kick down my door and plug in a cable then try to hack in!
 
I live in germany, so its a different perspective over here... but I haven't seen an unsecured connection in years. I last got a new router from the provider 3 years ago. They're delivering them out of the box with AES/WPA2 and a 16 character random password thats written in the manual and a sticker on the back of the box. Most german brand-name routers also come secured like this.

My router from the telekom even came with that feature where you have to push a button to allow a new MAC to connect to the router. Its not perfect, but it goes a long way.

I would love to leave a guest account open for people to use, but the laws over here clearly state that you are responsible for what happens on your internet connection, secure or not, hacked or not. Therefore I wouldn't dare attempt it.
 
Canadian in Berlin said:
I live in germany, so its a different perspective over here... but I haven't seen an unsecured connection in years. I last got a new router from the provider 3 years ago. They're delivering them out of the box with AES/WPA2 and a 16 character random password thats written in the manual and a sticker on the back of the box. Most german brand-name routers also come secured like this.

My router from the telekom even came with that feature where you have to push a button to allow a new MAC to connect to the router. Its not perfect, but it goes a long way.

I would love to leave a guest account open for people to use, but the laws over here clearly state that you are responsible for what happens on your internet connection, secure or not, hacked or not. Therefore I wouldn't dare attempt it.
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I wonder how many people, after having written down the password, throw the box outside for the trash collector.... Dumpster diving for passwords anyone?
 
Those on unsecured networks can use tools like eavesdrop (mac) and firesheep (firefox) to pick up TCP communica. Even look at the images of the websites that people are visiting from hijacked computers.

It is important to stress that WEP is crap. WEP may as well be unsecured as it just takes time to get into. Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb788Xjifw8

WPA2 and a password that is not in the dictionary and I bet my life you will be safe.

Even some routers with default SSID WPA like the thomson ones can be done instantly with a mac, iphone or windows app. Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbyiSGi9-10

And dont get me started on default passwords. I was staying in student accommodation where they had a default passwords for their internet gateway router. Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzTb3pJBHWw
 
I'm more interested in the P2P this idiot was using. Yes people who contribute to child porn in any way shape or form should be dicknailed to a tree for all to laugh at but thats beside the point.


For the love of Christ people....Bittorent = gaysex, people who torrent for anything other than legit ISO's are full of fail and need to learn how to computer.

Newsgroups = Secure, x10000000 faster and 90% of the shit is clean.
 
I have 3-4 unsecured wireless routers in the area, (at least the last time I checked, and 8-10 that can be accessed)
I found having a 15db hawking tech directional antenna and highpower wireless card is good for something.

I did mount ddwrt on an old linksys router and put high gain antennas on it, if your mac address is not approved your internet if flipped(see note below), and bit torrents cannot connect, if you download more than 100mb your connection is throttled to .1kb/sec

**flip their internet-
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html
 
0 but probably only because AT&T locks down their wireless gateways with WEP keys.
My dd-wrt is quite a bit more secured. ;)
 
Thachief said:
I'm more interested in the P2P this idiot was using. Yes people who contribute to child porn in any way shape or form should be dicknailed to a tree for all to laugh at but thats beside the point.


For the love of Christ people....Bittorent = gaysex, people who torrent for anything other than legit ISO's are full of fail and need to learn how to computer.

Newsgroups = Secure, x10000000 faster and 90% of the shit is clean.
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Let's just say that you must have used some shitty trackers. On a good tracker, there is zero CP and high quality content. Certainly faster and easier than the usenet (90% of it is clean? 10% CP is acceptable? LOL)
 
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