Is Wireless Internet Free for Everyone?
10/13/2008Despite what some may believe, the intangibility of the Internet does not prevent it from being stolen from others, or at least its utility. Wireless connections bring the Internet within reach of individuals' computers without the need to physically connect the computer to a modem. However, wireless connections can typically extend over one hundred feet beyond the house or building where they have been set up. If the connection is unsecured - that is, if it is not protected with a password or otherwise - then anybody within range can access that connection.
A recent article in New Zealand's Dominion Post reported hundreds of Internet holes that can allow criminals to surreptitiously engage in illegal activities. Simply obtaining unauthorized access to a computer network - whether it belongs to your neighbor or the business whose parking lot you are sitting in - is illegal in many areas. Nevertheless, wardriving is a neologism coined by the technologically savvy population to refer to the act of driving around searching for wireless networks to use for free with a portable device (computer or cell phone, usually) capable of using the Internet.
Much of wardriving appears harmless, on the surface. However, wardriving can be obnoxious: the added activity of an extra computer in a wireless network can take up bandwidth that is going paid for by the network administrator. On a more serious note, wardriving can be dangerous: if an individual uses your wireless network for accessing child pornography, then it is more than likely that police can track the illegal activity to you.
The Dominion Post recommends several ways to prevent becoming the victim of wardriving, including establishing security settings for your modem, enabling firewalls on both your PC and router, keeping track of how much Internet you use with your connection each month, and disabling the service set identifier (SSID) broadcast feature to make it less obvious to others that you are using a wireless connection.
However, it isn't just the person paying for strangers to use his Internet connection who is a victim. Sometimes available unsecured wireless connections that look just like any other serve as vehicles for the network administrator to keep track of any information a computer user that has connected to the network - even a one-time user of the connection - has sent over the network.
The legality of wardriving itself is likely to become a hot topic for debate within the next few years. There is no specific legislation to allow or prohibit it, but obtaining unauthorized access to a computer network is illegal in many locales. Not all wardriving results in an individual accessing a network, some wardriving is passive, allowing the user to access the Internet while only approaching the network used to connect.
