John C. Dvorak reacts to news of an individual arrested for stealing WiFi signal: How can this be illegal when the computers often latch onto the wrong signal by themselves?

WiFi poaching, also called wardriving, is essentially piggybacking on others’ WiFi access points.  Is it

illegal?  In some countries, it is.  In fact, section 48 of

the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Philippine E-Commerce Act of 2000 states that:

Hacking or cracking which refers to unauthorized

access into or interference in a computer system/server or information

and communication system … xxx … without the knowledge and

consent of the owner of the computer

or information and communications system … xxx … shall be

punished by a minimum fine of one hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00)

and a maximum commensurate to the damage incurred and a mandatory

imprisonment

of six (6) months to three (3) years.

I’ll leave it to the lawyers to make a more appropriate interpretation,

but the wording of the IRR itself would imply that use of

another party’s WiFi access point without knowledge and consent would constitute an offense.

However, I would think that Dvorak’s point in an April 2004 PC Magazine article makes more sense:

We must put the burden of

responsibility on the broadcaster, not the end user. It has to be made

clear that people sending open connections all over town should be

responsible for them.
…

Here’s what I propose: Once a wireless signal leaves private property,

it becomes public domain. If the person transmitting the signal wants

it protected, then encryption is up to him or her. If someone beams an

Internet connection into my home and I happen to lock onto the signal,

he is trespassing on me, not the other way around.

The Looming Legal Threat to Wi-Fi

In the end, those who own and operate the access points should be

responsible for securing their systems.  There are various means

of doing this, such as limiting access to specific MAC addresses, use of WEP, WPA, or even a simple http firewall.

After all, perhaps one of the better wardriving tools is Windows XP’s Wireless Zero Config!  So anyone with WinXP SP2 can be a perpetrator, or at least his/her computer has the propensity to.

Isn’t an ounce of prevention better than a pound of cure?

(Via PC Magazine/Dvorak Uncensored)

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