NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Wi-Fi owner flips images for unwanted neighbors
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Ethics? In whose favor - the sociopath or the accidental
passerby? An
open access point is a beacon pulling in connections (IANAL but it might be an
attractive hazard). Take some responsibility and be a mensch. Of course all
traffic should be encrypted to protect against sociopaths who view everyone
else as prey. In the present regimen you can lock down your access points but
if you don’t you better hope the guy you hack is not a lawyer or a bored
ambulance chaser. If
I walk across your lawn you don't have a right to trip me or scramble any
pictures I'm looking at or splash paint onto my suit. If I’m on your
porch and ask for directions you don’t have the right to lie to me just because
I’m trespassing. Stealing
communications? How 19th century. Next you'll say I'm stealing light
from your porch light and you'll flicker it to punish epileptics who walk by? Or
maybe you'll hack your phone so that dialing 911 gets them to the laugh line in
case someone happens to use the phone in your backyard in an emergency? (Texas
may be different and you may be legally obligated to shoot anyone who visits your
propertyL). This
is not a zero sum game you should share your bounty with an open access point
or second SSID that doesn’t expose your systems. Maybe someone will return
the favor. -----Original Message----- I think you over analyzed this. With a little
modification you could capture data just like a man in the middle attack. The ethics here are clearly in his favor. If your on my
network illegally I have every right to investigate as well as interfere with
your access. I get the point though. With some modification to the hack you
could really get to know your neighbors off the data harvested. But I get your point. People could get nasty and do
something like transfer the wifi pirates bank accounts could end up donated to
charity of the local library computer. Police have no time to investigate
cybercrime. They don't even know where to start. Police departments that do have
specialized cybercrime units don't have the time to investigate
something like that. They are too busy chasing child porn. The police don't care either. Our police are too busy
chasing criminals and donut hopping. I can see someone using a modification of
the hack to capture all the users data to find out where the evil villain
lives on the block. Essentially all the proof required to get the police to
act on it and charge the neighbor. After all It is a crime to steal
communications. I can see some anal retentive fool without a sense of humor using
this to "charge" their neighbors with a crime. I'm going to use the hack myself to redirect all wifi
users to a dead end page page that says "sorry you have reached the end
of the Internet - please restart your computer". So yes - it could be abused - but the hack itself show us
the author has a good sense of humor. The blur function is neat. regards joe baptista Come on Lauren - its funny. One could have fun this hack. [ Like I said, it's a cute hack. But
as you also note above, there are all sorts of ways abuse
could creep in. This seems like a rather binary decision to
me. If you want to run an open Wi-Fi with your eyes also wide open to
the associated issues, that's fine, great in fact. But, if you don't want to
provide an access service to random people who are getting onto your
Wi-Fi, close it with access control. To leave it open
and then play mind games with users who connect strikes me as
being a bit akin to aiming the sun through a magnifying glass
at bugs on the sidewalk. Not my personal concept of responsible
fun.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ] On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:34 PM, Lauren Weinstein
<lauren@vortex.com> wrote: > > Wi-Fi owner flips images for unwanted neighbors > > http://bit.ly/9KKy3S (ex-parrot.com)
["Pining for the fjords?"] > > While this is undeniably a seriously cute hack, the
ethics of > modifying data in this way (even in such an obvious
manner) > strike me as being somewhat nebulous at best.
Seems much more > appropriate to turn on WPA2 and just be done with
it, rather than > tamper with the actual data. > > Also, perhaps this guy has proof that the neighbors
are consciously > using his network without permission, but I've seen
*many* cases > of neighbors locked onto the wrong Wi-Fi network for
very long > periods without even realizing it. Of course
upside-down images > would be a clue that something was amiss, but it
still seems > a bit questionable as a tactic. > > --Lauren-- > NNSquad Moderator > |