Florida Man Charged For Stealing Wi-Fi 380
baldass_newbie writes "The Saint Pete Times has a story about Benjamin Smith III who was arrested for stealing a wi-fi signal in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where apparently wardriving is considered a third degree felony." From the article: "...xperts believe there are scores of incidents occurring undetected, sometimes to frightening effect. People have used the cloak of wireless to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats, according to authorities. For as worrisome as it seems, wireless mooching is easily preventable by turning on encryption or requiring passwords. The problem, security experts say, is many people do not take the time or are unsure how to secure their wireless access from intruders. Dinon knew what to do. 'But I never did it because my neighbors are older.'"
It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:5, Informative)
Zonk fails it again...
New Slashdot Poll: (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot editor responsible for the most dupes:
(a) Commander Taco
(b) Zonk
(c) write-in candidate
(d) CowboyNeal
Re:New Slashdot Poll: (Score:5, Funny)
(a) Commander Taco
(b) Zonk
(c) write-in candidate
(d) CowboyNeal
(e) Zonk
Re:New Slashdot Poll: (Score:5, Funny)
(a) CmdrTaco
(b) Zonk
(c) write-in candidate
(b) Zonk
(d) CmdrTaco
(e) CowboyNeal
Mod the stories (Score:5, Insightful)
() Dupe
() Old stuff
() Interesting
Re:Mod the stories (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:New Slashdot Poll: (Score:2)
Re:New Slashdot Poll: (Score:3, Insightful)
Most pedantic Anonymous Cowards
(a) lack a sense of humor
(b) don't have a sense of humor
(c) are humorless
(d) are not amused by CowboyNeal poll options
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2)
Parking outside people's houses for hours on end while secretively using a laptop isn't exactly the kind of thing you can do without repercussions.
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2)
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2, Insightful)
Often I only get a chance to visit Slashdot once or twice a day, yet lately I've identified virtually every dupe. It's not like there are thousands of stories a day and the editors just can't keep on top it - there are only a dozen or so stories, and in this case the title instantly and obviously revealed that it was a dupe.
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2, Informative)
2)There's this link to "older stories", you know? That's what you use if you want to see an old story
Some of us are actually trying to cut down our /. use, you know
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2)
If you're so in tune with Slashdot that a.) You can spot dupes so easily and b.) it offends you so much, then I agree with your solution. Probably not for the same reasons, though.
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2)
getting further off-topic here.... If you're so offended by people pointing out (and being offended by) dupes, then perhaps you should just avoid threads with names like "It's dupe-a-licious".
For what it's worth, the reason that dupes bother me (though this thread is the first thread about dupes in which I've ever participated, so you picked an odd target for your rant) is: I read threads that I'm interested in (which is why I notice dupes, if I'm interested in a topic once, I'm probably still interested
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:5, Insightful)
Mmmmhmmm. Except almost every god damn comment in this thread is "dupe!!!!!!!!!! bitchbitchbitchbitchbitchbitch!" I'm whining about excessive dupe bitching, not bitching about dupes. What's irritating about it is every comment bitching about dupes is serving an ad. Basically, the people against dupes are begging Slashdot to post them. Dumb fucks.
"so you picked an odd target for your rant"
I didn't pick your comment as a target because I checked everybody's posting history and thought yours was the one to blast first. I picked yours because of your ridiculous overreaction to the dupe.
"With dupes like this, if I truly want to get involved in the discussion, I might have to carry it out in two different places, with different participants, etc. And the discussion won't be quite as good. That's all."
Unlikely and unlikely. If your motivation for being anti-dupe was about having 'good discussion', then I would expect that it wouldn't matter if a dupe happened or not. If your 'that is all' reasoning were really true, I wouldn't expect you to threaten to leave Slashdot.
Of course I can only speculate, but I think your real reason for bitching about dupes lies somewhere in between trying to make an 'insightful' post and annoyance at... well actually I don't get what's so annoying about dupes. Unless, of course, you're watching Slashdot a little too much and you are offended that they haven't entertained you with something 'new'. Honestly, just skip the damn story if it's not interesting.
Slashdotters sure get noisy for the most frivilous of reasons. They're like Star Trek fans. It's really fucking obnoxious.
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:3, Funny)
Examine the two articles more closely (read beyond the titles). Both of them reference the EXACT SAME ARTICLE in the St. Petersburg Times.
This isn't merely a dupe...it's the Platonic Ideal of the concept of 'dupe'.
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2, Funny)
According to this article, [cnn.com] OpenBSD 2.6 has been released, despite still being dead. Linus Torvalds has publicly accused Microsoft [sco.com] of resorting to bully tactics, [homestarrunner.com] but Richard Stallman has built a beowulf cluster [redhat.com] of supercomputers [commodore64.com] in Soviet Russia, which promises to defend all our base [army.mil].
Crosses fingers and eagerly waits for "story accepted" confirmation...
Re:It's dupe-a-licious! (Score:2)
Dupe should be (Score:4, Funny)
Oh crikey, not another one! (Score:3, Insightful)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/ 06/0217252&tid=193&tid=17 [slashdot.org]
Wake up and smell the noise, admins. I know it's just me screaming in the sea of other people yelling about dupes, but isn't it time to implement some kind of link checker system?
Re:Oh crikey, not another one! (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been trying to come up with a way to perfectly word my upcoming GreaseMonkeyUserScriptRequest. I want a system where I can donate my mod points to a mod-up or nuke mechanism, and I think a lot more people here would like to see a NoDupes script.
Re:Oh crikey, not another one! (Score:2)
This is certainly offtopic, so Slashdot Editors should open up a discussion on feature requests, most would probably be pretty wild and self defeating, but there could be a few gems.
Re:Oh crikey, not another one! (Score:2)
If the editors gave enough of a shit to implement a link checker, they'd also read their own site, making such a thing unnecessary.
Deja Vu (Score:2, Insightful)
Florida seems to be the snitching capital of the world. Wasn't it there that so
meone told police that 3 doctors where plotting something evil when they overheard them at a resturaunt.
again? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:again? (Score:5, Funny)
(hey, it worked for the story. I can almost smell the Karma)
Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:5, Insightful)
Christ driving around to see what doors stupid ppl have left open should not be a crime. If I drive around my neighborhood and look at how many dumb ppl have left their front door wide open should I be arrested. Breaking in is one thing but just looking is another.
That's a horrible analogy. Because it is and should be illegal to walk into somebody's house without permission, even if the door is open.
But that's not what an AP setup like this is like. It's not just "open" ...it's actively inviting people to use its access. It's broadcasting an SSID, and then answering DHCP requests by giving out leases. So, using an AP that was configured like the one in this case is more like driving around looking for signs that say "keg party down the street" then finding the house that says "keg party" on the door, then knocking, and having the door answered by somebody who says "come on in" and hands you a cup for the keg.
This does not hold if the AP is not broadcasting its SSID and using DHCP. If you go sniff the network and setup a static address on it, you've probably done so without permission. But when the system advertises its existence and offers you an IP when you ask, you have just been authorized to use the network.
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:3, Insightful)
Second, in this case, the homeowner confronted the l33ch twice, and the latter clearly realized that he wasn't welcome on the network.
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
Nerds can take or ignore my advice, but a "jury o
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:3, Insightful)
I _understand_ nerd logic (and your web server analogy and obliviousness to my point make for a perfect example thereof)
Look, I'm not oblivious to your point. You're just wrong. Both your assertion that juries can't or won't listen to expert testimony in a trial setting and your assertion that nerd logic somehow isn't correct in a discussion about networking are wrongheaded.
The nerds built the Internet, and if the rest of the world wants to go and try to administer it while disregarding the logic of the
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2, Flamebait)
I'd be more sympathetic if nerd logic were actually logic, and not just excessively clever stupidity.
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, Otter, I've got to say congratulations; you're the first person on the other side of this argument that I've seen make a reasonable point that might hold up. And I read the first /. discussion too.
The point I'm congratulating is the confrontation argument. If the owner of the AP actually came out and told the leech to get off his network, then yes, I'd agree that the leech needs to leave or face these felony charges.
That said, my reading of TFA does not suggest that this happened in this case. TFA s
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
Indeed, one could say Smith's actions of attempting to conceal his leeching by closing his laptop when approached was indicative that he knew he shouldn't be doing that.
Then again, it is reasonable to think he was just protecting his own privacy from someone else's snooping as someone at a public hotspot might want to access with his screen unseen by others.
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
As stories here (including this one) demonstrate every day, nerd logic is _not_ the logic that matters for anything besides scoring points in arguing. (It's also just plain stupid, but that's another issue.)
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:3, Insightful)
A non-default SSID with broadcast turned off, WPA-AES-PSK and MAC wh
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
There is a second issue here and is what is really the problem, is a creepy guy hanging out for hours in a residential neighborhood. The police will level every possible charge that they have possibility of sticking so the guy might be convicted of something. If the guy does not have child porn on his computer, he likely won't hav
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
"Analogies are like goldfish" (Score:2)
Analogies are like goldfish. Sometimes they don't shed much light on the discussion, just like goldfish.
We have many thousands of years of shared experience with physical houses and probably some territorial instincts that go back further. It's been relatively easy to agree on laws about trespass on physical property. WiFi has some important differences from physical property.
Even so we could borrow some ideas from the law of trespass and build a legal structure that will promot
office building (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
Christ driving around to see what doors stupid ppl have left open should not be a crime.
Arguably you are stealing service, and that *may be* a crime. However, it may only be a misdemenor considering that no attempt was made to secure the system. (Some people do intentionally offer service to war drivers and the like.)
The more interesting question is how it jives with FCC regulations.
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:2)
I absolutely agree!
But using "ppl" instead of "people"... twice in two sentences... that should be a crime. Preferably punished by being forced to talk only in abbreviations for, say, a month or two.
And slashdot editors posting incessant dupes should be punished by having their tinfoil hats taken away. Sigh. If only.
Someone should start up and maintain a slashdot-editor-dupe-posting hall of shame. Seriousl
Re:Wardriving a Felony! (Score:3, Insightful)
I recommend wardriving [wifimaps.com], but I do not recommend using networks for which you have no authorization. I interviewed the FBI on this topic [seattlewireless.net], and also went over safe wardriving procedures.
Of course, I could also go to jail for taking pictures of a hospital 3 blocks from my house, but that's another story that I haven't blogged about yet.
If only women followed your logic (Score:2)
Not only is it a dupe... (Score:5, Insightful)
ALL major stories get duped (Score:2)
... and I don't think it's accidental.
If the story was good once, odds are it'll get lots of attention a second time, some from people who didn't see it while it was on the front page the first time, and some from people looking to see if there's anything of interest in the new discussion. And some from people complaining about dups, of course. And some from people complaining about people complaining about dups. And some from people explaining why dups are probably not accidental. And some from styl
Mod Article -1 Redundant (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Mod Article -1 Redundant (Score:2, Funny)
Certainties on /. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Certainties on /. (Score:2, Offtopic)
Zonk? Is that you?
Re:Certainties on /. (Score:2)
Burn Him (Score:2)
Re:Burn Him (Score:2)
The public understands very clearly what he was doing (unauthorized access of a home internet connection).
While the Slashdot crowd thinks of arcane technical reasons why it isn't wrong.
Furtively hunched over is my favorite position (Score:2, Funny)
Since this is a duplicate article, I will just post a link on how to secure your wifi on the road.... http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/
xperts? (Score:2)
You couldn't even quote the whole word? Or is that the new spelling? Or are we talking about people that used to be perts?
So are we all felons here? (Score:3, Insightful)
People have used the cloak of wireless to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats, according to authorities.
So shouldn't these people be charged for these crimes, and not for using a technology that makes these crimes possible? Why not:
People have used the postal service to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats, according to authorities.
People have used computers to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats, according to authorities.
People have used telephones to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats, according to authorities.
Re:So are we all felons here? (Score:2)
This article does NOT have the tone that wireless networking is a bad thing. it has the tone of "people who use other people's wireless networks for anonymity can do bad things"
And in other news (Score:2)
The real article (Score:5, Funny)
annoyed_reader writes "The Pete Rose Times has a story about baldass_newbie who was arrested for stealing Slashdot articles via wi-fi signals. Experts believe that there are scores of incidents of stealing slashdot articles. People have used the cloak of wireless to take old slashdot stories and resubmit them. Sometimes they use multiple aliases. The problem, experts say, is that slashdot editors do not take the time or are unsure how to check for duplicate story posts. Slashdot editor Zonk knew what to do. 'But I never did it because I was busy playing The Sims.'"
I've a year to patent this in the US... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're a lawyer... (Score:2)
The problem is your target market. (Score:2)
What you want to sell them is the idea of a big green light labelled "Secure" that comes on when the network is up and encryption is on. Not as effective to the end (l)user, but SALEABLE to the equipment maker.
There was this guy who originally invented an easy way to get ketchup out of the bottle. Every ketchup maker in America turned him down. "
Re:The problem is your target market. (Score:2)
Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:5, Insightful)
- SSID was advertising the availability of the access point.
- Absense of encryption re-enforces the fact that this was not a private network.
- DHCP giving an IP address is as good as saying "have a seat, enjoy the connection".
A good analogy would be to have a big sign in front of your house saying "Cookies inside!" (SSID). You leave the door propped open (lack of encryption). You have someone inside pull up a chair and invite the person to sit down and enjoy said cookies (DHCP).
If you don't want people on your wireless, take appropriate steps to protect yourself. Someone breaking encryption to get access to a network is illegal. Connecting to an unprotected network should not be.
Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:2)
Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:2)
Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:2)
IANAL, but that law seems a bit vague to me. What exactly is the definition of "authorization" in that context? None is given that I can see, not even in the definitions section (815.03). If "authorization" means explicit permission from a human being in charge of the computer system in 815.06, then would that not make every person who's surfed the web in the state of Florida a felon? But if "authorization" si
Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:2)
True. An unmanned vehicle makes for a bad analogy, because there's a system of identification and authorization that happens in a WAP that doesn't happen in an automobile. That is, you know the WAP is unsecured/public before you ever try to utilize it. This would be akin to a sign on a car that said "FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC" while having the doors unlocked and the key in
Re:Any good lawyer could prove this bogus (Score:2)
Zonk! (Score:5, Funny)
Zonk, read the damn site, or quit as an editor.
2 Problems (Score:2)
2 - Does this also make it a crime to intentionally share your wireless? And what about *public* wifi?
Its for the kids remember.. Blah.
latest kismet poll (Score:3, Interesting)
So it's about 20% unprotected, 40% badly protected and 30% badly protected if WEP mode is used by clients.
Slashcode Dirty Dupe Detect (Score:3, Interesting)
When an article is "posted" the first thing that happens is every link in the article is compared to a URL_table that only has links, and the ID of the article linked.
If there's a match, return the user to the posting page, put "DUPE ALERT" at the top, and give links to all the matching articles. Then the poster can use his most powerful computer (brain) to see if they are truley are, and they probably will be, URL's are pretty unique.
If there is no match, then post the story, and add all the stories links the URL table.
Here's what needs to be in the URL table:
ID, StoryID, URL
Pretty simple eh?
Want to make it have less false positives?
ID, StoryID, URL, Date
Then when you do your match, only look for matches in the last year...
Somebody make a patch, I don't know perl.
Re:Slashcode Dirty Dupe Detect (Score:3, Insightful)
1.) The admins actually read the site
2.) The admins remember, "Hey, that was our biggest story yesterday," and therefore don't post it again
3.) There is no step three.
Pretty simple, eh?
irony (Score:4, Funny)
This is clearly (Score:4, Funny)
from thomas.loc.gov [archives.gov]
"...nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb..."
Same person, same offence, 2 times. Sounds like a clear cut violation to me. This guy's lawyer should be all over this.
Hooptie
I wanna play too!! (Score:2)
CmdrTaco... grumble grumble... Zonk, grumble grumble... slashd0t sux0r, grumble grumble.
Someone give me bait. Grumble Grumble.
Dupes are poops and dodongo dislike smoke.
Can I get modded insightful/funny now that I contributed to dupe complaints 101?
Dupes? (Score:2, Interesting)
Subscribe? (Score:5, Interesting)
Does Florida have a three strikes law? (Score:2)
Automatic Door Owner Sues Pedestrian (Score:2)
A member's only club has now accused a non-member for walking in front of their automatic door and opening it. "The scum was stealing our air conditioned oxygen." When asked why the club didn't put a common card lock, hand scanner, or security guard nearby, the owner replied "We aren't the thieves. We shouldn't have to go to extra trouble to secure our door!" Though the accused did not steal (anything other than the oxygen), it was his presence at the door that unnerved the owner
In other news... (Score:2, Insightful)
Taking things from an unlocked home no longer considered burglary!
Don't think those are valid analogies? How about:
Staying in an unlocked home while the owners are out of town no longer considered illegal entry!
Bad Analogies (Score:2)
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Insightful)
the problem is not lazy people (Score:2)
I did turn this stuff on , and things went to hell in a handbasket
so, as in most cases where "lazy users" are blamed, the problem is actually crappy software/hardware
(would we blame people for not using seatbelts if you had to spend 5 minutes adjusting them every day ?
Holy CRAP, this is getting SERIOUS!!! (Score:2)
Mother of God, there must be a lot of War Drivers in Florida!
I wonder if Jeb Bush will start an anti-WiFi war?
(Yesterday's arrest here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07
Might As Well Give Up! (Score:2)
Just dump ALL the stories submitted on the front page and let the
Dump the editors, dump the moderators.
We'll just spider the whole goddamn site - or let Google do it for us.
Obviously the editing and moderating just is not working worth a shit.
Like the guy in Hackers said: "Give...it...up!"
Crime and punishment (Score:2, Funny)
Victimless Crime? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Same story, different topic (Score:2)
Particularly the one about the internal structure of T. Rex bones.
But like you, no grousing.
Re:I'm curious... Has anyone here stolen WiFi? (Score:2)
Then of course when mine gets hooked up my wireless network is secure. because i don't feel
Re:RTFA Please (Score:2)
Smith, who police said admitted to using Dinon's Wi-Fi, has been charged with unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony. A pretrial hearing is set for July 11. It remains unclear what Smith was using the Wi-Fi for, to surf, play online video games, send e-mail to his grandmother, or something more nefarious.
Re:RTFA Please (Score:2)
RTFA before saying RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
TFA:
IE Smith was charged for war driving. Period. There is NO indication that he performed ANY illegal activities other than allowing his computer to respond to an invitation to connect to the network that was sent by the AP.
More from TFA:
If you have further information, please provide. If you don't, then don't ask people to RTFA to ascertain information that simply isn't there.
Re:Xperts? (Score:2)
Spurt = A drip under pressure
Re:Secure? (Score:2)