Colorado Sheriffs To WarDrive For Safety

rwx writes "The Sheriff's Department in Douglas County, Colorado says it's going to start warning computer users that their networks may be vulnerable to hackers. It plans on equipping its patrol cars with devices that detect unprotected computer networks, and distributing brochures to computer users in vulnerable areas, instructing them on how to password protect their networks."

how long

before governments try to make open wireless relays illegal? I set my wireless connection at home open on purpose...

Re:how long

I leave my WAP open. (of course I have set the administrator's password though) My wap's SSID is "call (my phone number)". So far I've only gotten one call but there are about 1/2 dozen regular users and the odd hit from a new MAC about once a week.

The bandwidth they use is inconsequential. I suppose if a neighbor decided to go wild on bittorrent or something I might have to take action, but for now it's free lunch if you're in my neighborhood. That's the way I'd like it to be everywhere, so it makes sense for me to help it along in any way I can.

The city next door has a public utility that does cable modems among other things. They have set up WAPs on street lights all over town, and if you have cable modem service you can use it to login to any WAP in the city. Coverage is pretty good, close to 100% downtown. It'd be nice if they would support it with tax dollars and open it up completely, but that's not terribly likely to happen. Maybe in a few years.

Re:how long

I have a distinct feeling that when the FBI kicks in your door and takes your computer to see what kiddie porn sites you've been surfing, having random unknown people using your internet connection won't seem so cool anymore...

Re:how long

Better be careful, and don't be nice to strangers, or some completely improbable bad thing might occur! Be afraid! Be afraid!

I can pick up 5-6 access points from my house. All are locked down except for one named "BeMyGuest"; I've used it a few times when my connection has been down, and when I figured out who's it was, I invited them to my barbecue. So I hereby counter your hypothetical, not very logical threat of an FBI raid, with the actual, already realized threat of: Free Beer.

Re:how long

NO! Not the free beer! Save us all!

Re:how long

Careful what you ask for.

The law of unintentional consequences dictates that in order to fulfil your wishes... you will have to upgrade to the latest version of Windows to run that configuration software.

(and yes... there are better ways to do it, but this is an industry pawning over the droppings of an 800 pound gorilla)

As long as that's all they're doing

I don't see the harm. Now if they are doing anything like making notes on who's routers are open for future "fishing expeditions", I'd be concerned, but if all they're doing is saying "hey bud, your front door is unlocked, just ta let ya know..."

Seeing as how most people have no idea that their wireless routers are so insecure by default...

Limit access?

Will this limit access on that great free wireless lan called "linksys"? I hope not; I didn't want to have to actually pay for Internet access after college.

What would happen...

What would happen if they came to my house? I have a open network (really an access point). We share no files between computers and if someone (neighbors, friends, guys in cars out front) wants to hop on my signal I couldn't care less.

They can get online and I invite them too (network is titled "OPENNETWORK"). I wonder how the cops would respond if I told them that I purposely set it up to allow people to wardrive onto my internets?

Re:What would happen...

While I think it is great that you are running an open network for the benifit of others... and I wish that our society wasn't so damn authoritarian that it was something we had to worry about.

But yikes, could you imagine the problems you could have if someone was using your open network for downloading child porn, or even for trading copyrighted music or movies, or for some sort of "terrorist" activity. Even if you have nothing to do with it, when the authorities have trouble catching the people actually doing the cimes they are going to look for a scapegoat, and that will be you for "recklessly enabling" the crime!

I am not saying you are doing anything morally or legaly wrong, I think what you are doing is a good thing. But I think what you are doing is a bit unwise. Just like it is morally right for Falong Gong to openly practice their religion in China, but it is a very bad idea for them to do so... I say it is a bad idea to run an open network! Sorry, but your instinct for self-preservation should be higher than your altruism.

People who want to share?

What do you want to bet that the police will hassle the first person who:
A) has permission from their service provider to offer a Wifi hot spot,
B) wants to leave it open for the public, and
C) tells this to the police officer who tries to give him a brochure?

Reminds me of the Movie Hackers

FTFA
He also says hackers can upload or download such things as child pornography.

From a famous movie ... hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses...

This isn't their 'department'...

What do Sheriffs care about peoples' wireless network devices? Unless I'm bashing my wife over the head with my access point, I don't want a Sheriff to even tell me what to do with my freggin' network.

What's next? Are they going to start testing peoples' front doors to see if they're unlocked? Again, it's none of their business, and it's wasting taxpayer money. Stick to your department, which is upholding the law.

Re:This isn't their 'department'...

And that would be a bad thing?

Yes, how could police officers going onto your private property and testing your doors to see if they are locked possibly be a bad thing?

I actually have a local policeman that comes into my house at night and makes sure I place my wallet in a secure location before I go to sleep. He also checks all the window-blinds to make sure no terrorists or pedophiles can see into our windows. Recently, I put in a request for a uniformed officer to monitor my children while they draw pictures; I wouldn't want them to poke themselves in the eye with a crayon.

Given the state of affairs today, I'd prefer everyone be required to pass a proficiency test and receive a license to use a computer.

Agreed. Computers are very, very dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands. If there was some way we could pour money into a complicated beuraucratic licensing system, I'd be all for it.

 

Check to see if my front door is locked

While they're at it, they may as well check to see that people's front doors are locked too. Criminals might break in and use their computer when they can't get a wireless signal.

This just give them an excuse...

To surf for porn^H^H^H^H information while they are sitting in the cruiser at a remote location with the A/C running. Hey boss, I'm just in the neighborhood looking for open access points. Child porn is one of the big "boogeymen" out there. I'm suprized they didn't throw "terrorism" in there somewhere.

This is what real cops do

Cops aren't supposed to armed and trained like the military. Their purpose is to keep the peace and peacefully prevent crime where they can. A large part of that is politely informing private citizens if they see something that could get them victimized. It's not common anymore because riding around with a loaded gun and the ability to bust down doors to raid drug users/dealers (if your stash is big, you must be a dealer). It's just not cool to do such old granny policing when the SWAT offers you the chance to play urban warfare with targets that typically don't fight back.

Re:This is what real cops do

In a lot jurisdictions you can get your local police department to come and give a security inspection of your property. They'll look at lighting, locks, shrubbery, etc. If they were just adding this as an item on to their checklist for the service the already offer, I think it wouldn't bother me so much.

Observations from WarBussing

I'm actually surprised that they didn't do this sooner. There are a hell of a lot of unsecured wireless networks in any city, and it's not like the cops are peeking into anything that isn't incredibly public already. As an experiment, I once spent an entire bus ride home repeatedly scanning for wireless networks on my DS. Most of the ones I found were unprotected, including one which even had the word "secure" (written in l33t, no less) as part of its name. Unfortunately, all of the networks with particularly interesting or creative names were secure, including one called "No free internet for you", and another with the particularly clever moniker of "I steal credit card numbers." Gotta wonder what the cops would think of that one...

Here come the kiddy porn cops to sniff your ports

C'mon at least make up a better bullshit story than "It's for your own good". You guys are parking on WiFi LANs so that you can claim you're looking for

Kiddy Porn
Child molesters
Porn Molestors
Sexual predators
Kiddy porn predator molestors
And terrorists.

And you'll catch almost nobody except some innocent person as always.

don't they have something better to do?

According to their OWN statistics, crime in Douglas county is on the increase, some of it quite serious, and these mutton heads want to go around wasting resources looking for open networks.

You can find the statistics here [dcsheriff.net]

The numbers were up in all but a handful of categories.

Murder & Non-Negligent Manslaughter - 3
Negligent Manslaughter / Vehicle - 1
Sexual Assault by Force - 73
Sexual Assault on a Child - 104
Incest - 15
Robbery - 16
Kidnapping - 72
Assault with Weapon - 80
Assault without Weapon - 551
Burglary to Residence - 446
Burglary to Non-Residence - 186
Theft over $500 - 1021
Theft under $500 and over $100 - 758
Theft under $100 - 764
Embezzlement - 1
Possession of Stolen Property - 106
Motor Vehicle Theft - 245
Arson - 41
Criminal Mischief - 1240
Drug Violations- 569
Bribery, Extortion - 22
Gambling - 1
Fraud - 899
Pornography, Prostitution - 9
Weapons Violations - 35

The douglas county cops need to ge their priorities straight.

RS

except the ignorant owner

I can't believe any significant percentage of residential open networks are open on purpose. Most are linksys or netgear or whatever routers, still set to the default channel, ssid and password.

I think the idea of cops (or anyone) delivering a note explaining what the threats are and what you can do to fix it (if you'd like to fix it) is great. Good for Douglas County.

Re:Waste of Time

This is very important police work. If there are open APs, people might be able to communicate freely and anonymously. We don't want any of that now, do we?

Re:Yeah

Heh, the first response to a story is almost always a snarky putdown; I think it's become something of a tradition. God forbid the story is a dupe, then there's going to be snark overload.

I swear to God, if a news-item such as this would appear on the frontpage ..

Bill Gates has announced that he's realizing that Microsoft Windows is an inferior product and has decided to rebuild Windows Vista on a Linux kernel and release it under a FOSS license. Additionally, he is reported to have bitchslapped Steve Ballmer repeatedly claiming that "[sic] Man, I've been fucking longing to do that."

.. it's a pretty safe bet that the first reply would be something like this:

Yeah, so why didn't he hit him with a proper blunt weapon or shoot him in the face or something like that?

Chicken, meet Egg.

Cases of abuse aside (and they really do happen, perhaps not as often as is perceived, but often enough that nearly everyone has had at least one bad experience), the reason that cops get such a chilly reception is that they do "too much protecting" and "not enough serving". That is, usually people only are interacting with a cop if one, they are in trouble, or two, are recently a victim of trouble. If police departments put as much emphasis on the public service announcement schtick, people might react to them with less chill. But, as you point out, they can't perform that function well if people feel chilly towards them. Its a cycle that needs to be broken somewhere, and its easier to change department policy than to spontaneously change the public's attitudes.

Of course, it might also help if police departments changed some of the policies that feed into the disquiet that most people have with their police, such as the 'blue wall', or de facto harrassment, or discouraging legitimate complaints, or not having a system for filing said complaints anonymously. That might help too.