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WiFi Theft – Is It On The Rise?
Just recently, when I have talked to someone new over at their place and they don’t have cable or DSL, and somehow using it on their laptop, the conversation is somewhat like this…
Them: “I’m using someone’s internet.”
Me: “Do they know about it?”
Them: “No.”
Once they said that, it came to my mind how many other people are doing this practice? I’m sure there are many others that are most commonly living in an apartment complex and if they don’t have internet, innocently connecting to their neighbor’s or nearby wifi hotspot. You will also see a some people in cars outside of local coffee shops using their internet without coming in for their products.
In a way, this is a form of stealing/hacking at the same time. Think of it this way, you sneak into your neighbor’s house and snatch some of their food while they are not looking. Isn’t this wireless theft the same thing?
This is why enabling WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) or WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is so important on your wireless router. These protection methods allow you to block outside access to your wireless router by asking for a password that you designate. Without these protocols enabled, your router is wide open for anyone around you to access, and especially if you live in a highly-populated area.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
I think that your food analogy isn’t a good one.
If you steal food (and eat it) that food is gone.
Of course, it’s preferred use some kind of encryption on your wireless network, but if you insist on using WEP encryption it’s like not using any encryption at all.
(When traveling, I normally connect to an open wi-fi spot. If there is none, I crack a WEP-encrypted one.)
If the person is stupid enough to not securely protect their wireless they deserve to have it borrowed.
It can also work in the other way, my friend was living at a place where she approached her neighbours and asked if she could use their wireless and they allowed her to for no charge.
The food analogy isn’t the best but personally I cant think of a better one.
“In a way, this is a form of stealing/hacking at the same time.”
CRACKING, my friend, cracking, not hacking. Stop putting hackers to shame, we aren’t evil.
People who get an internet connection from their neighbors aren’t really getting the best internet signal.The people they are really getting the free internet from are the ISPs and that is a lost costomer for the ISP.
I for one can get a signal from my neighbors but its to slow so I choose to pay.
The person that posted this:
If the person is stupid enough to not securely protect their wireless they deserve to have it borrowed.
Is an idiot: basically what you’re saying is: anything worth stealing..is up for grabs!, right???
well almost but think about this.
You have a couple of million dollar diamond, you just leave it in the street for people to come and chip a bit off. Who’s the idiot in this case?
I think coffee shops and others that provide a complimentary wifi connection for their customers have no problem with someone bringing in a laptop and sitting down just to use the wifi. The idea is they might possibly get hungry or thirsty while they’re there…. or feel guilty about “stealing” internet as you would have them feel.
Hi,
I believe that you can’t call it theiving, let me explain why. Wifi is not a single-user service and neither is internet or bandwitdth for that matter.
Think of it as the wifiowner being a man who rents a lot of bicycles. Now, he won’t be able to use the bicycle all at once and won’t notice if you borrow one from him, so what’s the harm?
Well, you could do the owner harm of course, especially in countries with insane laws, by using his bicycle for illegal activities or simple use up all of his bicycles so that their’s none left for him.
If we then look at the matter from another point of view IE, the owner of the WIFI. I know quite a lot of folks who have an open WIFI, intending people to use it, but carefully logs all data being transferred and limiting the bandwidth so that A) they can have some fun with the peoples login information and B) their own bandwidth won’t get disturbed.
As you can see, their’s no black and white in this. People can abuse other peoples wifi as well as wifi owners can abuse other peoples borrowing.
Personally I’m all for sharing, and so far in Sweden you can’t be hold responsible for other peoples action. So if they can’t prove you did the illegal act that was committed from your wifi, you’re home free (and so is of course the person who borrowed your wifi). And wouldn’t you like to be able to go online whereever you are?
However, if you don’t know how to keep borrowers from the possibility of destroying your files or in other ways make your life miserably, I do suggest that you encrypt your wifi.. but absolutely not by WEP since it’s so easily hacked. You should use at least WPA2 with TKIP / AES.
Personally I would be annoyed if someone parked outside my house and cracked my WEP to use my connection, because I sail pretty close to the wind sometimes with my download limit. But when my poor innocent sister found that her computer magically connected to the internet in her new flat – well, I feel sorry for her neighbour but that isn’t stealing. (She thought she was connecting via my wifi – I live ten miles away!)
This is an ethical debate. The individual paying for the service should have the right to control the distribution. A valid analogy may be one where someone has a television connected to a cable service. If they have left their front door unlocked, is it OK for you to walk into their living room, sit down on their couch, and watch their television. Likely you are forcing someone who lives in the house to have to share a couch or chair. If you were invited after asking permission, then that is another matter.
The fact you can “hide” does not make it OK to hijack their bandwidth, even if it is unprotected. Ethically, stealing bandwidth is wrong.
guys, i think that if there is a wifi hotspot then why not use it? yeah, i think that to crack the encrypted wifi is wrong but your theory of not using neighbour’s wifi or sitting in a coffee shop for wifi is wrong. the motive of coffe shop owner is to attract people through wifi.
thankyou
i also used to scan the neighbourhood for wifi spots when i didn’t had my DSL and i’m doing it with my mobile too, especially to use skype instead of my mobile provider. now i have a good internet connection at home and i also have a wifi router but… i left one tiny door for free use for whoever passes nearby. I limited the connection to 30 kilos but for email and instant messaging it’s ok. it often happenes for me to need to check my email or send an IM to a friend while i’m moving. i find it fair this way. i use others wifi’s, i let them use mine too. this is sharing
I think “theft” is a bad word to use for this. “Leeching” is much better, as you aren’t stealing any item, you are forcing the network to dedicate time to your needs as opposed to the owner’s needs. I think leeching is unethical, but at the same time, I do it and have no problem being unethical about it. If I’m smart enough to get a free signal, you should be smart enough to protect that signal.
WEP is a joke, and should NOT be used. I’ve seen WEP cracked in under ten minutes, and honestly if that’s how you want to protect your service, don’t get mad when someone leeches. If you want to be secure, use WPA2, and don’t think that makes you safe. WPA2 can be cracked as well, it just takes longer. You should also be hiding your SSID and setting MAC filters if you are really that paranoid about it.
Get over it, its not a big deal. Bottom line, if you want something safe, you should make it safe. Don’t expect other people to simply ignore the fact that you are hanging a free meal in front of them.
As for the food analogy, you’d have to think about it growing in their yard, and the surrounding area that you happen to be. Sure, its there and you shouldn’t take it but they have so much, and your too poor to afford food. What do you do? The food will grow back and as long as you don’t start hogging the food if your just casually stopping by I see no big deal. The funny thing is, the food is needed to survive where as the internet isn’t.
The way I see it: If a $100 bill goes in thru the crack of my doorm, I believe this is my money unless the person happend to see it go thru my door and ask for it back. If wifi is going thru my living room and my computer happend to catch it and use the internet with it, then I am using the signal that is in my room. You should of locked it down. You are basically traspassing into my living room.