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public WiFi access?

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by superc

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I am a newbie to wireless, but not to computing or law. I visited Circuit City and browsed their laptops to find a replacement for the 486 laptop. They had no laptops there without wireless capability. All I really needed was a dial up connection. Laptop/Notebook costs ranged from about $600 up. According to the salesstaff wireless is popular because many places allow free internet access. Several such are supposedly in the Winchester, VA and Leesburg, VA areas. Allegedly all one has to do is drive around in ones car with the laptop on and free connection opportunities will present themselves. I was even told of websites offering tools to aid me in doing so (Air Crack, etc.). Visiting the nearby Staples and Office Max confirmed that while laptops are available cheaply none are still being offered without wireless capability. After browsing the stores I found a notebook I liked (Gateway 520 for those who wonder) and got it home, adding and updating the software and then turned the wireless feature on. Sure enough many connection opportunities seem to be there. After visiting a website (via dialup) and looking at aircrack it is pretty obvious it is a hacking (burglary?) tool and I won't take it. Returning to the laptop connection opportunities I see at least three would give quick access but not display owner identification without doing searching I was/am reluctant to do. 18 USC 1030 relates only to sites pertaining to classified or financial data. As someone else pointed out in another thread Joe Shmoe's PC doesn't fall under it. However, Virginia computer laws might cover his PC. These wireless laptops are proliferating. So too are free hotspots. Circuit City even sells a cheap keychain type WiFi detector. Here is my question.

If I drive into a highway rest area and turn my laptop on and acquire a connection, how do I tell if I am legally accessing a freely offered public access hotspot from a nearby public library or college or whether or not, I am illegally accessing Farmer Brown's poorly configured wireless PC in his nearby farm house? Is there a way to quickly tell before accepting and using the connection?

8 replies

by jaqui

should be a name for the access point available, if it doesn't specify public, then it probably is farmer browns poorly secured wireless.

it's not illegal to search for owner of the point, as that is public domain data, if it's a person rather than an organisation it's a poorly configured/secured private point.

if a library, company, university then most likely a public point.

by jdmercha

In the US, wirelss radio signals are governed by the FCC. They use public radio frequencies. Accessing a wireless signal is the same as accessing any public radio spectrum.

If you can pick up a wireless signal, it is not illegal to use it. Assuming you are not tresspassing.

by admin

It is not illegal in any case to use the RF signal, it is on a public frequency, but it may be illegal to use the network on the other end of the RF signal and it definately is illegal in the United States if you force your way in.

Ah, the confusing world of new frontiers :)

by cp7212

This is the second time I've seen a Q like this here. I'm split down the middle. The process of driving around looking for hotspots is called wardriving.

Morally, I think if you hop on a hotspot and you're unsure of the location (definitely not library or coffee house), it's not right. I'm not saying it's illegal, but probably immoral. That's why people wardrive, they have no morals.

I don't know of any way to tell, unless it's WEP or WPA protected, then like someone said previously, you force your way in. Again, no morals and most likely, illegal.

Poorly configured wireless routers are all over the place it seems nowadays. Heck, my manager continues to ignore me and not secure one of our SSIDs (I don't know why). I can connect with a laptop in the third row of our parking lot. We have a splash screen stating it is a private network, but I know one day there is going to be something very wrong.

Just remember some of those farmers take the BBs out of the buckshot shells and put in shards of rock salt. I can tell you from experience, it really burns......good luck.

by ldrews

Wardriving in and of itself isn't immoral, as long you're only accessing the internet and don't venture into the depths of their network.

I have my WiFi setup unsecure mostly because I'm in a location that noone around me has the capabilities for accessing my wireless setup. And if they do, oh well.

by superc

This is exactly the legal quandry. There is an old common law concept called "open fields" which some future court might deem applies. If you were going from point A to point B and the shortest path was by walking across yonder unfenced pasture, then it was legal to do so, unless the owner was present and objected, or built a fence to indicate such objection, by the early 20th century posting no trespassing signs became the equivalent of a fence (although law enforcement officials can legally (in the US) ignore those signs as the 4th amendment prohibition against warrantless search applies only to a "home."). When an individual simply puts up a wireless connection point with the intent that strangers can use it if desired (equivalent to that mythical pasture owner putting some boards across a pesty ditch in the field so the people cutting through his field won't get their feet wet). While their may be a certain lack of wisdom in intentionally making your property available to public usage (a landlord shares culpability for the usages he/she permits their property to be used for (spam, porn transmissiion, malware launching point, etc.), and one's ownership rights are diminished the more they allow public access (it is not inconceivable some future court may grant a public access easment to prevent a public wireless sight from becoming non-public), still it is being done by many. The problem remaining for those who travel widely and only wish to use legal sites is telling which is which. I think the best advice I have seen sofar is if it is encrypted or requires a password, then it is not public. If such rudimentary protection is not in place, then we should conside it a virtual open field we may legally use to connect to the Internet. Is this acceptable?

by craig herberg

In my opinion, even if you don't do anything to break in to their computers, you are still stealing their bandwidth, if they don't explicitly state "open to the public." Because wireless equipment is sold to plug in and work out of the box with absolutely no security, most WiFi networks are unsecured. If you left your car in a parking lot with the gas cap removed, and a syphon in the tank, you would be asking for trouble, but that would not give someone the right to take your gas. Although bandwidth may not have the legal standing that gasoline has, I think it does have the same ethical standing -- my OPINION only.

In case you are wondering how safe it is to use unsecured wireless networks, check out http://www.hotspotvpn.com/flashsnif.asp Pretty scary, huh?

Craig Herberg

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