Australian Police to Patrol Against Wardriving
July 22, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Laptops, Wireless, news
Now it’s clear: in Australia, wardriving is illegal. To drive home the point, police in Queensland will conduct regular patrols to identify unsecured hotspots. The plan is to sniff out these supposed havens of criminal activity (evildoers piggyback through WiFi to carry out their nefarious schemes apparently) and warn homeowners and businesses who’ve left their door open.
I don’t get the point of this exercise though: Yes, homeowners wouldn’t like random strangers leeching off their connectivity, but the neighborhood coffee shop isn’t exactly vigilant about who uses their hotspot, so long as the coffee’s paid for. If I was an evildoer, all I’d have to do is buy something to drink (and perhaps eat?), set up my laptop, get the WiFi key from the helpful barista, and access my online tools of mass destruction. Mwahahahaha!
Maybe a different kind of legal presence is called for? How does requiring businesses with hotspots to keep detailed access logs? These can be matched to security footage, and make it easier for the good guys to identify who’s being evil, and when.
