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Police Sting Arrested an Australian for Sending Threatening Mails

An Australian man caught in a sting by police has been held guilty for tapping into wireless Internet connections so that he could send threatening e-mails anonymously.

Police informs that this 22-year old fellow from Queensland has been sending threatening mails to various people since August. To avoid being caught up, he connected with the unencrypted Wi-Fi connection so that IP address could not be traced back. This is sometimes known as piggybacking. Also, he spoofed the mail address of Tony Sarno, editor of the APC Computer magazine.

On December 10, 2007, Mr. Tony said that when told by the Rockhampton police, he was stunned to know that his mail ID has been linked with these alleged threats. He also added that he wants to congratulate the force that they fight against technical hurdles. He also said that wireless technology has become so much advanced that it has made possible for anyone remain unknown, as reported by AUSTRALIAN IT on December 11, 2007.

The police force in Queensland, Australian Federal Police, Victoria and New South Wales - all were trying to solve this case. Fortunately, on December 3, police got a mail demanding a huge amount of money be "drooped off" at a local park, and the man was caught by undercover officers.

Derek Pickless, Senior Sergeant of Rockhampton police said that it was difficult to find the source of the mails because the sender did not use his own IP connection and masked his identity, as per the reports of news.com.au on December 10, 2007.

Australian High Tech Crime Centre's Director, James McCormack, said that inclination towards cellular broadband home network put the users in jeopardy of unauthentic "piggybacking". He also said that they are tensed about unprotected networks as it implies that people have set up a wireless router without taking any time for settings the security, as reported by AUSTRALIAN IT on December 11, 2007.

McCormack also suggested enabling connection encryption as that will diminish the threat of unauthentic access.

On the same lines, in a recent survey conducted by IT Security Firm Sophos, it was discovered that around 54% of users have been using wireless Internet connection without any prior consent.

Related article: Police Arrests Six Suspects Associated With TJX Credit Scam

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