Rampant Tapping of Wi-Fi Connection Discovered

The leading cyber security company Sophos discovered that 54% of web users had gained illegal access into an unrestricted wireless signal - considered a crime under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, as well as the Communications Act 2003.

Sophos conducted this study for The Times. Sophos' Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley stated that renting Wi-Fi and logging on to the net may seem like a victimless crime, however, it divests ISPs of income, as reported by ZDNet on November 16, 2007.

According to BroadbandChoices.co.uk's Product Director Michael Phillips, the large amount of users who have illegally accessed a Wi-Fi link will have acted that way just to check their messages or search for an address - which lots of users feel to be absolutely harmless, reported Broadband Choices on November 16, 2007.

Still, keeping the router exposed to passing intruders could allow anybody to download unauthorized matter across the user's Wi-Fi connection, easily track down the user, or could also purloin private and banking details of the user.

The police consider it as a grievous crime since infiltrators can easily download obscene contents and unlawful pictures surreptitiously.

Police officials are also apprehensive of the fact that offenders can tap into unrestricted wireless links to capture private data, like credit card details and passwords and utilize them to perpetrate identity theft.

Mr. Phillips added that in the worst-case scenario, hackers could hijack a user's computer and enter every file, along with e-mail links and net banking. It definitely seems wise to take adequate measures to defend oneself.

A 24-year-old resident of Newquay, Cornwall, was nabbed in July 2007 with his laptop computer outside a house in a suburban neighborhood. Criminals have also piggybacked the connections of Cyber cafés, agencies and, also an Essex-based school.

Unauthorized Wi-Fi intercepting first originated in America when Benjamin Smith III was apprehended in Florida in 2005. The first such occurrence took place in Britain later in the same year when Gregory Straszkiewicz, aged 24, was penalized £500 and awarded a 12-month provisional release for utilizing a laptop from his vehicle in West London.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/28/2007