Posted on 02/09/2008 9:46:43 PM PST by ChocChipCookie
My sister-in-law and brother-in-law discovered that a neighbor has been tapping into their unsecured wireless internet connection. They've discovered 8-10 folders of photos accessible through their network that do not belong to them. (My BIL discovered this a few days ago when he wasn't able to get an internet connection and went searching for his wireless connection.) Some are general family photos of camping trips, their home, etc., but there are numerous photos that can only be described as all-male kiddie porn. Tonight my husband took steps to delete access to the folders that had been mapped to their computer and secure their network.
My SIL and BIL recognized the people in the non-porn photos as neighbors who live across the street, but they have not yet contacted the police. Because my elderly mother-in-law and an elderly aunt (both in their 70's) live with them and are home alone during the day, they are nervous about their safety should these scumbag neighbors discover who turned them in. I don't believe they know these neighbors by name or have even spoken to them.
Can any Freepers suggest the best course of action here? My in-laws had named their wireless network with their last name, so it's very possible that these neighbors know whose network they have been using. Now that access to the photos has been deleted, can the police still pursue this? Needless to say, my first instinct is to call the police myself, but it's not my family in the situation.
...a computer with an unsecured wireless network
what is this and how does one know this is happening to their own computer where does one check for this?
Dont fool around with this. The exploitation of children is one of the most damaging things that in our society. The scars left never completely heal.
I know that by turning them you are only treating a symptom and not the cause, but by all means CALL THE POLICE NOW.
And dont delete the folders!! That is evidence.
The first thing I’d do is unplug the router and hard wire my computer to the modem. The second thing I’d do is try to round up a few thousand dollars and call a local criminal defense attorney.
My husband was on their computer tonight and said that the photos ARE NOT ON THEIR COMPUTER. My BIL discovered that another user was on their wireless network, dug around to figure out what was going on and found these folders. The folders and their contents ARE STILL ON THE HARD DRIVE OF THE NEIGHBOR’S COMPUTER.
This was just discovered yesterday evening. My husband used WPA encryption to secure their network so this doesn’t happen again. He DID NOT delete the files themselves, just disabled any access these neighbors have to my BIL’s network.
Call the police now - otherwise you become party to a cover-up and subsequently can be considered part of the crime. It would be imperative for your BIL to call with you as well, otherwise he would be considered suspect.
Inform the police of the hack/intrusion and be prepared to hire your own forensic computer specialists to protect yourselves as well, and to lend validity to your statement that the computers were hacked...
I offer prayers for you and your family in this difficult situation.
Your BIL and SIL need to call a lawyer immediately, and then contact the police while they’re being advised by said lawyer. Yeah, it sucks that their crooked/perverted neighbor is causing them to have to pay a lawyer, but you definitely don’t want to jump into this mess without being properly represented. You also don’t want to ignore the issue because if some investigator was tracing those photos and they track it down to the IP address of your BIL’s network, he could find himself in a world of hurt. You want to contact the police before they contact you. Having the lawyer present is to make sure you don’t say or do anything dumb that would get you involved any more than you have to be.
BTW, you will be doing a good thing. The police can figure out exactly what was sent from whom to whom, and hopefully put away not only the freaks who are downloading the porn but maybe even track down the freaks who are making it.
BIL should take out his hard drive, smash it into a million pieces, buy a new hard drive and start all over. He needs to completely secure his network so his neighbors can’t access it. And don’t look at a neighbor’s files even if they show up on his computer by mistake. That’s being nosy and can cause problems.
SSID is the public name of a wireless network, for example the SSID of a new Linksys router is “Linksys” unless the user changes it to something else. When you browse the available wireless connections close enough for you to detect and connect to, you are looking at each routers SSID.
If it was just a mapped drive then there is no need to destroy BIL’s hard drive.
It’s a ‘beacon’ sent out at regular intervals by typically-configured wireless access points and routers - it is used to make it easier for anybody nearby to discover the existence of the wireless network and connect to it. Often it’s set by the wireless manufacturer to something like “LINKSYS” or “Netgear” or the like, which is a tipoff to hackers who may want to engage in some mischief with your network and PCs. The typical wireless unit has an administrative user interface that you can use to change the SSID to something nonstandard (as the OP has done) or to turn it off.
FYI ping
Are you joking?
Uh, call the FBI immediately. Please?
I advise you do nothing until you have thought it out very carefully. First off, there is no way to prove where the photo’s came from without very involved data forensics effort. Next, that neighbor could cause serious legal problems for your in-laws - it may sound crazy, but they could go after them for false accusation, etc.
On an open wireless network, literally anyone could have put the photos there. It would be very hard to prove where they came from, if not impossible. Even if some faces are recognized, that is not enough to say they did it - not legally.
It is against the law to access someone’s network without permission, but if the network is open, then this becomes a gray area.
As a network security professional, I strongly advise you seek legal advice before doing anything else. Find a lawyer who specializes in digital and data areas. The photos sound horrible, and I would be inclined to call the cops too, but be careful and move only after consulting legal advice. Also, disconnect the affected computer from the network and do not use the computer until deciding what to do.
The cops could think it’s your porn and you’re just trying to get the neighbors in trouble. After all who’s computer is it on?
Be careful.
I don’t know much about computers, but I know from experience that someone can get into my computer and pretty much do anything they want.
Once, when I was in Arizona, I received a text message on my phone from my son, who was in London, asking me to call him and giving me the number. I called him and asked him what was up. He said that he hadn’t text messaged me, that the text message was just the email message that he had sent to my home computer before I left for Arizona. The next day, I started getting all my husband’s emails from work on my phone, both in coming and out going.
Neither my husband, nor I knew how to send a text message.
What a computer guy, here on FreeRepublic told me, was that someone had my IEP number and was monitoring all our communications, but he slipped up for a while. It was probably related to my husband’s job.
Okay. But as someone has already noted, the photos got to your neighbor's computer VIA your BIL's internet connection. If/when a law enforcement agency tracks down the digital path from the kiddie-porn to your neighbor's computer VIA YOUR BIL'S COMPUTER, what that law enforcement agency will discover is that the porn pictures were "ordered" and "received" via YOUR BIL'S INTERNET ACCOUNT.
The law enforcement agency won't see that the porn is stored on your neighbor's computer. They'll come knocking on your BIL's door.
Sure, he might convince them of the truth. If they're disposed to listening.
Far better for him to broach the whole thing with the local DA or Feds in the company of a competent defense attorney.
You're simply wrong about this. When I was a student at a university, my computer in my apartment was on the network and I was able to access anyone's computer on that network who didn't secure their settings. Curiosity getting the better of me, I copied one of my files and pasted it on their drive just to see what would happen. I then deleted it. I could have deleted their entire drive if I had wanted. Made no sense to me then either but I know what I saw.
Its a shame.
Not really. I have been involved in numerous cases that involved child porn. Most of these crimes start with an outcry witness. Many of them are family members that find the material on the computer. It happens, and the investigators know this. What looks bad is if they try to cover it up.
Given the severity of the situation and the possible outcome - what if a person just scrapped the computer? Take out the hard drive and all and destroy them and get rid of the 'carcas' - Then start out new?
It would cost money - but could be pennies compared to where this could go...???
Any FReeper that need to now how, feel free to send me a FReepmail
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