Guy Gets SWAT Team-ed for Not Securing His Wireless Network

Reason ^ | April 24, 2011 | Radley Balko

[neverdem]

Buffalo, New York:

Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of "pedophile!" and "pornographer!" stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn't need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.

That new wireless router. He'd gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.

"We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night," the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, "Doldrum."

"No, I didn't," he insisted. "Somebody else could have but I didn't do anything like that."

"You're a creep ... just admit it," they said.

You know where this is going. They got the wrong guy. Someone else had used Covert's wireless connection to download child porn.

Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale.

It sure is. I can certainly think of some lessons we might draw. One might be: Maybe the cops should check to see if a suspect's wireless network is secure, and therefore that they have the right guy, before they break into his home and point their guns at his head.

Another lesson: Maybe it's not such a good idea to send the SWAT team after someone suspected of downloading—not even manufacturing—child porn in the first place. Are people who download kiddie porn known to be heavily armed?

As you might suspect, these aren't the lessons the police drew from their violent, mistaken raid on Barry Covert. This is:

Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.

Probably good advice, given that they don't seem particularly concerned about their own mistakes in this case. Not doing so could well get you (or more likely, your dog) killed. 

This one reminds me of one of the more amusing botched raids I've covered: The wrong-IP address, mistaken kiddie porn raid featuring lawman/SWAT officer Shaquille O'Neal.

[apillar]

It wouldn't surprise me if the authorities didn't push for a “if it goes through your router, you're guilty whether you downloaded it or not” law. Instances like this are embarrassing for them, and we can't have that.

[South40]

Scary stuff. I’m CCNA certified so I have a little more knowledge of networks than most. I lock down my network with WPA2 and the use of ACLs.

[Rembrandt]

Salem, Mass four hundred years in the future.

[Nowhere Man]

bookmark bump

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I know that child pornographers are scum of the earth, but I hardly think they are a physical danger to trained police officers.

Was it really necessary to send in the SWAT team? Why not just a couple of uniformed officers or detectives even?

Were they hoping that the guy would fight back so they could kill him?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Can’t give them all that “free” federal money to create unnecessary SWAT teams that do nothing but sit around playing gin rummy.

[neverdem]

Scary stuff. I’m CCNA certified so I have a little more knowledge of networks than most. I lock down my network with WPA2 and the use of ACLs.

Would you care to explain those abbreviations? Not everyone is a tech geek.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

Salem, Mass four hundred years in the future.

Yup, amazing how history tends to repeat itself with subtle differences...

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

When to only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

[South40]

Sorry.

CCNA is Cisco Certified Network Associate, which means I am certified by Cisco the router manufacturer.
WPA2 or Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 is an encryption method used by routers.
And an ACL is an Access Control List created by me which limits access to the network to only MAC addresses or Media Access Control addresses (a unique physical address of a device) to only those I add to the list and allow.

[saganite]

SWAT teams need to practice don’t you know. How are they going to take down the violent dope smokers if they don’t hone their skills.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/video-outrage-utah-police-kill-marijuana-smoker-in-own-home

[TigersEye]

What’s with all the abusive name calling when arresting someone? Like my dad used to say; stop your crying or I’ll give you something to cry about. I will certainly do that with any no-knock warrant.

[Auntie Mame]

“We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night,”

This is amazing. They can know someone downloaded something “last night” and be at his home the next day to arrest him, but the crack house down the street, that’s been operating for years, they can’t do anything about.

Some things just make you go “hmmmm.”

[Dick Vomer]

The reason the donut munchers go after the porno freaks is cause they know they won’t have to fight. Heck they may get shot if they go after gang bangers and real thugs.

Pfffft. Bunch of wanna be special operators that get wet thinking about Kevlar, balaclavas and dynamic entry. There must be a budget meeting or salary negotiations coming up to justify there cost. I love when they get the wrong house and blame ....... Nobody. Cause none of these douches ever gets fired.

[Jack Hammer]

Ka-ching!

Lawyer’s Heaven.

[Marak]

I read a different source for this incident and it stated that the officers were I.C.E. not a local SWAT team.

[newzjunkey]

the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying.

mistaken raid on Barry Covert.

Is Barry Covert the router-owner or the router-owner's lawyer?

[varyouga]

More shock troopers exploiting possession laws. I always believed simple possession(with no other evidence) of anything should not be illegal.

Most routers can be easily hacked in a few minutes by someone with barely any skill at all. There are scripts that do it automatically and leave no evidence on most routers.

Anyone with skill can easily plant evidence on most home networks. It's just as easy to plant a drug package with the right accessories and get someone arrested as a dealer.

A corrupt official can easily exploit these weak laws and forever label their enemies pedophiles and drug dealers. Why can't bootlickers see this?

[Condor51]

*** More shock troopers exploiting possession laws. I always believed simple possession (with no other evidence) of anything should not be illegal. ***

In Illinois the one thing that's not 100% screwed up is our Criminal Possession Law, either misdemeanor or felony. To be 'guilty of possession' you must KNOW that 'something' is actually in your possession. Ergo if some mope puts some pot or coke under your seat and you're busted for speeding and they then find it, they must prove you knew it was there, and yours. (Easy to fight in court but expensive).

That being said, the rules change when it comes Kiddie Porn on your computer. Then its up to you to prove you're innocent. Which is pretty hard to do most of the time and contrary to our basic law of Innocent Until Proven Guilty.

Which is why I shake my head when these Computer Techs find Kiddie Porn on someone's pc when they bring it in for service. You'd have to be brain dead to do that. And if anything, those deviates aren't dumb in that area. So I wonder if some of these cases aren't set-ups by some disgruntled employee.