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.
Ooops! I was sure I had posted this as a vanity.
Ok. I have a problem with this. “Tapping into” a wireless network does not give one the ability to put pornography on someone elses computer on that network. You either have been accessing pornography or you have not been; it is your computer, the wireless is simply access to the internet.
Call cops and quit using that PC. Maybe back up everything to protect yourself. Forensic IT types can unravel what was happening.
I use the highest encryption level allowed and the longest wireless password too, all 18 characters. I also turn off broadcast of SSID.
Not your brother or sister?
Not your best day.
I was thinking the same thing. The cops will be asking the brother-in-law some very pointed questions about those photographs.
Not entirely true, HD1200. They could have opened a folder for sharing on their unsecure wireless home network with full permissions. Any idiot could then drop files on their system (in that folder - including creating new folders in the shared folder).
Time to enable WEP security.
But I’d think twice about deleting everything before calling the police. If the camping trip photos ID the neighbor, that may be evidence that links him to the kiddie porn.
If you have shared folders, another computer could place files and folders in your shared folders depending on how you have them shared.
Could be a spouse’s sister and brother.
How about burning the files to a CD-ROM and mailing it annonymously to the cops with the address of the perps?
I’m wondering if the files are on your pc, or if the people across the street have a folder on their PC that they are sharing.
It’s my husband’s sister and her husband. Would that not qualify them as my SIL and BIL?
I think you need to inform the police. Child pornography is a very serious offense, and if not informed ahead of time, they can track where and by whom the files were accessed, including and especially back to you, since you made modifications (deletion of files).
It will be a big, lengthy mess to get out of, if the cops trace you, before you tell them.
If you have a shared folder, and an unsecured WiFi connection, anyone on the network can access your shared folder, and you, theirs.
How about talking with legal counsel before doing anything?
I sure as hell would. Certainly before calling the police.
Your sister-in-law and brother-in-law live across the street from Scott Ritter?
It seems they have already deleted the files. That being the case, they’ll have to get some kind of recovery software.
http://www.snapfiles.com in the freeware section. They have many file recovery tools.
I had hoped my description of the situation would be accurate, but I am not up on all the computer lingo. My husband says the neighbors probably enabled file sharing and aren’t savvy enough to know that anyone hooked up to that network can view their files.
Every once in a while my laptop will jump from our secured wireless network to a neighbors’ linksys unsecured network. I only notice it because my internet connection will suddenly slow way down. Perhaps that is what happened here, who knows.
Yeah, you can’t put stuff on someone else’s computer. But, I believe it would show the brother-in-law’s IP address visiting the site if the photos were downloaded from the net.
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