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angry tapir writes "Seattle police are investigating a group of criminals who they say have been cruising around town in a black Mercedes stealing credit card data by tapping into wireless networks belonging to area businesses. The group has been at it for about five years, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Chris Hansen, a fraud investigator with the Seattle Police Department."

That poor woman down the street Apparently it's perfectly okay for the CHRC to hijack its neighbour's computer systemI should begin with a correction. Last week, I was at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hearing for the case of Warman vs. Lemire. Richard Warman is the Canadian Human Rights Commission's plaintiff on every single complaint filed since 2002, and Marc Lemire is a supposed white supremacist on trial for the "hate messages" at his Freedom Site — or, at any rate, the handful of "hate messages" on his Freedom Site that weren't posted by undercover CHRC operatives whiling away an...

Network security firm Sophos recently published a study on what it terms WiFi "piggybacking," or logging on to someone's open 802.11b/g/n network without their knowledge or permission. According to the company's study, which was carried out on behalf of The Times, 54 percent of the respondents have gone WiFi freeloading, or as Sophos put it, "admitted breaking the law [in the UK]." Amazingly, accessing an unsecured, wide-open WiFi network without permission is illegal in some places, and not just in the UK. An Illinois man was arrested and fined $250 in 2006 for using an open network without permission, while...

Brian Tanner, the Web surfer whose computer police seized after chasing him twice from the Palmer Public Library parking lot, has his laptop back. Tanner, 21, said Palmer police called March 3 saying he could pick the machine up "maybe Tuesday" after police checked it for child pornography. He said that he and police evidence custodian Jonathan Owen negotiated, and Owen scanned the laptop and returned it March 3. Tanner said Thursday he has found another network outside a downtown Palmer bank that he won't identify that he taps into at night to play online games. Once he moves out...

WASILLA – Brian Tanner said he has significantly curtailed his Internet use since police impounded his laptop computer after spotting him using an unsecured wireless network outside the Palmer Library last week. He shares a home computer with his parents, but when he needs lots of time online these days he often checks his e-mail and surfs the Web on public computers – at the Palmer Public Library. “I couldn’t log on this weekend because they’re closed,” Tanner said Tuesday. Police talked to Tanner, 21, Feb. 18, after spotting him in the library parking lot after hours. They’d chased him...

Brian Tanner was sitting in his Acura Integra recently outside the Palmer Library playing online games when a Palmer police pulled up behind him. The officer asked him what he was doing. Tanner, 21, was using the library's wireless Internet connection. He was told that his activity constituted theft of services and was told to leave. The next day, Sunday, police spotted him there again. "It was kind of like, 'Well gee whiz, come on,' " police Lt. Tom Remaley said. The police officer confiscated Tanner's laptop in order to inspect what he may have been downloading, Remaley said. Remaley...

SNIP At some point in their wardriving experience, Timmins and Botbyl came upon a Lowe's hardware store with an open wireless network. Timmins later admitted to Kevin Poulsen of Security Focus that what he did next was technically illegal: he used the Lowe's network to check his e-mail. When he realized it was Lowe's private network, however, he says, he disconnected. That in itself might have been the end of the story. However, Lowe's became aware of the breach and contacted the FBI, who, after its investigation, charged Timmins with one count of unauthorized computer access. And that by itself...

A local Washington DC television news station wanted to do a WiFi "hack." Their plan was to sit in a local coffee shop (named after the Pequod's first mate) and try to read their neighbors' e-mail or Web browsing. They had a simple question for me: "Is it legal?" This raises a series of questions about how people are -- deliberately or accidentally -- breaking the law with WiFi. In fact, using someone else's wireless signal -- even if only to get Web access -- might constitute a felony. So could reading other people's cleartext communication, or even just putting...

Pantless driver charged over kiddie porn By KIM BRADLEY, SUN MEDIA TORONTO -- A man caught driving naked from the waist down while watching kiddie porn on his laptop has become the first man in Toronto charged for allegedly stealing an Internet connection. For the first time, Toronto police laid a theft of communications charge after busting a man driving the wrong way down a one-way street while downloading child porn using stolen wireless Internet signals. The slow-moving car was pulled over around 5 a.m. by a police officer who allegedly found the driver - with no pants on - watching...