Florida Man Charged in Theft of Wi-Fi Signal

Recently a man was arrested in Florida on a third-degree felony charge of unauthorized access to a computer network for the relatively common practice of using someone else's wireless network. Benjamin Smith III admitted to using the signal from Richard Dinon's wireless network from Smith's laptop while parked outside Dinon's house. Experts say "wardriving", as this practice is called, may seem innocuous but can be used to cloak the activities of child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals. It provides near-anonymity because although the criminal activity might lead police to the Wi-Fi network, the potential accused would likely have left the scene by the time police arrived. The Wi-Fi signal can be encrypted using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) but many owners of these networks do not do so or don't know how. Although WEP provides a first measure of defence against unauthorized use, it employs an encryption algorithm that, experts say, can be broken relatively easily. For the text of the Associated Press wire story, see: http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2005/07/06/ap2126874.html Summary by: Nyall Engfield