News

More people "steal" WiFi than smoke dope?

An announcement from Britain's favourite security pundit, Graham Cluley of Sophos, "reveals" that "Over 50% of people polled admit they have stolen WiFi internet access." But, no doubt, they didn't inhale.

The figures appear in "new Sophos research into the use of other people's WiFi networks to piggyback onto the internet without payment."  The research shows that 54 percent of computer users have admitted breaking the law, by using someone else's wireless internet access without permission.

Sophos is a company which focuses primarily on corporate anti-virus and other security threats, and its interest in home piggybacking isn't quite as naive as this makes it sound. Its main interest here, it would seem, is the rise in telecommuting, or home working - which it perceives as a growing security threat to corporate networks.

"Many internet-enabled homes fail to properly secure their wireless connection properly with passwords and encryption, allowing freeloading passers-by and neighbours to steal internet access rather than paying an internet service provider (ISP) for their own," says today's announcement, going on to make the point that "while businesses often have security measures in place to protect the WiFi networks within their offices from attack, remote users working from home could prove to be a weak link in corporate defences."

But whether the solution to the problem is going to lie in trying to make piggybackers feel guilty, is another question. Drawing himself up to his full Harry Potter height and inflating his Prefect's Blazer to its full, Cluley's comment was: "Stealing WiFi internet access may feel like a victimless crime, but it deprives ISPs of revenue.  Furthermore, if you've hopped onto your next door neighbours' wireless broadband connection to illegally download movies and music from the net, chances are that you are also slowing down their internet access and impacting on their download limit."

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, continued: "For this reason, most ISPs put a clause in their contracts ordering users not to share access with neighbours - but it's very hard for them to enforce this."

The announcement concludes with the standard "Sophos recommends" that home owners and businesses alike set up their networks with security in mind, ensuring that strong encryption is in place to prevent hackers from eavesdropping on communications and potentially stealing usernames, passwords and other confidential information. It concludes:

"If you're not encrypting your wireless communications, then it's not hard for cybercriminals in your neighbourhood to snoop on what you're doing, whether it's surfing the internet or remotely accessing work documents.  They may even be able to infect your computer with malware designed to commit identity theft. It's essential that your WiFi connection is encrypted and that you have not chosen a password for your router which is easy to guess or crack."

The problem is that a lot of WiFi equipment is not properly configured when it comes out of the box, or is a headache to setup. For tips on how to prevent strangers from stealing your WiFi connection, please visit: http://www.sophos.com/news/2007/11/wi-fi.html

However, if you honestly think only 50% of WiFi PC users have ever piggy-backed, or that fewer than 50% of today's politicians ever smoked dope, then there's probably nothing we can do for you.