NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers

Here's what happened to a Buffalo guy who didn't bother to password protect his new wireless router.

NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangersp.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – 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.

Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale. Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110424/..._wi_fi_warning

my router is wire and wireless. I keep the wireless off. I have turned it on when I have guests staying at my home. Only once did someone complained about that it was set up with a password after I gave them the pasword. Gave me the "I think it's convenient and polite to have an open Wi-Fi network" just like a few in the link you gave.

So I changed the password and would not give it up. That person started to hit a neighbor's. That person is no longer welcome to my home.

My router remembers the password when the WI-Fi off. So I use to keep the same password all the time. Now I change it every time I turn the Wi-Fi on.

edit: I would think that it is thief of service. Just like putting your garbage in another persons garbage can or in a bin of a company.

I've always had my wireless router password protected knowing of the possibility of something like this happening. My router allows for two passwords, one for administrator the other for guests. I have only given the guest password out once to a niece years ago. Would never allow it to be given out as a free WI-fi courtesy as some in the OP article have done.