While I completely agree with Tom, my analogy is a little simpler.
These systems are broadcasting on our frequencies. We, the public, own
the frequencies and license them for use by companies, TV and Radio
stations. I can go to Radio Shack and buy a scanner that will allow me to
"Listen" in on cell phone conversations as well as many other types of
communications overhead. About 10 years ago, I listened to the Mayor's
conversations with his girlfriend (not wife) almost every night (I won't say
what city it was in to protect the innocent as well as the guilty).
While I'm sure that using a company's private cypher key to decypher
encrypted information would be illegal, just like stealing a scrambled
channel on my DirecTv, listening to a publicly owned frequency is not
illegal without respect to who is doing the transmitting or the information
they are transmitting.
JMHO
John Brandt
iStudio400.com
-----Original Message-----
From: qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 3:12 PM
To: cpf0000@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [CPF0000] RE: Wireless networking weakness identification ser
vice?
cpf0000-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> 1. RE: RE: Wireless networking weakness identification ser vice?
> (Jim Damato)
>
>> Tom Liotta-
>>(Why _any_ business/organization would
>>cause trouble for someone who pointed
>>out a glaring, wide-open hole to them
>>is beyond me.)
>
>If I broke into your store to point out a glaring, wide-open hole in your
>site security and offered to sell you better alarms, doors, and/or locks
I'd
>be arrested.
>
>If I broke into your business network for the same well-intended purpose
the
>same legal ramifications might logically apply.
Jim:
Since I had no info on exactly what techniques and technologies would be
used, I had no way to determine whether any "breaking" would occur, hence a
suggestion to review relevant debates.
As you word your examples, I don't think we disagree on the aspect that you
address, i.e., breaking in. But there are numerous alternatives in various
degrees. Analogous examples (poorly analogous, true):
We bought a couple room monitors a couple decades ago when our daughter was
born. Cheapos, but effective. Plug one in the kid's room, plug the other in
elsewhere in the house, and you could hear noises from that room. But... it
broadcast via house wiring. You could plug another one in in any nearby
neighborhood house and hear just as well; the power distribution
transformers down the block were the limits.
I have a few home-network units that work similarly. They have basic
encryption that is enabled, but maybe my neighbor doesn't enable that option
on his units. Practically speaking, I have no choice but to get hit by his
traffic.
Or maybe I'm driving home some night and I see my neighbor's front door is
open and no lights on inside. I go outside a few minutes later and the
door's still open and still no visible activity. Now I'm starting to wonder
whether I might actually be liable if I _don't_ speak up to rectify a
dangerous situation or to report something suspicious. (Even if I'm not
technically liable, I still might get sued just because my neighbors might
be the kind to sue for anything. Or maybe there's an obscure county 'Good
Samaritan' law or...???)
I haven't "broken" in anywhere.
If I drive by a building that's deteriorating, paint peeling, grass needs
mowing, nobody's gonna arrest me for knocking on the door and offering a
business card for cleanup services even if I regularly drive around seeking
such opportunities. But pick up on a wide-open wireless network? You can get
busted... without "breaking" anything.
Tom Liotta
--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone 253-872-7788 x313
Fax 253-872-7904
http://www.powertech.com
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