Wireless Broadband Hackers

[Nick29]

Neither the Register nor the Guardian story makes any mention that the activity described was perpetrated by someone illegally using a wireless connection.

It was not posted with that intention.  The post was there to illustrate two facts.....

1. That allowing your internet connection to be used by others (either deliberately or by carelessness) will leave you open to illegal usage by others.

2. This illegal usage could leave the owner of that IP address open to legal action.

When someone uses your wireless connection, as far as your ISP is concerned, it is you using it, and that is very difficult to dispute. Hence the case of an OAP being threatened with legal action over alleged sharing of video games.

[GrahamH]

Neither the Register nor the Guardian story makes any mention that the activity described was perpetrated by someone illegally using a wireless connection.

It was not posted with that intention.  The post was there to illustrate two facts.....

1. That allowing your internet connection to be used by others (either deliberately or by carelessness) will leave you open to illegal usage by others.

2. This illegal usage could leave the owner of that IP address open to legal action.

When someone uses your wireless connection, as far as your ISP is concerned, it is you using it, and that is very difficult to dispute. Hence the case of an OAP being threatened with legal action over alleged sharing of video games.

I've never denied that allowing your Internet connection to be used by others (either deliberately or by carelessness) will leave you open to illegal usage by others - but that isn't the point we were discussing. Neither is it careless to make an appropriate risk assessment based on likelihood as previously pointed out.

It is worth also noting that:
1) There is no suggestion at all in the Register report that WiFi hacking was involved in the case of the OAP accused by Davenport Lyons. Did the OAP even have a wireless connection?
2)  Davenport Lyons soon backed down when the OAP challenged their accusation - and it was Davenport Lyons' conduct that then came under scrutiny - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/13/davenport_lyons_apology/

Graham

[falcybe]

This is a jolly interesting topic, thanks Nick and Graham 
Meanwhile, back at the palace... according to an article in Yahoo, millions of Americans have downloaded fake security software after seeing that silly flashing thingy saying your computer is at risk...TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software.

Now, earlier on this thread, Nick, you wrote you were off to earn some money, lol. Have you got any good software to sell us?

A little aside:

ALso, your wireless capable Router can still be hjacked, as we discovered even  if you still still use cable to connect to it. (We found wireless was slower) My SO uses a free version of  Network Magic. I'm unsure if it's still available.
Mick

Am I right in thinking that if Mick turned off his wireless side (using, as he does, the cable) then no-one could use his router?

Cheers, falcybe

[bikermickau]

Am I right in thinking that if Mick turned off his wireless side (using, as he does, the cable) then no-one could use his router?

Don't know if the wireless access can be turned off, I never investigated that.
Would one possibilty be uninstalling the wireless network off each computer, I'm not sure if we did that.
I just checked and it's not installed on this one.

I simply took off the wireless antenna on router and computer, installed the cables and then set up the network to use cables

It was some time after this we found there was a  hijacker, we should have caught on earlier as our internet usage kept increasing.

Mick

[stonechat]

Don't think there is any need for that
Just use WPA , if possible turn off broadcasting SID

Change router passwords away from the default

[GrahamH]

This is a jolly interesting topic, thanks Nick and Graham 

Thank you 

A little aside:

ALso, your wireless capable Router can still be hjacked, as we discovered even  if you still still use cable to connect to it. (We found wireless was slower) My SO uses a free version of  Network Magic. I'm unsure if it's still available.
Mick

Am I right in thinking that if Mick turned off his wireless side (using, as he does, the cable) then no-one could use his router?

Cheers, falcybe

It all depends on the capabilities of the particular piece of hardware and its associated software. They will determine whether the wireless side can be turned off or not. If not (as Stonechat says) using the security capabilities of the router will povide protection.

Graham

[GrahamH]

Am I right in thinking that if Mick turned off his wireless side (using, as he does, the cable) then no-one could use his router?

Don't know if the wireless access can be turned off, I never investigated that.
Would one possibilty be uninstalling the wireless network off each computer, I'm not sure if we did that.
I just checked and it's not installed on this one.

I simply took off the wireless antenna on router and computer, installed the cables and then set up the network to use cables

It was some time after this we found there was a  hijacker, we should have caught on earlier as our internet usage kept increasing.

Mick

Guessing a bit here without having access to the installation itself. Removing the external antenna from the router should decrease the area over which connecting to it is possible. It would seem that the signal broadcast by the internal antenna was still strong enough to allow connection by the hijacker.

Graham

[Nick29]

At 2.4GHz, the removal of an aerial is going to make very little difference, because the wiring to the aerial will radiate quite a bit.  On most routers wireless can be switched off via the on-screen menus.

[falcybe]

Thanks, Nick, I've found it now.
So Mick, no point in turning off the wireless on the pc, it is the router's wireless broadcast you need to turn off 
And make sure your pc stays connected by cable, 

cheers, falcybe
I wonder how many mad people like us have a wireless router just to connect the modem by cable?