TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Man Charged With Stealing Wi-Fi Signal

Man Charged With Stealing Wi-Fi Signal

Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:22:24 -0500

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Police have arrested a man for using someone
else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases
involving this fairly common practice.

Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following
his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer
network, a third-degree felony.

Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of
Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon's
house using a laptop computer.

The practice is so new that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
doesn't even keep statistics, according to the St. Petersburg Times,
which reported Smith's arrest this week.

Innocuous use of other people's unsecured Wi-Fi networks is common,
though experts say that plenty of illegal use also goes undetected:
such as people sneaking on others' networks to traffic in child
pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats.

Security experts say people can prevent such access by turning on
encryption or requiring passwords, but few bother or are unsure how to
do so.

Wi-Fi, short for Wireless Fidelity, has enjoyed prolific growth since
2000. Millions of households have set up wireless home networks that
give people like Dinon the ability to use the Web from their backyards
but also reach the house next door or down the street.

It's not clear why Smith was using Dinon's network. Prosecutors
declined to comment, and a working phone number could not be located
for Smith.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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