Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
RE: Interlopers on the WLAN
From: "Frank O'Dwyer" <fod () brd ie>
Date: 06 Nov 2002 19:24:26 +0000
On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 10:29, Philip J. Koenig wrote: [...]
Mitnick was arrested while running over a stolen cellphone and traversing a chain of at least 3-4 different networks to slow down attempts to find him. If he were doing this over someone's open WLAN while parked on the street out front, all he'd need to do is drive away and it would be next to impossible to find him.
True, but equally he might have tossed the cellphone out the window and driven off into the sunset. The impression of WLAN anonymity may be just as false. While someone is connected to a WLAN, they are certainly revealing *something* about their location. Maybe a lot. If it's possible to get a few arrests based on that fact then that may adjust the attitudes of the attackers.
Otherwise we may be stuck with one of two fairly ugly scenarios: plausible deniability for Harry Hacker ("it wasn't me, someone must have used my open WLAN"), or Harry Homeowner made liable for everything originating from his connection.Personally I favor the latter example, since one should take responsibility for one's actions - in this case, operating an insecure network.
This is a kind of 'blame the victim' approach. It would also be deeply hypocritical of the one bringing the charges, i.e. the targets of the attack. After all, theirs may be the only network that was actually breached. How can they prosecute someone else for "operating an insecure network", all on the basis that their own flaky network just got turned over, without blatantly admitting that they operate an insecure network themselves? I can't think of any reasonable definition of "operating an insecure network" that doesn't apply first and foremost to the target of any successful attack. OTOH, I can think of at least two reasonable definitions that *don't* necessarily apply to an open access point. [...] Cheers, Frank _______________________________________________ firewall-wizards mailing list firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
Current thread:
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN, (continued)
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN Mikael Olsson (Nov 05)
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 05)
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN R. DuFresne (Nov 06)
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN Philip J. Koenig (Nov 06)
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN R. DuFresne (Nov 06)
- Re: Interlopers on the WLAN R. DuFresne (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Bill Royds (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Philip J. Koenig (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Philip J. Koenig (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Philip J. Koenig (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Philip J. Koenig (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 09)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Philip J. Koenig (Nov 09)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Frank O'Dwyer (Nov 09)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Marcus J. Ranum (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Marcus J. Ranum (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Paul Robertson (Nov 06)
- RE: Interlopers on the WLAN Jim Leo (Nov 06)