Re: Wi-fi. Approaching customers

[Richard Farina <sidhayn () buckeye-express com>]

My lawyer advised me against approaching people with the information that 
their wifi is open to hackers.  Honestly, there are too many laws in your 
way (in the US at least). I urge you to look into your local laws and see 
if there is a good way to approach customers without making it seem like 
extortion/blackmail.  I hope you have better luck than I.

-Rick Farina

At 03:35 PM 3/15/2005, Gregh wrote:
> I have asked this on another list and there has been discussion but 
> nothing that really seems like an answer so I am asking for help in here.
>
> I did a war drive (and in MY terms that means just driving along gathering 
> SSID data showing open and closed and nothing else BUT that) and found one 
> HELL of a lot more wi-fi in my area than I had previously been aware 
> existed. Most of the SSIDs broadcasted didn't openly identify the company 
> involved though most of them were open. The idea in doing this was that I 
> could note an area where wi-fi is and approach the company (or individual) 
> and offer my services to LEGALLY lock their open wi-fi down. I realise 
> that with open wi-fi, I could be doing anything I wanted to or with their 
> systems but that isn't the point. I work in the area doing I.T. related 
> work and so far have a very good reputation for an inexpensive service and 
> I am self employed so doing the wrong thing would quickly kill all that.
>
> My question is, then, how to approach someone to legally get work from 
> them fixing their badly installed wi-fi and ensuring it is all locked 
> down. If I turn up saying "Your wireless networking is open to hacking and 
> I can fix it" that sounds somewhat suspicious to me if you look at it from 
> the point of view of a user who knows nothing much about it all. Eg, I am 
> telling them something they don't want to hear, for a start and then 
> telling them that if they pay me, they can have it fixed on the spot. I 
> already know how strange it can sound. I happened to pick up the SSID 
> ToysRus which was open and realising they would have their own company 
> employed I.T. people, I just rang them to do them a favour and wasn't I 
> met with suspicion? Yep! All I did was say "You know you have wireless 
> networking?" and they answered "yes...." and I added "It's open and 
> unsecured. You better fix it before someone else finds it" and then got 
> asked 100 questions including "How do YOU know?" blah blah by someone you 
> would think KNOWS the game.
>
> How do YOU approach prospective new customers to tell them their wi-fi is 
> unsecured and needs attention and that you can fix it for a fee?
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
> Greg.
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