Why you want to secure your wi-fi

<http://www.pcworld.com/article/235684/depraved_wifi_hacker_gets_18_years_in_prison.html>
A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he
hacked a neighbor's Wi-Fi router and then launched a vengeful two-year
campaign to frame them with child ****ography and threats to
government officials, including Vice President Joe Biden.
(etc...)

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:27:54 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:

><http://www.pcworld.com/article/235684/depraved_wifi_hacker_gets_18_years_in_prison.html>
>A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he
>hacked a neighbor's Wi-Fi router and then launched a vengeful two-year
>campaign to frame them with child ****ography and threats to
>government officials, including Vice President Joe Biden.
>(etc...)

I wonder how much of the 18 years can be attributed to hacking the
neighbor's router, if any, and how much was related to the terror
campaign. I'm sure it was easier to just lump those two things
together, saying the second wouldn't have happened (in the way that it
did, anyway) without the first.

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:42:27 -0500, Char Jackson <none@none.invalid>
wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:27:54 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
>wrote:
>
>><http://www.pcworld.com/article/235684/depraved_wifi_hacker_gets_18_years_in_prison.html>
>>A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he
>>hacked a neighbor's Wi-Fi router and then launched a vengeful two-year
>>campaign to frame them with child ****ography and threats to
>>government officials, including Vice President Joe Biden.
>>(etc...)
>
>I wonder how much of the 18 years can be attributed to hacking the
>neighbor's router,

None. The article states that the charges were specifically for the
guy's terror campaign, not the hacking.

<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/hacking-neighbor-from-hell>


>if any, and how much was related to the terror
>campaign. I'm sure it was easier to just lump those two things
>together, saying the second wouldn't have happened (in the way that it
>did, anyway) without the first.

It could have happened without him hacking into the neighbors wi-fi
router, but then he would not have been able to attempt framing the
neighbor, by making it look like all the hate mail originated from the
neighbors router. That's my point. You don't want your router wide
open or some deranged hacker is going to do evil things, and you get
the blame.

Incidentally, the guy isn't too smart. He negotiated a 2 year
sentence initially by plea bargaining, but later changed is his mind
enough times to piss off the court.

One useful thing about the sentence is that now I can hand copies of
the article to the neighborhood script kiddies, and tell them they'll
get 18 years if they touch my wireless router again. They'll realize
that this is not quite true if they actually read the article, but it
should be entertaining for a short time.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

In message <il2u17t2v91gd5pi0r8lml2j25p1hmvl1g@4ax.com> someone claiming
to be Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> typed:

><http://www.pcworld.com/article/235684/depraved_wifi_hacker_gets_18_years_in_prison.html>
>A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he
>hacked a neighbor's Wi-Fi router and then launched a vengeful two-year
>campaign to frame them with child ****ography and threats to
>government officials, including Vice President Joe Biden.
>(etc...)

From a quick reading of this case, it sounds like the guy did secure his
wifi, otherwise the neighbour wouldn't have needed to "hack" anything.

Still interesting that the authorities bothered to investigate at all
instead of just going after the intended victim full force.

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:27:32 -0700, DevilsPGD
<Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage@crazyhat.net> wrote:

>><http://www.pcworld.com/article/235684/depraved_wifi_hacker_gets_18_years_in_prison.html>

>From a quick reading of this case, it sounds like the guy did secure his
>wifi, otherwise the neighbour wouldn't have needed to "hack" anything.

I don't consider WEP to be secure.

>Still interesting that the authorities bothered to investigate at all
>instead of just going after the intended victim full force.

Read the governments position on sentencing, which should give a you
clue as to why they decided to prosecute to the maximum.
<http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/07/ardolffedssentencingmemo.pdf>
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:06:08 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:42:27 -0500, Char Jackson <none@none.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>>I wonder how much of the 18 years can be attributed to hacking the
>>neighbor's router,
>
>None. The article states that the charges were specifically for the
>guy's terror campaign, not the hacking.
>
><http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/hacking-neighbor-from-hell>

Excellent. Thanks for pointing that out.

>One useful thing about the sentence is that now I can hand copies of
>the article to the neighborhood script kiddies, and tell them they'll
>get 18 years if they touch my wireless router again. They'll realize
>that this is not quite true if they actually read the article, but it
>should be entertaining for a short time.

Maybe put an electronic copy on a separate wireless LAN segment that's
relatively easy to break into and probably doesn't go anywhere, give
it a tantalizing name so that it's the first or only thing downloaded,
and then see how often it actually does get downloaded.

In message <94nu1757u8ci4up34bs0of94usl2q6cl2e@4ax.com> someone claiming
to be Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> typed:

>On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:27:32 -0700, DevilsPGD
><Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage@crazyhat.net> wrote:
>
>>Still interesting that the authorities bothered to investigate at all
>>instead of just going after the intended victim full force.
>
>Read the governments position on sentencing, which should give a you
>clue as to why they decided to prosecute to the maximum.
><http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/07/ardolffedssentencingmemo.pdf>

No no, I understand that. I'm surprised they bothered to investigate
*anything*, and instead didn't just persecute the victim (the owner of
the compromised router) ignoring any evidence to the contrary.

DevilsPGD <Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage@crazyhat.net> wrote:
> In message <94nu1757u8ci4up34bs0of94usl2q6cl2e@4ax.com> someone claiming
> to be Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> typed:
>
>>On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:27:32 -0700, DevilsPGD
>><Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage@crazyhat.net> wrote:
>>
>>>Still interesting that the authorities bothered to investigate at all
>>>instead of just going after the intended victim full force.
>>
>>Read the governments position on sentencing, which should give a you
>>clue as to why they decided to prosecute to the maximum.
>><http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/07/ardolffedssentencingmemo.pdf>
>
> No no, I understand that. I'm surprised they bothered to investigate
> *anything*, and instead didn't just persecute the victim (the owner of
> the compromised router) ignoring any evidence to the contrary.

The investigation was started by the law firm the victim of the
hacking worked at. The authorities were called in after the law
firm's investigation showed the hacking. Had the police been called
first, I don't doubt they'd have targetted the victims of the hacker,
rather than the hacker.

Jerry

Meanwhile, at the alt.internet.wireless Job Justification Hearings, Jerry
Peters chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> The investigation was started by the law firm the victim of the
> hacking worked at. The authorities were called in after the law
> firm's investigation showed the hacking. Had the police been called
> first, I don't doubt they'd have targetted the victims of the hacker,
> rather than the hacker.

Which makes one wonder how many people have been framed in this manner and
are in prison right now?

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
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"People believe any quote they read on the internet
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