By Jacqui Cheng
Will it take being accused of downloading child pornography to get people to lock down their WiFi networks once and for all? Although that's not the only reason to keep your network secure, perhaps some users will be scared into doing so after reading a number of horror stories collected by the Associated Press over the weekend. The underlying lesson: keep your WiFi networks locked down, lest you find law enforcement kicking down your door in the middle of the night.
The three stories all fall along the same theme: a Buffalo man, Sarasota man, and Syracuse man all found themselves being raided by the FBI or police after their wireless networks were allegedly used to download child pornography. "You're a creep... just admit it," one FBI agent was quoted saying to the accused party. In all three cases, the accused ended up getting off the hook after their files were examined and neighbors were found to be responsible for downloading child porn via unsecured WiFi networks.
Being accused of amassing the world's largest collection of child pornography is just one of the many downsides to leaving your network open, yet people (including some self-identified geeks) continue to do it. But why? As evidenced by reader e-mail over the last few years, some users claim they're providing a service to their neighbors by letting them use their WiFi every so often (in turn, these users tend to also make use of open WiFi networks when they see them). Others hope that leaving their WiFi networks open will help to exonerate them if they were to be accused of downloading copyrighted music or movies—Big Content would never sue the wrong individual for copyright infringement, right?
The AP's cautionary tales come just months after wireless industry group Wi-Fi Alliance published a survey saying that 32 percent of Internet users have tried to connect to a WiFi network that wasn't theirs. When managing their own networks though, 40 percent said that they would be more likely to trust someone with a key to their homes than the password to their WiFi access points. "Much like the seatbelts in your car, [WiFi security] won't protect you unless you use it," Wi-Fi Alliance marketing director Kelly Davis-Felner said at the time.
We have a guide to protecting yourself on public WiFi hotspots, but what about your own WiFi network? The Wi-Fi Alliance recommends implementing WPA2 protections and strong passwords (at least eight characters, no dictionary words, with a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols). You can also change your router's settings so that your SSID is no longer being broadcast to nearby devices, and if you want to be extra secure, you can require each device's MAC address to be approved before they can connect. Doing so may lose you friend points during your annual Super Bowl party, but it will go a long way towards avoiding unwanted accusations of downloading child pornography.
Will it take being accused of downloading child pornography to get people to lock down their WiFi networks once and for all? Although that's not the only reason to keep your network secure, perhaps some users will be scared into doing so after reading a number of horror stories collected by the Associated Press over the weekend. The underlying lesson: keep your WiFi networks locked down, lest you find law enforcement kicking down your door in the middle of the night.
The three stories all fall along the same theme: a Buffalo man, Sarasota man, and Syracuse man all found themselves being raided by the FBI or police after their wireless networks were allegedly used to download child pornography. "You're a creep... just admit it," one FBI agent was quoted saying to the accused party. In all three cases, the accused ended up getting off the hook after their files were examined and neighbors were found to be responsible for downloading child porn via unsecured WiFi networks.
Being accused of amassing the world's largest collection of child pornography is just one of the many downsides to leaving your network open, yet people (including some self-identified geeks) continue to do it. But why? As evidenced by reader e-mail over the last few years, some users claim they're providing a service to their neighbors by letting them use their WiFi every so often (in turn, these users tend to also make use of open WiFi networks when they see them). Others hope that leaving their WiFi networks open will help to exonerate them if they were to be accused of downloading copyrighted music or movies—Big Content would never sue the wrong individual for copyright infringement, right?
The AP's cautionary tales come just months after wireless industry group Wi-Fi Alliance published a survey saying that 32 percent of Internet users have tried to connect to a WiFi network that wasn't theirs. When managing their own networks though, 40 percent said that they would be more likely to trust someone with a key to their homes than the password to their WiFi access points. "Much like the seatbelts in your car, [WiFi security] won't protect you unless you use it," Wi-Fi Alliance marketing director Kelly Davis-Felner said at the time.
We have a guide to protecting yourself on public WiFi hotspots, but what about your own WiFi network? The Wi-Fi Alliance recommends implementing WPA2 protections and strong passwords (at least eight characters, no dictionary words, with a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols). You can also change your router's settings so that your SSID is no longer being broadcast to nearby devices, and if you want to be extra secure, you can require each device's MAC address to be approved before they can connect. Doing so may lose you friend points during your annual Super Bowl party, but it will go a long way towards avoiding unwanted accusations of downloading child pornography.
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