Open WiFi Is The Least Of The Problems... But Gets All The Attention
from the it-wasn't-the-problem dept
What is it about a crime that involves an open WiFi access point that makes everyone forget all of the other things involved? A couple years ago we had the case of someone who was arrested after: (1) driving the wrong way down a one way street (2) driving without any pants on (3) using a laptop while driving (4) using that laptop to download child porn (5) which he accessed via a free WiFi connection -- and all anyone focused on was the use of the open WiFi connection. Looks like we now have a similar situation in Finland. The Helsinki branch of financing firm GE Money apparently was scammed recently. Here's how it worked: (1) the company's own head of data security (2) stole banking software from the company after which he (3) took confidential users passwords for its bank accounts. He then (4) stole money from GE Money's accounts by transferring it to a (5) secret account he had set up months earlier. Oh yeah, he did this last bit (6) via an open WiFi connection. So, what's the big story about? Finland is now freaking out about open WiFi connections because of this crime. It would seem that every one of those other points are more important, and it's quite likely the crime would have been done some other way if there were no open WiFi access points. Furthermore, this case is yet another example of why the whole issue of how criminals will be completely uncatchable if they use open WiFi access points is complete hogwash. The guy in the story above was still caught, despite his use of the open WiFi connection. The investigators did look at the owner of the access point, but quickly realized he wasn't responsible and then figured out who was really involved.
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Which is the only thing you can prevent as a norma
(3) using a laptop while driving
(4) using that laptop to download child porn
(5) which he accessed via a free WiFi connection -- and all anyone focused on was the use of the open WiFi connection.
5. correct.
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