Police clamp down on drive-by Broadband leechers

The security of residential wireless networks in the house has been thrown into question after police have arrested two people who were caught stealing people’s bandwidth in the streets.

The two arrests, made in the same area of Worcestershire, but apparently unconnected, were made after residents spotted people sitting in parked cars using wireless-enabled laptops, to ‘piggyback’ someone else’s Broadband connection for free.

There has been much debate about this practice, also called ‘leeching’ and ‘mooching’ which has been spotted in Canada and the US. As well as stealing effectively what is someone else’s property, the implications of piggybacking are more severe than just petty bandwidth theft – a piggybacker could use a wireless network to steal bank details, or download illegal material such as music files or pornography, for which the owner of the connection could be prosecuted and fined for something they haven’t done.

Typically, piggybackers will access the wireless signal from a roadside, as glass does not impede the radiowaves in the same way that masonry and brickwork does – it is not yet known if lead-lined panes in stately homes can block the signal.

This is a problem for customers, households with multiple users in particular, who want to sign up for the obvious advantages provided by a wireless connection.

Programs specifically designed to counter drive-by piggybacking include McAfee’s Wireless Home Network Security 2006 and Zone Labs’ ZoneAlarm Wireless Security; most of these programs are compatible with the wireless routers that come with the Sky, Be, Eclipse, etc.

BT‘s Home Hub and the Orange Livebox both come with their own pre-configured wireless security measures which automatically secure all connections within the radius of the signal with a login name and password set by the user – anyone trying to leech your signal from the outside will need to know these security details.

Police from the West Mercia Constabulary are reminding people to be vigilant when setting up wireless networks in their own home, and are encouraging people to purchase or set up security setting as soon as possible, lest they have their Broadband connection compromise and be used for illegal purposes for which they could see themselves getting charged for.

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