help - wireless hacking/wardriving and US legality issues
okay, so I'm 18, and i need a job… i just got a laptop… and last night, i went war driving for the first time, since i got the laptop yesterday… i know a little about wireless networking, WEP being not as good as WPA, and unsecured being the worst possible… now as i drove around at 330am last night, i received signals from 280 wireless networks. 190+ of which were unsecured…and this is just in my little tiny town of Madison OH with a population of approx 12,000… now the question i have is this… as i need a job, and I'm more than happy to charge people to set up WEP on their wireless networks, is it legal to wardrive, connect to their wireless network, and as users usually have windows xp or now even possibly vista, printers are shared…since i get signal from them and can connect to their networks, and if i see a shared printer, could i print something out, kind of like an advertisement saying that their network is unsecured and susceptible to hacking, and anyone can get in, and if they want help securing their network telling them to contact me and that i charge $20/hr to do this.
granted i know its a stupid idea legally, but their might just be loopholes in this, as it is publically available, and as wardriving is illegal (i'm assuming) connecting to something publicly shared, such as a website is not. using their printer to print an ad and scare them pretty much into calling me up and having me fix their network i think wouldnt be a bad idea, and even if i got half of the people whos networks are unsecured, thats still 20*95 - i'm sure you can figure it out :)
i need to know if this is legally allowed, because it'd be a good oppurtunity for me to get popular in my town and start my computer repair business…i just have problems getting my name out there…
i'm sure there s got to be some kind of loophole tho. i'd appreciate a response asap because driving around and connecting to 190 networks and printing this will be time consuming, but well worth it in the end, as i've nothing else to do at 4am :)
thanks in advance.
Finding the networks is legal. Connecting to them is illegal. Using someone else's printer is illegally gaining access to their system and that is also illegal. I don't know any loopholes, just thought i'd point that out, maybe it'll help you. Perhaps you could put some ads up around town like on trees and say call me to have a go at your systems, and then get them to sign a piece of paper allowing you to get access and then repair it for a fee. And your rep will spread by word of mouth. But if you connect w/o permission people will complain that there is a 'hacker' about and your name will not be looked on very well. Just a suggestion, end3r
thanks for the help - hck-x360 - wireless is the only thing i dont consider myself an expert on, as i've never had reason to use it before…I've set up probably a dozen or so wireless networks for people in the past, but i consider myself only amateur on wireless networking…
end3r, thank you. i read up on wikipedia last night, and read as much as i could into this subject….people who've done this before, and notified the network administrator (in this case being the homeowner) that their network was vulnerable, and were praised for it, my only hope is that this would be the case for all 190 people i could try and inform..
in my eyes, i see it much like ethical hackers, who hack systems and find exploits and then contact the network administrator to patch their security…however, network adminstrators are much more knowledgable in this, so they're not considered afraid of being hacked as old homeowners that dont know the first thing about their network, let alone their computer and its security. their idea of secure is that stupid bloated Norton Antivirus/Internet Security, and thats sick, twisted, and wrong…
i go to college for cisco networking, and have taken cisco 1 and 2 before, in my last two years of high school…i'm taking the same teacher in college, as he teaches in high school and college, because its the same class… i asked him what he thought last night, and he said "no, its not illegal, actually the people who own the wireless network could get in trouble from their ISP because their providing internet service to unpaying customers…" granted, sometimes my teacher doesnt really LISTEN to what you have to say, so that very well could be the case this time. I'm going to talk to a few network administrators from various places, the main ISP's of this area included, and see what i can come up with… my hope is that i can do this for real, and if i can, i'll be rolling in the dough.
thanks to all who've read, and even more thanks to the people who've input on the situation, as another mind in the thinking process is greatly appreciated.
i'll keep you updated.
so far, i've talked to Windstream (formerly alltel DSL) and they've had no clue, but for safety sake and everything they said it'd probably not be too good of an idea, but that they really couldnt give me a definite answer… i talked to Time Warner Cable Company (formerly Adelphia) and they've said the same thing…however i went in a little more detail with that representative and still he didnt have too much of an idea…. i called my local police station, and talked to the seargent, he said it was something he didnt know about and I'd have to talk to the FCC.
so now i'm calling the FCC. lol…never thought it'd get this far, but oh well. at least the ISP's and police know about what i was doing, so if it pops up with them about "some kid parked outside a house and staying there for a while with a bright light shown on his face" the cops will have some idea that i've sort of informed them…
i'll tell you guys what the FCC says…but so far, as the cop said he thought it'd actually be a pretty good idea.
FCC directed me to FTC…
calling….
edit :: stupid FCC lady…she was foreign…she didnt listen to the whole question i had, and NOW after calling the FTC they said the FCC was the right place to contact….
you'd assume that at least the government would have natural born, or at least native english speaking people answering telephone calls….
oh well.
calling the FCC back.