In what is beginning to become a common problem, a Buffalo, N.Y., man was wrongly arrested for downloading child pornography because he left his Wi-Fi router open. As it turns out, a 25-year-old neighbor had used the connection to download the pictures.
Within three days, investigators determined that the man was innocent. But others have experienced the same problem. Last year a Sarasota, Fla., man was arrested after someone docked a boat in a marina outside his building and used a potato chip can as an antenna to boost the unsecured wireless signal and download millions of child pornography images. Others have been accused of downloading illegal videos and images.
A recent poll from the Wi-Fi Alliance found that some 32 percent of those questioned admitted to trying to access an unsecure Wi-Fi network that wasn't theirs. And some said they had done it once while others indicated they had done it several times. That figure is an increase from the 18 percent who admitted to stealing Wi-Fi access in December 2008.
For more:
- see this Canada MSN article
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