Piggybacking

Piggybacking on Internet access is the practice of establishing
a wireless Internet connection by using another subscriber's
wireless Internet access service without the subscriber's
explicit permission or knowledge.
It is a controversial practice, with laws that vary by jurisdiction
around the world. While completely outlawed or regulated in
some places, it is permitted in others.

 Computer users who either do not have their own connections or
who are outside the range of their own might find someone else's
by luck and use that one.
 Person residing near a hotspot or another residence with the
service have been found to have the ability to piggyback off such
connections.
 Many computer owners who cannot afford a monthly subscription
to an Internet service, who only use it occasionally, or wish to save
money and avoid paying.
 The cost of Internet service is a factor.

Views on the ethics of piggybacking vary widely. Many
support the practice, stating it is harmless, and that it benefits
the piggybacker at no expense to others, while others criticize
it with terms like "leeching" or "freeloading".
There are few things which relate this practice with the
familiar situations like—
 Sitting behind another passenger on a train, and reading their
newspaper over their shoulder.
 Enjoying the music a neighbor is playing in their backyard.
 Borrowing a cup of sugar.
These are the views of those people who think that
piggybacking is legal.

Opponents to piggybacking compare the practice to:
 Entering a home just because the door is unlocked.
 Connecting one's own wire to a neighbor's house to obtain
free cable TV service when the neighbor is a subscriber.

Laws regarding “unauthorized access of a computer
network" exist in many legal codes, though the wording and
meaning differ from one to the next. And there is no general
agreement on whether piggybacking (intentional access of an
open Wi-Fi network without harmful intent) falls under this
classification . Some jurisdictions prohibit it, some permit it,
and others are not well-defined.
Countries like Australia,Canada,HongKong,Italy,Singapore,UK
and USA had laws regarding unauthorized accessing of
wireless network.

 United Kingdom
The Computer Misuse Act 1990, section 1 reads
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if—
• He causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to
any program or data held in any computer;
• The access he intends to secure is unauthorized; and
• He knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function
that is the case.
 Hong Kong
Under HK Laws. Chapter 200 Crimes Ordinance Section 161 Access to
computer with criminal or dishonest intent:
(1) Any person who obtains access to a computer-
• with a view to dishonest gain for himself or another; or
• with a dishonest intent to cause loss to another,
• whether on the same occasion as he obtains such access or on any future
occasion, commits an offence and is liable on conviction upon indictment to
imprisonment for 5 years.

 In the UK,a teenager was fined and his computer was
confiscated for using someone else’s open wifi connection to
chat online.
 In November 2006, the 17 year old Garyl Tan Jia Luo, was
arrested for tapping into his neighbor's wireless Internet
connection. He faced up to three years' imprisonment and a
fine under the Computer Misuse Act.
 An Illinois man was arrested in January 2006 for piggybacking
on a Wi-Fi network. David M. Kauchak was the first person to
be charged with "remotely accessing another computer
system" in Winnebago County.

If you think these cases amount to piggybacker harassment,
think about this:
If your wifi connection is unprotected, most of the time you
won’t be able to tell who else is using it and for what purpose.
It could be an innocent piggybacker accessing the wi-fi to
check his email. Or it could be a hacker or a terrorist. Internet
providers log activities originating from your home Internet
connection.
 Last year, Germany’s top court decided to make people with
unsecured wireless connections partly responsible for the
crimes of others who use them. The court ruled that Internet
users must use password to protect their wifi or face a fine if a
third party uses it to illegally download music, movies or other
copyrighted media.

 Wifi hacking isn’t just being used to commit white collar crimes. In 2008,
terrorists affiliated with the Indian Mujahideen group hacked into a home
wireless connection of a U.S. citizen living in Mumbai. They used it to send
out an email warning of their attacks in several cities which killed 46
people and wounded 200.
 A 2009 survey of 12 cities and 40,000 wireless networks by Data Security
Council of India found that 86% of networks were vulnerable to hackers.
 As a result, Indian police have begun taking an action against those who
use unsecured wifi. In some cities, violators will be fined and even face
prison time for failing to secure their wireless networks.

 Secure your home wireless network. Use strong Wi-Fi
encryption. That means using WPA instead of WEP, which is
an easy target for hackers.
 Change the default password on your wireless router. Don’t
use a password that anyone can guess.
 Check the law in your state to find out if piggybacking on open
wireless connections is illegal.
 If you see evidence that someone else has gained
unauthorized access to your wireless network, contact your
wireless service provider.

 Since every device connected to your network has a unique IP
address and MAC address, you can easily see a list of
connected devices -- often listed as "clients" -- on one of the
settings pages of your wireless router.
 Want to make absolutely sure no one's going to figure out
your password?
Your router can hide its SSID, meaning it won't show up for
anyone searching for connectable networks. The address will
have to be entered manually.
“But with a secure connection, you shouldn't have to worry
about that. “

Laws do not have the physical ability to prevent such action
from occurring. The owner of any wireless connection has the
ability to block access from outsiders by engaging wireless
security measures. Not all owners do so, and some security
measures are more effective than others.
Network operators may choose from a variety of security
measures to limit access to their wireless network, including:
 WEP
 WPA

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an older
encryption algorithm used to secure transmitted
data across wireless networks.
• WEP uses a security code chosen during
configuration called a WEP key, which uses a
sequence of hexadecimal digits.
• This digit sequence must match on all devices trying
to communicate on the wireless network.

Advantages:
 When users see your network during wireless detection, they
will most likely be discouraged since it will require a key. This
makes it clear to the user that they are not welcome.
 WEP offers is interoperability.

Disadvantage:
 WEP encryption uses a shared key authentication and sends
the same key with data packets being transmitted across the
wireless network.
 Another disadvantage to using WEP encryption is that if the
master key needs to be changed, it will have to be manually
changed on all devices connected to the network.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a much stronger
encryption algorithm created by Wifi Alliance. They
defined this in response to the weakness found in
WEP.
• Like WEP, WPA uses the same encryption/decryption
method with all devices on the wireless network, but
does not use the same master key.
• Devices connected to a WPA encrypted wireless
network use temporary keys that are dynamically
changed to communicate.

Advantages:
 WPA uses a Temporary Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP),
which dynamically changes the key as data packets
are sent across the network.
 Since the key is constantly changing, it makes
cracking the key much more difficult than that of
WEP.
 If the need arises to change the global key, WPA will
automatically advertise the new key to all devices on
the network without having to manually change
them.

Disadvantage:
 The biggest issue is incompatibility with hardware
and older operating systems.
“If possible, you should choose WPA over WEP
when configuring your wireless network. It
provides much better security.”

It is a controversy that whether it is legal or illegal activity, but yet
piggybacking is a darker side of wi-fi.
The cyber terrorist attacks in India are a harsh reminder that we
can’t control what happens on unsecured wifi networks anywhere
in the world.
So it is responsibility of owner and network administrator to
secure his wireless connections.

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