Ethics question

[Brad Langhorst]

On Sat, 2005-04-02 at 10:26 -0600, Erich Noll wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> in my time experimenting with wireless networking, using the iwlist 
> wlan0 scan command I've discovered at least three unsecure wireless 
> networks being emanated by my neighbors.  I know who one of them belongs 
> to, but not the others. 


> Would it be ethical to connect to these unsecure networks with the only 
> intention of trying to determine which neighbors they belong to for the 
> purpose of letting them know the dangers of an unsecure wireless access 
> point and possibly assisting them with locking them down?
I think it's ethical to connect and use those networks if people leave
them open for you to use. Connecting just to let them know that their
network is unsecure would also be fine (but rather annoying) - but
snooping their email, web browsing etc, is out of bounds imho. Why
assume that they should have their network secured?

> What ARE the dangers of leaving your wireless network unsecured?
none - assuming you use some kind of transport layer security or don't
care what others see.

I don't secure my wireless networks because I choose to let others share
them. If somebody started abusing things I'd close things down a bit.

brad