Daverock

I was just reading this news article about a man arrested in the UK for connecting to someone's wireless broadband. Is there a similar law in Tenerife?

I was surprised at that story as I thought the onus would be on the owner to secure the network. Surely it would be difficult to prove and enforce under normal circumstances? Sitting on someone's wall with your laptop makes it quite obvious

welshsprout

Imagine if someone 'borrowed' your electricity

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graceylacey

i have wifi, and I know mine is passworded, but I would have a fit if someone was using it without my knowledge. I worry what info they could get from my computer if they are 'hacking' into my wifi.

I would also have a fit if they were using my gas, water or elec.. surely the same thing?

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suzi

I regulary get on to an unsecure network but I didnt know it wasnt legal well other peeps should have it password protected shouldnt they live and learn

Daverock

From that report it appears illegal in the UK but we still don't know if it illegal here in Tenerife. I'd be interested to know as we have regularly had people asking about wireless networks in Tenerife. We need to be careful in future if it is illegal about what advice we give people.

stevem

Not unless it was a secure network. By definition non secure is just that! Therefore freely available

That's where the UK case will fall flat on its back!

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videoman

Been using someone's unsecured wireless network for the last eight months until Telefonica installed our own and surely it's up to the individual to make sure theirs is secured to prevent other people from accessing it.

Our's is secured though as I do not want everyone using it!!

Harlequin

This all depends on how vigorously the police want to pursue the case, technically speaking:

1. It's a breach of the wireless and telegraphy Act.
2. It's a breach of the computer misuse Act.

The individual in question could also be arrested under the data protection act (but this would only be justified if it was a corporate network with a data controller employed there). However, that said, there was a similar case in the UK some time ago and the guy actually went to prison.

So, yeah - it IS illegal. However, I've come accross many open networks and many that are secure but have still managed to hack them due to poor security settings and if I was caught doing this I doubt very much that the police here would be sympathetic considering my experience as I should know better.

Bottom line:

You are accessing and using someone else's resources without permission.

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stevem

As I said earlier. Not really for 2 reasons.

Firstly, I used to configure a lot of open wireless networks for customers for one reason. They wished to have a wireless "hotspot" for free open use. Anyone could log on and use the resource.

Secondly, if any court case was instigated the prosecution would have to prove that the defendant knew beyond reasonable doubt that the wireless connection was not a "hotspot" and indeed someones personal resource.

As the numpties that tend to leave their network open with no security tend to leave everything default all you will see in your sniffer window is the word wireless. That's not really a steady argument for prosecution and could indeed be perfect grounds for the "hotspot" argument for the defence.

Now hacking a known secure network does breach the law as you have said

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