Wireless security is in the spotlight following an unusual arrest in Canada, where a man stands accused of downloading child pornography over a hijacked Wi-Fi connection.
Toronto police said that when they stopped a car last week for a traffic infraction, they found the driver naked from the waist down with a laptop computer on the front seat, playing a pornographic video that had apparently been streamed over a residential wireless hot spot. The driver was charged with possession, distribution and creation of child pornography, as well as theft of telecommunications -- a first in Canada, according to local authorities.
Prosecutors have not sought to charge the owner of the Wi-Fi connection used to download the images. Still, the 19 November incident offers a dramatic illustration of the dangers of running an insecure Wi-Fi hub from a home or office.
Although Wi-Fi law is still largely unsettled in the United States and Canada, people who run open Wi-Fi hubs could conceivably be held accountable for activities carried out on their networks by unauthorised users, according to Joseph Burton, an attorney with law firm Duane Morris.
"Is it possible a home owner can be liable for a lack of security on a wireless network? Yes, if they are negligent in setting up security," Burton said.
Security experts have long known that unauthorised users could hijack open wireless Internet connections in order to mask their online activities, with some offering dire warnings that open Wi-Fi hot spots could abet terrorism. So far, there's little evidence to show how much and what kind of abuse is taking place. But security experts say a surprisingly high number of consumers choose not to activate security protocols on their wireless networks, meaning the opportunity clearly exists.
That could pose a legal risk if someone were to suffer damages as a result of activities conducted on an open Wi-Fi hub, Burton said. Individuals who gain unauthorised access to a wireless network that's providing a broadband connection can not only download illegal material, but they could also use a hijacked network to launch spam, distribute a virus or steal data from resources on the network. In all these cases, it would look like the owner of the connection had performed the acts.
