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Piggybacking teenager faces jail
Author: Ryan GarsidePublished: 20th December 2006
Piggybacking refers to the use of other people's WiFi networks without permission.
17 year old, Garyl Tan Jia Luo, is the first person to be punished under Singapore's new law - the Computer Misuse Act. He has already paid a fine of 6,000 Singapore dollars and is currently on bail. His lawyer's bid to have a minimum fine imposed was rejected earlier this week, with the Judge instead asking whether Tan would prefer to start his National Service early to: "keep him out of mischief".
As a former witness of piggybacking (back in the university days in Leeds) I know how notorious it is in this country. The house next door to mine never once paid for their internet access for two years, despite the fact that they downloaded and uploaded twenty four hours a day. Wireless routers tend to arrive without secure settings as standard and as such the majority of users leave their networks open for anyone in the surrounding area to use unhindered.
In this case Tan was accused back in May by his neighbour of accessing his network. He will be sentenced next month.
Should piggybacking be deemed jail worthy? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Comments (33)Stats: 0.175 seconds
He should have gone to his neighbours and said "Excuse me, would you like me to teach you how to secure your network?"
I've made loadsa new friends and got free drinks that way.
An unsecure wireless network is like having your stereo on loud then complaining that your neighbours are listening to it and that they should put ear plugs in and ignore it. Sure you cant hear a wireless network but when its sitting there on your PC saying "wireless network available" you cant help but connect and take a look around.
Maybe they are offering some sort of free service, like a local neighbourhood internet incentive. who knows.
I did create loads of folders on my neighbours computers saying "please secure your network and email me if you need help, and your music is crap but i needed those lost episodes"
soon enough it was secured.
The jail time was not really needed in this, sure it is technically theft but I would have held a lot of the blame back for the owners of the unsecured network.
I agree, if someone hasn't set up their network properly and their neighbour is able to access it, then it's their responsibility to let them know and perhaps help them set it up...all part of being a decent human. If they're going to instead take advantage of someone's naiveness and be downloading/uploading 24/7 however, they deserve to be punished in my books.
-MrBurritoMan
This is slightly different to A88's point, which is correct if you leave your front door open or keys in your car thats not an invitation to steal.
I don't see the difference to an open wireless router in McDonalds, airports etc to an individuals.
It should be the owners responsibility to setup their router for personal use only.
This is perhaps something the wireless router manufacturers should consider in making part of the setup simpler (i.e. tickbox only) to ensure a network setup is secure or not and if not display an appropriate message to inform the owner of the implications.
So no to jail sentence, no to the fine and should probably counter sue for damages due to the effects of the wireless signals on his brain cells, that and going blind from the porn he saw, which he would'nt have had access to if the network had been secure.
rofl. lost. im curious to what kind of music it was
The responsibility of protecting the wireless network is the person who made the wireless network. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to connect to an open wireless network.
Use your examples to convince someone to secure their network, it would work a lot better than saying because you should.
I see unsecured wifi as fast file sharing, in my friends appartment you can access routers in every direction. :D
Still, jail is excessive for somthing that is merely rude. This is why I won't even fly through Singapore.
Not everyone, very few people as a matter of fact, have any clue as to how to secure a wireless connection. Just because something is accessible to you doesn't mean you have any right to use it. Using something that is not yours is, at best, extremely disrespectful of others. (This world would be a Much better place if only we could all respect each other)
Because I am a Singaporean.
Yes, our authoritarian state is pushing it's measure to extend its powers to cyberspace and I feel this is somehow related to it...
Funny someone should mention about V for Vendetta... because I feel it's exactly a film about Singapore when I saw it. Except that fact is stranger than fiction in our little island state. We have those people that might put a black hood over your head anytime if you somehow 'offended' people 'higher up' too. Its called the, hush hush, ISD (Internal Security Department) here in Singapore. We have a satirical blogger that got fired from his newpaper journalistic job because he 'joked' about the government.
It's all going down...
Sorry for going OT. :(
Would you say this climate is widely supported by the citizens of SIngapore or is it inflicted upon them. Is it changing?
The reason I ask is that that I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of choosing collectivism and conformity and so I'm wondering what the reality is.
Where? (genuinely curious)
Not in my country, that's for certain...
Of course, here's a similar case from the UK
And one from Detroit
A related one from Marlyand To quote the article..
And another from Maryland
Anyway, that's just a few minutes on Google.
How it was used is important though.
Surfing for kiddie porn > P2P > just checking emails IMO.
If I were the neighbour I doubt I'd care if someone was just checking their emails and doing a little surfing.
On the other hand, if they were downloading kiddie porn using my connection (so any traced traffic came to my router and I was likely to be held responsible) then I'd be pissed.
Regardless of what he was using his neighbours connection for its still stealing.
Though bandwidth isn't something you can touch we still pay for a certain amount and his neighbour was in effect 'stealing' it.
The analogies of leaving your car/house unlocked don't do anything but add weight to the neighbour's argument.
Yes, if I left my house unlocked I wouldn't be surprised to find all my stuff missing when I got home.
Does that mean I gave permission, either express or implied, to take my stuff? No.
Does that mean the person who took all my stuff isn't a theif? No.
If your stuff was stolen from your house, would you seek recourse against the theif? Probably.
The punishment needs to fit the crime however.
I doubt the neighbour was that bothered by the amount that was stolen from him, more that fact that anything was taken at all.
And if he was that bothered by the threat of something being stolen, why not secure his network?
Ignorance is no excuse tbh.
Basically, if it doesn't cost anything to share, why not share?
Well, I would say that the general population is rather ill-informed of this oppressiveness. Even if such things are not welcomed amongst the general population, there is an climate of fear not unlike those in the film, V for Vendetta.
Anyway, relating to this news, I just heard from my friend still in Singapore a bit more detail. Turns out that this teen kinda deserved it. Because instead of accidentally discovered a unsecured wireless network in the comfort of his home. He actually sought out such free network dead in the middle of the night (3am, I heard) and was promptly arrested when someone spotted his suspicious behavior. God knows what was his intend. He could easily very well have malicious purposes rather than just surfing the web.
But word has it that he won't be serving a jail term because he will face early conscription and some probation instead of jail.
Call it rude and a little intrusive, but that's today's realilty. And the jail sentance is absolutly uneccesary and blown way out of proportions! If he was doing P2P or CP that's one thing, but if he was just surfing that doesn't excuse a jail sentance.
How did he get caught?
Even if finding that someone is connected to your router takes a second, if the people in question were so computer-illiterate they had the router wide open, it simply doesn't make sense (since they probably never looked at their router settings in the first place).
Even if somehow they did realize someone was using the connection: Maybe a family friend noticed it. Even then why wouldn't the friend just close the security hole and leave it at that?
Even if , say they were really angered and wanted to find the piggybacker. How? Do you know how difficult it is to triangulate someone wifi connection? I once had wifi connectivity issue in my office - trust me it wasn't easy to locate the source even with expensive professional equipment and knowledge.
Even if somehow the police got involved early on to locate the source - can you really imagine that happening? "999: 'oh, excuse me officer, someone is piggybacking my connection!' - 'No worries! SWAT is on its way'" - yeah right! Do you know how important a online crime must be before police starts doing something about it? Even the Singaporean police?
IT DOESN'T ADD UP PEOPLE. There's always more to those incredible stories we read around. Don't be fooled so easily. The guy could have been part of a much bigger investigation and they nailed him on whatever they could, or maybe the material downloaded was child porn, or maybe the guy was hacking into something serious, or maybe using the neighbour online identity, or maybe making threats - you know 'I can see what you type now give me your money' kinda thing.
k?
whats it called again......wardriving........
I've got a wireless network that I hadn't got round to securing. Someone used it, I booted them and secured it. No biggy. Don't see what the issue is.
1) them surfing while I'm playing CSS and getting crap pings would piss me off.
2) Having the open WLAN is begging for ARP Spoofing attacks.
Basically, I don't think there's any way to have an open and unsecured wifi without putting yourself at risk unless you use several routers... :)