TriNetre - Archive for January 31, 2004
(no longer updated)
January 31, 2004
Wardrive in Singapore and be caned?
[Technology]
@ 09:25 AM
For those contemplating such war-driving, technology lawyer Bryan Tan has a warning: 'In Singapore, war-driving may constitute offences under the Computer Misuse Act and the Telecommunications Act, and war-chalking, offences of vandalism and nuisance.
'One can be fined, imprisoned and even caned for this.'
'One can be fined, imprisoned and even caned for this.'
That is the general tone of The Straits Times article. It is interesting how the article gives a not-too-accurate reason why people should not let wardrivers into their networks:
Such activities are illegal, but detecting if someone else is hopping on board your connection is difficult.
The signs will not be apparent. Sometimes, the warning will come too late - in the form of an unusually high bill at the end of the month.
The signs will not be apparent. Sometimes, the warning will come too late - in the form of an unusually high bill at the end of the month.
The writer does not care to even explain why the owner will end up with "an unusually high bill at the end of the month". A lot, if not most, of the home subscribers in Singapore use cable modems for their connections. In these cases there is no reason why the owner would end up with a high bill. An example of conditioning the society?
More information that would lead to false sense of security:
A key step to take is to ensure that the identity of your router or other devices is changed from the default - which is usually the device's brand, which also means anyone can gain entry without much trying - to a protected one.
I guess Gartner's research and other consultants did not tell them about softwares like "Network Stumbler". Oh well, newspapers...
