Singapore Busts Second WiFi Stealing Criminal Mastermind
Whether or not leeching bandwidth from an open WiFi hotspot is legal may be an endless argument here in the States, but in Singapore there's no argument. WiFi freeloading is illegal, as made evident by the recent arrest of a teenager who piggybacked on his neighbor's hotspot. While the teen faced up to three years in jail, the Judge in the case is instead nudging him to enlist early in Singapore's mandatory national service "as a way to stay out of mischief." Now a second person has been arrested in the country, this time for using open hotspots in order to make bomb threats. The "threat" doesn't seem like much of a threat at all -- instead it appears he just posted a dumb, and fake, news headline on a technology website that declared: "Breaking news _ Toa Payoh hit by bomb attacks." The user not only faces up to seven years in jail and fines of up to $32,500, but is also looking at 60 charges of WiFi freeloading -- each of which carry the maximum penalty of three years in jail and a fine of up to $6,500.L33tdawg: The bomb threat part I can understand, but the 60 charges of 'stealing wifi' is just beyond me imho. Shouldn't both the person who setup the vulnerable/open access point and the freeloader get charged? I mean would it not count as entrapment if I was to set up an open AP to get these guys busted when they connect? Do remember that most Windows notebooks usually AUTOMATICALLY CONNECT to the first open wireless network that it finds.
