I somehow doubt there is much wifi hacking going on.
The vast majority of victims, though, would never know if an extra client were connected to their network so it might well be widespread! Who spends time looking to see who's connected to their router?

Usually there is little to be gained by the perpetrator other than free wifi as connected clients are usually isolated from one another.

Anyone doing it would need to be fairly local to the victim and a 'passer-by' would not be around long enough to crack a WPA2 password so the suspect list would be limited to a few neighbours in most cases.

One time when I thought my broadband might be unusable for a while I did investigate the possibility of connecting to a neighbours network but never got the necessary software set up so I can't say how easy it would be to crack the password as demonstrated in Youtube videos.

What surprises me though is that most people do have their own broadband connection when they could share the service and cost with a neighbour very easily. I've not heard of anyone doing that.

We do, but personally I wouldn't recommend it, as you can never be certain what that said neighbour(s) is doing.

Edited by deleted (Fri 09-Mar-18 01:16:16)

In asking the question, I had in mind simply accessing the WiFi system - without considering whether that was simply for "piggy-backing" or for more nefarious purposes.

When does the course end?

In reply to a post by dwg1:

We do, but personally I wouldn't recommend it, as you can never be certain what that said neighbour(s) is doing.

Indeed. The owner of the line is 100% responsible for what happens on it and so if someone was to access any dodgy (illegal) sites then you could have a knock on the door and unless you have some very good logging it would be difficult to prove the neighbour was responsible. Effectively if you share your connection you need to consider ISP level logging to protect yourselves in the event of an issue.

If you are without broadband and considering "borrowing" a neighbours then I would suggest talking to the neighbour rather than hacking it would be a more neighbourly route.

Effectively, it has just ended -

Cyber Security

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/introduction-to-...

---------------

In reply to a post by ian72:

In reply to a post by dwg1:

We do, but personally I wouldn't recommend it, as you can never be certain what that said neighbour(s) is doing.

Indeed. The owner of the line is 100% responsible for what happens on it and so if someone was to access any dodgy (illegal) sites then you could have a knock on the door and unless you have some very good logging it would be difficult to prove the neighbour was responsible. Effectively if you share your connection you need to consider ISP level logging to protect yourselves in the event of an issue.

Sorry, but could you provide some sort of reference to legislation that makes this the case?

I get that suspicion would likely fall on the subscriber in the first instance, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean they are responsible for the criminal acts of others.

In reply to a post by nemeth782:

In reply to a post by ian72:

In reply to a post by dwg1:

We do, but personally I wouldn't recommend it, as you can never be certain what that said neighbour(s) is doing.

Indeed. The owner of the line is 100% responsible for what happens on it and so if someone was to access any dodgy (illegal) sites then you could have a knock on the door and unless you have some very good logging it would be difficult to prove the neighbour was responsible. Effectively if you share your connection you need to consider ISP level logging to protect yourselves in the event of an issue.

Sorry, but could you provide some sort of reference to legislation that makes this the case?

I get that suspicion would likely fall on the subscriber in the first instance, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean they are responsible for the criminal acts of others.

There may or may not be any relevant legislation, but sure as hell it will be part of your ISP's T&Cs. They've got their own backsides to cover.

Edited by billford (Fri 09-Mar-18 13:35:27)

Trying to find a definitive source but can't - maybe I am wrong that you are 100% responsible.

However, if the police come knocking at the door because someone has been accessing the Internet for child pornography then how much angst do you think you are going to go through whilst you try and show it wasn't you? They could well seize your computers and it could affect other aspects of your life. It could be weeks before they confirm they couldn't find any evidence on your computers. It may be low risk and you may trust your neighbours but the negative effects could be enormous if it did happen. Personally I wouldn't risk it for a few quid a month.