Sat, November 22, 2003


Drive-by net user targets kid porn

Cops: 'War driving' grows

By KIM BRADLEY, TORONTO SUN


A man caught driving naked from the waist down while watching kiddie porn on his laptop has become the first man in Toronto charged for allegedly stealing an internet connection. Toronto police laid a theft of communications charge after busting a man driving in the residential High Park area, the wrong way down a one-way street, downloading child porn using stolen wireless internet signals.

The slow-moving car was pulled over around 5 a.m. on Wednesday by an 11 Division police officer who allegedly found the driver -- with no pants on -- watching a movie on his laptop of a 10-year-old girl performing fellatio on an adult.

Police allege the man downloaded the movie using an Internet connection he intercepted from a nearby house.

Stealing internet signals, or war driving as it is sometimes called, is becoming more and more common among perverts trying to avoid online detection.

It's also a way they can invade someone else's computer which could have serious ramifications for unsuspecting wireless internet subscribers, police say.

'VERY DISTURBING'

"That means people can use, access and get into your computer, your files, and your internet signal, and if anything illegal was done, it would come back to your computer," Det.-Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto police child exploitation section, said.

"It's very disturbing. This is a problem that isn't going away and people have to be educated on how to protect themselves."

Gillespie's unit was called in after Wednesday's arrest and together with the OPP's Project P unit, they searched the man's Delhi home he shares with his parents.

They recovered 10 computers and thousands of CDs and floppy discs they suspect contain child abuse images.

"It involves some of the worst child pornography that we've ever seen, including young children and babies. I hate to say it but it's becoming typical of what we're seeing," Gillespie said.

FILE-SHARING

It will take investigators between 20 to 40 hours to go through each computer and several more hours to detail each image found on each disc before they will know exactly how many images the man allegedly had, he added.

Gillespie said the man used Kazaa, a popular file-sharing web program commonly used to share music, to download the graphic material. In a study using 12 words associated with child pornography, the U.S. General Accounting Office found that 42% of 1,286 files on the peer-to-peer site contained child porn.

"It's turned into the largest single way in which like minded people share and trade child pornography," he said.

Det.-Sgt. Frank Goldschmidt, from Project P, said the last three child porn collectors his unit arrested also used Kazaa to download porn and stole internet connections to get online.

"It's becoming more and more common," he said.

Walter Nowakowski, 33, of Delhi faces numerous child pornography charges.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2003/11/22/264938.html

The people who have those wireless networks with the security turned off get what they are asking for.  They should feel very lucky that the pervert was only downloading porn, because he could have done LOTS more to their equipment and their lives.

If you have a home wireless LAN, then TURN ON THE %$#%$# SECURITY, ok?

So very true.  Unfortunately, the weakest part of security is the human portion.  I liken wireless modem security to virus scanners... it's there, but its not used properly.

I personally will not use any sort of wireless device, including all cordless phones.

Check out:  http://www.wardriving.com/  they usually have some interesting news bits about the lack of security.

Interestingly enough, my instructor (a former telecomm tech) was mentioning today that the WEPS encryption system used on WiFi isn't as secure as they once believed.  I've been hearing talk about that for about 2 years via some crypto buffs I know.