The Wardriver On My Block Got Away
Last night around 8pm I came home from dinner and saw a dim light coming from a blue car parked across the street. I took a couple steps forward and saw a guy sitting in a blue car with a laptop opened. Being suspicious I automatically thought he could be a wardriver. So I got my kids inside, ran to the basement and got my digital camera (I also unsecured my network to see if I could lure him in), and went back outside. By this time he was slowly pulling out of his parking slot and was inching his way up the street.
Knowing that to wardrive you need to drive slowly, my curiousity was even more aroused. I started following his car on foot. The guy was driving around the block. I walked around the block, and immediately noticed that he had parked his blue car now right behind mine. I got my camera out & took 2 pictures:
Then I realized I needed an excuse to really see what he was doing. I ran back inside and got my dog, who usually likes to "hang out" on the bricks in front of my neighbor's house right in front of where this guy's car was parked. That's exactly what happened. The guy's sitting there in his car, with his laptop open. He sees me standing there with my dog--and what do you know, he closes his laptop, and drives away.
Boy, was I fired up at this point. I went back inside to see if he had connected to my network (I had unsecured it earlier) but fortunately it wasn't MY network he connected to. More than likely it was my neighbor's unsecured Linksys network. I searched around the block for another 15 minutes or so, but this guy knew I was on to him.
Big time stuff in my peaceful little neighborhood...
--Sherman
Comments
I finally got paranoid enough to pop for a WAP that has the ability to shut off SSID broadcast.. it is very cool.. I have had several different laptops try to find my WAP to no avail.. not broadcasting along with encryption makes me sleep better..
Posted by: rich | July 7, 2006 06:01 PM
Hi Anne Marie, yup we've found motivations to be very different for people who live in dense urban areas with lots of apartments vs. single family home areas in less dense neighborhoods or suburbs.
Those in single family homes / suburbs actually appear to care less about security for security's-sake. They think it is much less likely that someone is going to drive up & steal their bandwidth.
Those in dense areas tend to be a lot more knowledgeable about it, and also aren't afraid to borrow someone else's bandwidth when it is there!
Posted by: sherman | July 5, 2006 11:40 AM
Interesting to watch this happen in urban locations, too! My husband and I live in a area of Cambridge that has a lot of condos in series of large turn-of-the-century buildings. High ceilings, crown moldings, working fireplaces...and LOTS of wireless networks in a very dense cluster. Have come home to find people with open laptops on the front stoops of my street. Heck, I even did it myself one time when trying to prove a point (for which Google was required, of course) when meeting neighbors for gin and tonics on the street one sultry summer night. Good thing my secured network was (4 floors too high) out of range...but there were plenty of other "neighborly" unsecured networks...including the one belonging to one of our gin-and-tonic neighbors gathered that evening. I showed her...and you can bet she locked down her network quickly!
Posted by: Anne Marie Biernacki | June 20, 2006 04:16 PM