So there I was at Ho Chi Minh Airport earlier this year. The Air Vietnam flight to KL had been delayed by several hours, but hey what else is new? So plugged laptop into the back of a TV monitor and was close enough to the Business Lounge to get a WiFi connection. Nobody turned a hair. Comes to something when you're safer in a Communist country than in what is laughingly referred to as the "Free World". Wherever that is.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Wi-FI... Wireless Free Internet. How do you steal something that's free? Who's the victim? Why the poor defenseless communications industry. That lost revenue means they can only afford to buy about 75% of elected officials. Of course the other 25% get their cell phones jammed by one of those cool gadgets mentioned in another article.

Brad, Jacksonville, FL

Many public-spirited people leave their connection open deliberately, and this is to be 100% applauded and encouraged! It is the true spirit of the Internet - helping others for no personal gain.

Routers should be configured by default to provide open access to the broadband connection, but to firewall off the Home Network for personal security of the connection owner.

Sadly, such an approach will never be popular with this government, who are so very keen on monitoring its citizens that they would be poking through everyone's poop if they could ever get enough sticks issued.

If a connection is triggered as being used for illegal purposes, why don't they drive round to the premises concerned, and stick up an aerial like every one else taking advantage of access, and monitor? No, this isn't enough, because they want to monitor everyone - innocent as well as guilty - and they want to do it routinely, and if they did it visibly it would be clearly classed as harassment!

Mike Hart, London, UK

If someone wants to commit the perfect Internet Crime and not be caught, then leech off of all the Unsecure WiFi.

Therefore the only reason why there is even a law on the books so that it gives the police more ability to arrest and then question someone sitting outside in their car with a WiFi enabled laptop

norm, Bellevue, USA WA

This shouldn't be a crime. Most people are very willing to allow the odd person to use their wireless connection for legitimate purposes, such as checking the odd email, and if they're not, or are concerned about security, they should secure their connection. It's as simple as that. Naivety is not an excuse.

As for the problem of false accusations of illegal activity, if such a case had happened, we would know about it.

James, cowbridge, Wales, UK

One thing to remember is that while it is a great security concern, many just don't care, or are nieve to the threat. What they do know is that The ISPs' are charging rediculous rates for cable television, and internet service, so many leave there router password disabled on purpose. They don't care about how much money the ISPs' are NOT MAKING.

Hugh , miami, USA

people should realise that hacking into wifi systems and indeed most computer systems is a trivial matter.
A Google search will produce many FREE tools to do this.
Encryption with GnuPGP or Triple-Des can protect information on pC and e-mails, but even this is trivially vulnerable to keyboard sniffers. I have been into computing since 1951,( IBM STRETCH).
When computers were in a secure building they were secure.
Now almost all computers are connected to a totally insecure Internet. The internet is todays "Wild West."
Don't believe the HTCUs, the Internet is a law free, free 4 all.. that nobody controls.
There are no gatekeepers on the internet. Security is entirely up to the users, they are the policeman, the judge, jury, executioner and undertaker!
If I reported all the eCrime that I encounter, the NorthWalespolice HTCU would never get to bed.

Michael Mordechai, Harlech, Wales, UK

This is a crime for what reason? Normally, when we classify an act as criminal, it has a victim, or some loss of money or reputation. No, this is about the power of the police to control society. I doubt that British people will tolerate this interference in individual liberties for much longer: if they do, the emigration rate will go even higher.

Martin Baldwin-Edwards, Athens, Greece

What stupidity in interpretation of a perfectly good law which clearly states "AND intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service"

If there is no notice of a charge to be paid then it it safe to say that the person leaving their wireless connection unsecured had no intent to charge you for connecting to it.

Police state mentality attempting to create FUD. We are British gudammit, free and innocent unless strong case against it.

The argument that you MIGHT do something illegal isnt written in the law thank goodness yet.

Steve Bush, Cirencester, UK

"You wouldn’t leave the doors wide open in your house, so why allow it with your internet access?”

True - but neither do I put a fifty foot fence next to my house, just in case my neighbours get some of 'my' sunlight.

David Nugent, Manchester,

The truth is that in about 5 years time many cities, towns and villages in the UK will have later version of WiFi, namely some form of Ultrawideband and access points will be open and free. UK PLC will be doing this in order to try to play catch up and compete with the more internet advanced counties. People will make free international VoIP phone calls using wireless technology. The mobile phone companies will have different rate plans but their share prices and market capitalization will be much less than they are today. Internet, TV, Radio and other communications will have merged. The current UK government will have been replaced. Sharing wireless networks, hotspots for free for the greater good of UK PLC and society will be commonplace.

As someone already identified there are good reasons why wireless networks should be shared. A good example is using them in times when emergency response is needed and other forms of communication are out. After all isn't this exactly why the Internet was put together in order to survive hostile attacks.

EOF

Jon, Southampton, UK

The truth is that in about 5 years time many cities, towns and villages in the UK will have later version of WiFi, namely some form of Ultrawideband and access points will be open and free. UK PLC will be doing this in order to try to play catch up and compete with the more internet advanced counties. People will make free international VoIP phone calls using wireless technology. The mobile phone companies will have different rate plans but their share prices and market capitalization will be much less than they are today. Internet, TV, Radio and other communications will have merged. The current UK government will have been replaced. Sharing wireless networks, hotspots for free for the greater good of UK PLC and society will be commonplace.

A good example is using them in times when emergency response is needed and other forms of communication are out. After all isn't this exactly why the Internet was put together in the first place!

Jon, Southampton, UK

I freely admit to piggybacking. However, after a full day at work, I usually don't have to use the Internet at home for more than about 15 minutes. I don't enjoy staring at a computer screen all evening or weekend after staring at it all day during the week. Broadband service, especially in urban areas, is ridiculously expensive -- fifty dollars a month on average. I simply cannot afford it, and I'm not alone. And after all this time, it's just such a scam. The 'Net should be freed -- that is the general consensus in this city, anyway.

Eleanor, Boston, USA

It sounds as if "but Officer, I believed that this service was being offered for free" is a perfect defense against such an accusation, since under these circumstances there is no dishonesty, and no intent to avoid payment.

Charles, Charlottesville,

Again and again this Labour government demonstrate they are clueless, ten years behind the technology and incapable of understanding any computer technology whether its their IT projects or wireless hijacking. Firstly it is impractical to make illegal any connection to transmissions that anyone can pick up on freely available equipment. If you want security you have to encrypt it but they can't very well make it an offence to leave your wireless network non encrypted thereby giving others the opportunity to connect to it. Similarly, if it was encrypted and hackers found the password any wireless surveillance looking for illegal downloads would be virtually useless on an encrypted link. In effect they are dammed which ever way they look at it but haven't accepted it yet. Attempts to catch people connecting to others networks are completely non effective as the figures show and perhaps many neighbours share a network to save costs. Wake up Jackie Smith and take a computer course.

Mike, Alicante, Spain

There is a movement for people with wi fi access to make it freely available to others if passing by...not on a permanent basis. I am happy to take part in this. If someone accesses an unlawful site by this means and the police visit me I will only suffer inconvenience, possible temporary loss of computer if they dont have an IT bod with them, but they better have because there wont be any trace on my system of any visits to unlawful sites. Perhaps it might be better if the "free rider" identifies the source of the wi fi and gets permission and identifies himself, that should sort peoples fears.

alan , warks, uk

What a useless stat , so u say half the people in the UK that use a computer have stolen wifi access. I doubt that half the computer users in the UK even have wifi capability.

I know your trying to raise the profile of this basic security issue that needs to have its profile raised but at least. Print statistics that are at least remotely feasable.

Daniel, Warrington, Englands

don't believe the hype- - FREE THE NET

Al Gore, York(Old),

In most situations, this is no worse than listening to someone else's radio through an open window. It is a nonsense to suggest this constitutes a crime.

Nick Beard, Rotherham, UK

so assuming that you believe in the principle of free internet and that most people are not paedophiles, leaving your wi-fi open could indicate that you agree to allow people to surf the net via your connection - hopefully it will be down to the person who pays for the connection as to whether they wish to press charges??

Tom, Leicester,

Tony Neate, managing director of GetSafeOnline, said: “I think unsecured internet is a big problem.

yeah I'm sure the ISP's who help fund your campaigns agree with you as well....

Bob, Truro,

wow... I didn't realise that 54% of the nation were hackers - even more amazing is that I seem to give computer advice to the other 46%

Bob, Truro,

Lets face nobody actual cares about thsi issue, not even the people whos wifi is being used.

the only people who care are the police becsue it means they can not track down crims, they just want to make their own lifes easyer and want us to do their job for them.

so out comes the big stick, you have open wifi and some one else does the crime you do the time.

Please go away get a life and relise that we dont care if other people use our wifi.

Mr W Jones, Liverpool, Merseyside

I have BT Total Broadband and have signed up to FON. This permits the use of my SPARE bandwidth by Openzone. In effect, my Homehub ADDITIONALLY becomes a Openzone Wi-Fi network access point. The two data streams are completely seperate so NO confusion over what has been downloaded over what can occur.

In return I get unlimited free use of any FON Wi-Fi access point. Accessing the internet when away from the home is free and at normal Wi-Fi speeds.

Better still it costs NOTHING to be a FON member. No additional fees or any reduction in MY broadband connections performance. Remember, only UNUSED bandwidth is opened up.

If someone is using one of these W-Fi access points THIS is not theft as an agreement is in place. However, I doubt the police have been briefed on this.

People MUST protect their Wi-Fi connection. Leaveing it open is akin to leaveing your car keys in the ignotion. You may get the car back but there's no guessing how many speed camera's it's gone through!!

Lance, Crawley, UK

Yes many people do it. No, most whose wifi is borrowed (inc mine) don't mind. If they did notice slow speeds / any other problem, then they'd probably be able to stretch their minds to securing the network (takes 5 minutes), even without this sensationalising media bleating.

So why do we hear so much about this? In the extreme case of someone accessing terrorist / porn content over a borrowed wifi, anyone whose wifi was "borrowed" to access such content could easily show it wasn't actually them through their computer's history. So that "danger" is very overstated. Yes the police would want to catch the actual user, and that is one reason. But, I think more importantly, advertisers also want to be able to look at a person's internet usage to target advertising. This is how Google / Facebook make billions. Easiest to target when only one person / family use one connection, no? I'd bet ISPs are flogging this info right now. The terrorist / porn point is 99.99% red herring.

J, London, UK

Our family was victim of a real crime recently, albeit minor. My husbands car was smashed into last week, the 3rd in a week on an expensive residential road in suburban London. The police were totally and utterly disinterested. Now perhaps if some callous youth was trying to piggyback of our internet connection we may have had squad cars or at least a visit. Pathetic is n't it?

Having said that I am agreat admirer of Sir Ian Blair, I realy do think he has been given a raw deal by the press.

sunita day, northwood, middlesex

I just thought I would post my total agreement with Gary from Brisbane... a perfect analogy.

Wireless gateways/routers that actively advertises it's presence and dishes out IP addresses are the problem here.

The new Apple MacBook's can connect to an unsecured wireless network within seconds of coming into range, with no user input required.

People need to be locking down their equipment.

Jamie Ryan, Kenilworth, UK

TO: Michael E. Huang . In answer to your comments. Why then does our Government not make things easier by bringing in legislation that the default setting on all wireless computers is that they are fully secured. As it is at present wireless enabled computers are being supplied to people who have no idea about computers and thus because many are not default set for security they are leaving their connections open for anyone. As always with this government rather than solving things at source they prefer to let it happen and then get the police to nick them all.
We ARE now living in a police state and it is only going to get worse unless we stand up and be counted against mindless politicians like blair ,brown and bush.

Donald, London, UK

Maybe the way to engage the public is to suggest some "hot button" reasons a computer user might want to conceal his identity by using somebody else's connection. Grooming a child, for example.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Where are the lawyers who also understand how a wireless LAN connection works?

It cannot be illegal for anyone to do this, the technology that allows you to connect to a wireless LAN is built around the wireless router itself advertising its presence and asking you to join its network. It offers you an IP Address without which you could not log on in the first place. If someone did not want you to join their network then they should not advertise its SSID (its name) and ensure there is a password. Believe me here, this is not like stealing.

A perfect analogy would be locking your front door but standing outside with a bunch of keys and giving one to anyone who asks to go in your house. They then go in your house and use your hot water and electricity for a while. You CANNOT call this stealing because you gave them a key to get in.

When is the legal system going to catch-up with technology because 11 people have been prosecuted and have commited no crime at all.

Gary, Brisbane, QLD

At may be simple for you Joe, but I have read my router instructions and could not understand a word of it, let alone do it!

alan mc affee, richmond, u.k.

'Then it is your job to persuade the Police that you are innocent.....'

Surely, the Police have to prove your guilt. Careless yes but carelessness is not illegal.

Again we are painting a picture of thousand of predatory paedophiles lurking outside people's houses secretly downloading illegal images.

It's simply not happening. None of the people arrested so far were doing anything of the sort, most of them were simply working.

Pu Li, Guangxi,

James Rathburn of Twickenham obviously needs to get out and about more if he thinks we have an authoritarian government.
Seriously, how does concern for internet users equate to oppression. Obviously another symptom of our 'Broken Society' (Copyright - D. Cameron Think Tank Ltd).
Ooooh. I'm scared.

Kingkerouac, London,

Commendations to the editors and journalists at The Times-- consistently excellent information on thought provoking topics.

Misters Kellie and Rathburn:

Respectfully, your "authoritarian" government would suppress reporting of such vulnerabilities were it as Orwellian as you imply, and this is in fact a crime of "burglary, assault and theft".

Burglary - unauthorized entry into one's home or office network,

Assault - on the identity of a innocent person whose account could be associated with actions about which they have no knowledge.

Theft- of service rightfully paid for by someone other than the intruder.

If you were to be mistakenly charged with sexual solicitation of a child over the Internet, what would be your opinion of the injustice at that juncture?

Sincerely,

Michael E. Huang
United States National Security Advisor Policy Enforcement

Michael E. Huang, Dallas, USA Texas

This is a stupid regulation and the British police have enough work as it is.
It is the responsibility of the WiFi network owner to ensure that his/her network has basic protection in place. You could just as easily make it illegal to provide unprotected WiFi witihout a permit and arrest the provider. It makes just as much sense.
In addition its perfectly possaible to log onto someone elses network by mistake.

Jonathan L, Tel-Aviv & London, Israel

It is very simple to lock down a wireless router and if you leave it open you are inviting anyone nearby to log on using your router. It is not difficult to perform this and anyone who leaves theirs open should have to live with the consequences.

You would not leave your wallet on the wall of your garden and not expect it to be stolen.

I think the police should concentrate on real crimes like burglary, assault and theft.

Joe Kellie, Edinburgh, Scotland

another example of our authoritarian government trying to make people beleive there are huge problems threatening us all when in reality they dont exist.

James Rathburn, Twickenham,

If broadband providers made wifi access publicly available at an affordable price people would not be tempted to use free wifi. I am quite happy for my wifi broadband to be used by others on a temporary basis while travelling around uk. This is a terrific advantage for tourists, even potentially life saving in extreme circumstances. Lets get back to the ideals of the internet with free communication for all.

Peter Bains

Peter Bains, Singapore,

Oh dearie, dearie, me. Glad we have so few problems in the UK.

Get the immigration police off the ports and into suburbia to harass people for sending email to their grandmother.

A. Hackerette, Cannot Disclose Ville., Caithness, Scotland

"“person who (a) dishonestly obtains an electronic communications service, and (b) does so with intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service, is guilty of an offence”

That does not outlaw using an open wifi access point. The prosecution have to prove both intent and dishonesty, neither of which occur if a computer automatically connects to the nearest open access point.

Kay Tie, UK,