What wardriving is *not* about

[bobzilla]

Waterford men hacked store files, FBI alleges
http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/nhack11_20031111.htm

Choice quote:
"They may have been engaged in the recent hacker craze known as "wardriving" -- cruising around with a specially equipped laptop and an antenna searching for unsecured wireless networks hooked to the Internet."[/b]

[izzy4505]

Who all is subscribed to the wardriving list at https://mailsrv.dis.org/mailman/listinfo/wardriving ? If you are, then you've been getting these posts over the last few days regarding this reporter in Tallahassee, and his story about wardriving. I'd post it for you here, but the archive of it has been removed off of the news paper's web site. Anyway, the guy wrote a reasonably well founded story, but contained a couple lines that irritated a bunch of us wardrivers. A few e-mails were sent to the reporter, and the reporter replied, pointing out where and how he got all of his information. After this is when people started to "retaliate" and how there is a ton of dispute going on as to what to do about the constant problem of bad press.

Personally, I think that the problem of having a bad public image has it's roots in the wardriving community's actions. Although most of us here would not even consider breaking into another person's network, it's obvious that somebody has used the access points they've found while wardriving for this purpose. If they didn't, the media wouldn't have thought of it. I think what we have to do now is correct this by promoting what wardriving is, and how it has nothing at all to do with connecting to unauthorized networks. If we want the general public to believe us when we say that we're on their side, then we have to prove this through action. This means that we need to come up with some ideas of ways to help fix security problems in wireless networks in our communities.

Here's one thing I think that might work: Offer to setup WEP encryption, and suggest other security measures as a free service to the community. The downside: This practice may conflict with some people's employment. Another problem, is the method of approaching people with unsecure wireless networks. Knocking on their door and pointing it out to them may not be the best solution. One idea I've thought of is mail them an info sheet, along with info such as the manufacturer of their ap, mac address, and ssid. [In case you get the wrong house, and so it doesn't appear as much like junk mail] Be sure to leave a legit address and phone number on there, along with a web site.

Please note: I'm not saying that this is what we all have to do, I'm simply suggesting ways to show the bright side of us for a change. We may know the difference between wardriving, and illegalness, but the public does not. Let's make sure that this line is clearly defined by us, so the ball is in our court for a change.

[blackwave]

As of today we have learned as a community that we are evolving into something better than we started out with... and thus the fruits of our labor will soon come to be.

During the discussion several good points have come to head and thus are being considered for further evolution.

If anyone is not on this list, please join and provide your input.. archives will soon be up in one way or another for those who have missed what is going on so far.

We are currently building an activity list to build awareness globally and most importantly without crossing the lines that ever so exist in our worlds.