Since childhood, most individuals are raised with rules. Some of the rules are written laws that parents explain and teach to their children, and some are unwritten laws based on the beliefs of their parental upbringing, surroundings and society. The written laws are usually punishable by a legal entity. They are the laws that everyone in that respective city, state, or country must abide by depending on the type of laws it is and the jurisdiction that upholds and implements it. The unwritten laws though are a bit of a quandary. These “laws” are usually past down form parent to child and are based on what the parents deem adequate behavior. These laws, or ethics as we have become to know them by, may not always be agreed upon by various people or groups and are generally not punishable by law. We carry these ethics with us into our own adulthood, and make determinations of others based on the ethics we now hold close to our hearts. We watch the happenings going on around the world and we usually put a legal and ethical tag on what it is we are watching. We tend to understand what the law says about someone’s actions and we understand how and why the action is deemed illegal, but we also use our ethical upbringing to decipher what type of person the violator is. These ethics carry over into every facet of the world today. One of the main areas where legal and ethical issues have arisen in today’s society is the world of technology.
Today’s world is full of technology at your every turn. Advances in technology have occurred at overwhelming rates and I hardly doubt the wheels fall of this runaway train any time soon. I’m not complaining about technologies rate of growth, even though it would be nice to purchase an item knowing that its “newer version” will not hit the shelves the next day, but there are those that tend to repeatedly abuse it for their own malicious purposes. Of course this is to be expected in a world that has become more individual oriented and less group oriented, but maybe this is due to the rise of better, faster, and more expedient devices that allow us to be more independent.
Let’s take the internet for example. Since its development in the early 90’s, the internet has drastically changed how we learn, work, and even how we perform daily tasks such as managing our finances to checking last night’s basketball scores. The only thing that could have made a computer that can pass incredible amounts of information through a series of wires and cables any better would be making it wireless. With the emergence of wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi as we so passionately know it, has changed not only the way we use personal computing, but it has migrated over to our cell phones, printers and even televisions. Simply put, Wi-Fi has made life easier. Businesses have adopted and implemented the technology, and the technology industry is constantly working on longer ranges of accessibility, overall speeds, and its ease of use. This also means that developments in security must happen as well. Wi-Fi usage has nearly tripled in the last 10 years, and businesses are now using this as a launching platform for business growth. Over 80 percent of all businesses nationwide utilize Wi-Fi technology to assist in running their organization. Half of these organizations offer some sort of wireless access for consumer use. Businesses such as airlines, restaurants, coffee shops and hotels are just examples of the businesses that offer wireless internet access to its customers. The problem arises when those individuals that are not customers use these same wireless internet connections. I must admit, in what I considered at the time to be an emergency (I just had to check the score on the Cowboys game), I too have done this. The art known as “Piggybacking” has become a huge ethical and legal topic as of late. Is it illegal to use someone else’s wireless connection? I mean it’s so easy to do, and isn’t that why the technology was developed? So we could “share” internet connections and information. There are so many network devices that enable us to share things online easier and faster. Is this a matter of law, ethics, or both? The definition of stealing, or theft is “the taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it.” If a vandal breaks into your house and steals your television set, he has committed theft. You, the owner, have not given him/her permission to take your property and the most important aspect of theft is that you the owner no longer have possession of your property. But, can a person really steal what you physically never had possession of? A person does not physically own bandwidth, and furthermore, even if someone “steals” connectivity by using someone else’s Wi-Fi, the owner still has their internet connection.
So what’s the big fuss? If one or two people piggyback off of a small business wireless connection, which is primarily and exclusively meant for its customers, will it have a major impact? The answer: Probably Not. One of the major problems lies with the businesses lack of foresight. When WiFi began catching on about 10 years ago devices were made to gain WiFi access for a rather inexpensive cost. Smaller businesses looked at this as way of attracting customers. The strange thing is that it actually worked. Although people could gain the same access at home, they began venturing out and thus the wireless revolution was born. One thing many businesses did not understand was that a wireless “open” connection meant just that. There were wireless “Hotspots” everywhere, but businesses did not know how to secure or monitor them. Although it might have been true they could only speculate that someone was using their internet connection and if it’s publicly accessible, publicly advertised, and unsecure what legal grounds do they actually base its “theft” of bandwidth on?
My belief is that because of the rapid growth of technology, the laws in place that govern computer usage in regard to piggybacking are not well defined. There are laws against the theft or unlawful access of data, but if no data was illegally accessed, what exactly is the crime? This is one of the biggest questions when talking about using another businesses internet. For the record, in most states it is against the law to use a business’s internet connection without their permission. A few examples to note: (1) In March 2007, Sam Peterson of Sparta, MI, was fined $400 and was compelled to perform 40 hours of community service for piggybacking on the unsecured Wi-Fi network of a local café without permission. (2) In March 2006, a judge in Winnebago County, Ill., fined David M. Kauchak $250 and sentenced him to a year of court supervision for accessing the wireless network of a nonprofit organization without permission. It is important to mention that both of the individuals took piggybacking to a whole new level. It was repeated use, not just a “here or there” type instance. Both were also caught in the act by law enforcement as well. Makes for a very strong case wouldn’t you say? But what about the sentencing handed down? Was it too lenient? Did the offenders learn their lesson? Or was the whole thing really blown out of proportion? There was no tampering with data or any illegal activity and Peterson was told he would have been fine if only he walked inside the café. It seems strange that an unsecured network that can be accessed from across the street can land you in legal “hot water”.
Truthfully, most owners of wireless connections don’t even use half of the bandwidth they are allotted from their Internet service Provider (ISP). Robert Hale, a San Francisco lawyer says, “All of this stuff is so new, it's hard to say what the liability issues are.” Legal experts also say that if there are no restrictions to deny access to the general public, it could then be argued that it was thought the connection was there for public use. So if there are so many legal questions regarding the use of someone else’s wireless road to endless information, how can it be perceived as a legal issue? Perhaps it isn’t, yet. Maybe the legal system hasn’t had the opportunity to catch up with the ever growing technology issues, or maybe it views these as minor and chooses to worry about the more “important” issues. Let’s be honest, the world doesn’t fall off of its axis because of piggybacking. Maybe if we look at it from more of an ethical viewpoint, we may begin to understand why this is such a growing concern for the business community.
First, let’s define ethics. Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. There are also computer ethics which are aset of moral principles that regulate the use of computers. Some common issues of computer ethics include intellectual property rights (such as copyrighted electronic content), privacy concerns, and how computers affect our society. The Certified Information Systems Security Professional exam (CISSP) requires that all candidates have a good knowledge and understanding of the ethics. One ethic in particular states that all candidates “Act honorably, honestly, justly, responsibly, and legally”. This “Code of Ethics” was to entrust knowledgeable individuals in the computer world to use their knowledge for good. Now that doesn’t mean that everyone who successfully takes the exam follows the code, but it is simply made known to the individual that there is an industry standard in place and certain behavior is frowned upon within the society. The individuals within the computer society know that although it is a common practice, piggybacking is generally viewed as unethical. No one is physically harmed, but the consensus throughout the community is to use what is yours or what is granted to you. Piggybacking may not be punishable by law, but it is frowned upon by IT professionals worldwide.
The question I pose now is when are the businesses complaining about this infraction be held accountable for their own shortcomings? If you pull out your laptop, tablet or cellphone, how many wireless networks are located by your wireless device? Out of that total, how many are unsecure and able to be accessed? According to a December 2004 study, 60 to 70 percent of all wireless networks are insecure. Although there is lots of information on securing wireless networks, most of this information focuses on corporate networks. This is either because there is a lack of knowledge of how to secure the wireless connection, or a blatant disregard for its importance. So, if the percentages are correct, how can a supposed “violator” be held liable for a business’s negligence? This would equate to moving all of your furniture to the sidewalk in front of your yard and leaving it completely unattended. Pedestrians would begin to wonder if the items were thrown out or just there temporarily. If someone were to take the items how could you take legal action against them? Whether or not they would be found at fault in a court of law isn’t necessarily the point. The point is their defense would probably be a whole lot stronger because of your failure to (1) secure your belongings, and (2) state that your furniture was not free for the taking. The same thing applies to businesses with “FREE WIRELESS INTERNET” plastered on the front of the business. To put it bluntly, if you only want certain individuals to access your internet connection, then SECURE IT.
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