Quote:
Originally Posted by TorchWood
Nothing is secure, it takes a very little Linux knowledge and a script to crack nearly all Wifi networks... From what I've heard its in fact common practice amongst "hackers" to do this and use your internet connection to break the law. So even if you lock it, makes no difference.
*knock knock*
87 year old woman with arthritis answers the door... "yeeees"
"hello m'am, we have evidence that you have hacked the pentagon, you're under arrest"
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As the legal theory here goes, the difference between leaving your router wide open and having it hacked is that if you password protect your router, that is an example of taking "reasonable care," whereas leaving it wide open is not.
If you password protect your router, the hacker has to engage in an overtly illegal act just in order to access the wifi; as such, there's no way a court is going to say you were negligent in that scenario.
I'm not saying I necessarily
agree with theory of negligence being proposed here, just that under that theory, there's a big (and likely dispositive) difference between an entirely unsecured router and one that has been password protected and has to be compromised in order for illegal use of it by third parties to take place.