Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Half Naked War Driver Arrested

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 17:46:44 -0500

Half Naked War Driver Arrested
Contributed by mmasnick on Mon, Nov 24 2003

Ok, lots of people are picking up on this story (for obvious reasons) so we
won't spend too much time on it. A guy in Canada was apparently pulled over
while driving and promptly arrested for (a) driving the wrong way down a one way
street (b) driving without any pants on (c) using a laptop while driving (d)
using that laptop to download child porn (e) which he accessed via a free WiFi
connection. Okay, clearly the guy deserves to be arrested and probably put away
for quite some time for the child porn stuff (and the driving stuff). However,
most of the articles are focusing on the war-driving part, which makes no sense
to me. There are a ton of terrible things that this guy did, and war-driving is
extraordinarily low down on that list and, some could argue, possibly legal
(remember, there are sites that give away WiFi for free on purpose). The police
(and everyone else) should focus on the real crimes that this guy committed, and
not the media-attention-getting charge of war driving.

================================================================================

Half-naked driver faces Net charge

2003-11-22 03:44:50

TORONTO -- A half-naked man
found driving on a city street was
arrested and charged with child
porn offences this week in the first
Canadian case involving wireless
Internet signal piracy, police said
yesterday. The bizarre case began
when a Toronto police officer
spotted a motorist going the wrong
way down a one-way street in a
residential neighbourhood.

After pulling the man over, Sgt. Don
Woods discovered the man was
naked from the waist down as he
downloaded images on a laptop
computer of a young girl involved in
a sex act with an adult.

Investigation showed the man had hooked into a wireless computer network at a
nearby house to gain access to a resident's Internet connection and download
images from child pornography websites.
The scheme, known as "war driving," allows a computer with wireless Internet
capability to tap into a wireless home network and access the World Wide Web,
usually without fear of discovery.

"We have never laid a (war driving-related) charge before," Det.-Sgt. Paul
Gillespie said yesterday.
"And I'm not aware of any similar charges being laid in Canada," Gillespie said.

Gillespie said detectives from the child exploitation section made arrangements
with the OPP to search the suspect's home in Southwestern Ontario.
"We seized 10 computers . . . and hundreds of CDs and floppy disks," he said.
"Right now, I would say we are looking at hundreds of thousands of images."

Gillespie said it will take 20 to 40 hours to forensically examine each
computer, but so far, investigators have been exposed to some of the worst child
pornography they've ever seen.

"Right down to very young children and babies," he said.

Walter Nowakowski, 36, of Delhi, is charged with possession of child
pornography, accessing child pornography, distributing child pornography, making
child pornography and theft of telecommunications.
He was being held in custody and was scheduled for a bail hearing Monday.

So-called "war drivers" employ a laptop and a special wireless adaptor card with
antenna, point it at a home or business and pick up transmissions from a router
that will allow them to use computer equipment and access the Internet without
permission.
Routers that link wireless systems can pick up a signal from 30 to 300 metres
away.

Wireless systems that can be purchased for as little as $100 have built-in
security features, but some people don't activate them when setting up,
Gillespie said, warning users to read the instructions that come with the
equipment.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2003/11/22/264890.html

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