Piggy Backing

From my Introduction to Information Technology class. This assignment was to discuss whether or not Piggybacking (using someone else's wireless connection without them knowing) was ethical or not. Written as a group project.

When the Mayo Spills Over: A Piggybacking Story

Piggybacking is when someone accesses another person’s WIFI internet connection without permission. Often times, the person paying the bill for the WIFI connection is not even aware others may be stealing from them. In this instance a coffee shop owner, Rebecca, believes her next-door neighbor, the sandwich shop owner Sneaky Ed, is encouraging his patrons to use her WIFI. In this case of Rebecca and Sneaky Ed, Rebecca should take steps to protect herself from piggybacking neighbors. Why? At the least, the coffee shop’s internet connection will be slowed down by additional users, but also “any cyberattack or illegal behavior a hacker initiates from your wireless network could get you in trouble with the authorities” (Evans et al., 2020, p. 263). To protect herself from these inconveniences and illegal behavior, Rebecca should secure her WIFI.

First, Rebecca must find out if the sandwich shop patrons are indeed piggybacking on her WIFI. One way to do this is for Rebecca to shut down all of her own communicating devices, and then she can see if her router’s connectivity lights are still blinking. This may not be easily done if she must do it during opening hours or may not be possible due to constantly connected devices like a security system. Alternatively, Rebecca could download and deploy WIFI use detection software such as Fing, WIFI Thief Detector, or Wireless Network Watcher as suggested by Lacoma in the Digital Trends article (2020, section Method 1: Use an App). This will reveal to her which devices are connected to her WIFI at any given time without interrupting her daily operations.

Rebecca’s legal options are slim. Legislation does exist stating that piggybacking is illegal. According to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) it could be considered illegal depending on the specific situation; however, it is a gray area because this law was written decades ago, is quite broad, and doesn’t explicitly mention piggybacking (Jarrett et al., 2015; LaMance, 2018). Depending on the state and city in which Rebecca’s shop resides there could be stricter laws about WIFI piggybacking, or there could be no laws. Penalties range from fines to felonies (LaMance, 2018). Because the law is a gray area, unless a sandwich patron does something more nefarious with the WIFI (like hacking into her business computer and stealing banking information) than simply browsing the internet, Rebecca might not have much of a legal case with which to follow through.

Rather than addressing the legality of piggybacking, there are several steps Rebecca can take to secure her wireless internet from unwanted neighbors. She could set up two Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs); one for the public to access, and one for her business computers. “A business-grade secure access point for your team, and a public one for customers… [will isolate] your business’s computers from guests, providing an extra layer of protection” (Jones, 2020, section 7). For her public SSID, Rebecca can change the network name to something unique to her own shop (Evans et al., 2020, p. 263). If she names the coffee shop’s public network name after her own unique shop’s name, it may stop inadvertent use of her WIFI from sandwich shop visitors. It may also cause concern amongst moral sandwich shop goers, perhaps even to the point of them asking Sneaky Ed why they are being encouraged to use the neighboring coffee shop’s WIFI. By not changing the name of the network “it’s advertising the fact that you probably haven’t changed any of the other default settings for your router either” (Evans et al, 2020, p. 263) making it possible for Sneaky Ed to guess her default password, too.

Furthermore, Rebecca cannot disable her public SSID broadcast because she would “have to re-enable this setting” (Evans et al., 2020, p. 263) every time a new coffee shop customer wanted to use the WIFI; she could disable broadcasting her SSID for her business computers, though. Instead, she can create a password to log-on to her public SSID; by changing “the password on your router to something hard to guess” (Evans et al., 2020, p. 263) Sneaky Ed can no longer encourage his patrons to use the coffee shop’s WIFI because they will not know the password. Only giving the WIFI password via verbal instructions when asked by a coffee shop patron, rather than posting it where anyone can see, will also help prevent WIFI theft. Finally, the password can also be changed weekly or bi-weekly so that if Sneaky Ed catches wind of it, it will not work for long.

Oftentimes, computers are described as being houses. Rebecca’s house was unlocked, and Sneaky Ed told his sandwich patrons it was okay to walk into her home. However, that is still trespassing. Furthermore, Sneaky Ed is encouraging the stealing of profits from Rebecca’s ISP; if he signed up for his own account, he would pay his own bill to the ISP generating revenue for them, but clearly, he is avoiding doing that. Sneaky Ed’s patrons are also reducing bandwidth for Rebecca and her customers, which is another way they are stealing from her. According to deontological ethics, what Sneaky Ed and his patrons are doing is wrong because it goes against a common moral code held up (albeit loosely) by federal law (Evans et al., 2020, p. 22).

If Rebecca is not comfortable with this level of technology, such as setting up two SSIDs on one router or how to change the passwords, she can contact her ISP who can help walk her through the process. She will need the information from her physical router and her ISP username/password combination to log in for help, but the ISP should help her with the rest of her work. Protecting her business from unwanted WIFI piggybacking is important, and she should waste no time taking steps to protect this valuable asset. Allowing the sandwich shop patrons to piggyback on her WIFI can also be a violation of her ISP’s contract, so the ISP should be more than willing to help her secure her WIFI.

References

Evans, A., Martin, K., & Poatsey, M. A. (2020). Technology in action [eBook edition]. (16th ed.). Pearson.

Jarret, H.M., Bailie, M.W., Hagen, E., and Eltringham, S. (2015). Prosecuting Computer Crimes: OLE Litigation Series. Justice.gov. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-ccips/legacy/2015/01/14/ccmanual.pdf

Jones, M. (2020). 10 ways to secure your business WiFi network. CoxBlue. https://www.coxblue.com/10-steps-to-take-right-now-to-secure-your-business-wifi-network/

Lacoma, T. (2020, October 8). How to tell if someone is stealing your Wi-Fi. Digital Trends. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-using-your-wi-fi/

LaMance, K. (2018, June 6). Wi-Fi connection laws. Legal Match. https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/wi-fi-connection-laws.html



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