Master of Disinformation: Ben Tinsley : Star-Telegram Staff Writer

[blackwave]

Originally stolen from: http://forums.netstumbler.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4355

Let me know if you can stomach this article:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/4175778.htm

Feel free to write your thoughts to:
btinsley@star-telegram.com

...Ben will reply but do not expect anything more than a "thank you for your viewpoint" brush off...

[Chris]

Here is a portion of the email I sent him:

<snip>

As for your article, I would like to point out a few inaccurate points:

You state: "but they aren't computer hackers. They're security advocates"

I was not aware that these are mutually exclusive. Most security
professionals proudly classify themselves as hackers. Hackers are simply
individuals that strive to learn how a system (often a computer system)
works and why. The media in general has bought into the Hollywood
propagated use of the term "hacker" to imply that some criminal activity
is involved.

You state: "It's called wardriving -- randomly searching for open signals
to acquire free wireless Internet service."
Where in the world did you get this definition? Searching for access
points and mapping them out is wardriving. Going beyond that to access a
network that an individual doesn't have authorization to is criminal
activity. Wardriving is not a crime. Accessing a network without
authorization in most cases is a crime. They are not the same thing.

You quoted Sanders: "The terms wardriving and warchalking were taken from
the early 1980s practice of wardialing, which involved using computer and
sometimes telephone systems to get free phone service, Sanders said."

You should have checked your source. WarDriving takes it's name from
WarDialing, that is correct. WarDialing comes from the technique
demonstrated by Mathew Broderick's character David Lightman in the movie
WarGames. Lightman used an auto-dialing program to locate all of the
modems connected to telephone lines in a certain exchange. This is
WarDialing, which as you can see draws a close parallel to WarDriving.
Mapping out networks by phone-mapping out networks by Access Point.
WarDialing had absolutely nothing to do with getting free phone service.

I don't understand why so many in the media have latched onto the idea of
WarChalking either. Most people in the Information Security community
(many of whom are also WarDrivers) find WarChalking to be completely
silly. If you had bothered to interview a source other than a 15 year old
boy you might have found this out for yourself.

</snip>

His response was a simple two sentence, one line "thanks for reading I appreciate your viewpoint" email.

I think that the problem lies right there. He thinks FACTS are VIEWPOINTS.

[converge]

And here it is... I have sent the response to a few people :)

http://www.lostboxen.net/btinsley.txt

The email addresses are broken in half, 99 in each to make a dead 100 per email if you bcc yourself or someone like you.

I will also post any responses I receive as I get them...

[KeLviN]

damn the man