Roving Cyber Criminals?

[Chris]

Just as an FYI, here is the correspondence I had with the genius that wrote this story....


___________________________________________
Chris, Thanks for taking the time to write. You are referring to a
follow up report to a series of special reports I did on the insecurity
of improperly installed home wireless computer networks and people who
are out there to exploit them. I assure you that I consulted with more
than a few sources for my reports. I have reviewed some of the web
sites and organizations you mention. It may come as no surprise to you
that without exception the law enforcement, computer security and
computer/IT support professionals I spoke with view war drivers very
differently than war drivers view them selves.
I appreciate your e-mail and time. I look forward to seeing your book.
Thank you,
Rich Van Wyk
rvanwyk@wthr.com
317-655-5793


-----Original Message-----
From: roamer [mailto:roamer@worldwidewardrive.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 9:02 AM
To: Richard G. Van Wyk
Subject: Your Story (Police on the lookout for cyber crimes)

Mr. Van Wyk,

My name is Chris Hurley. I am also known as roamer in the Wireless
Security community. I am a Security Engineer working in the Washington
DC
are and am the author of the forthcoming book "WarDriving: Drive,
Detect,
Defend. A Guide to Wireless Security" to be published by Syngress
Publishing on April 1st.

I recently became aware of your story Police on the lookout for cyber
crimes (http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.as...mp;nav=9TahKyMs).

I found your story very disturbing as it is apparent that you listened
to
one source, Eric Klinkowski, to arrive at your erroneous definition of
WarDriving.

The proper (and generally accepted within the security community)
definition of WarDriving is:

"WarDriving is the act of moving around a specific area and mapping the
population of wireless access points for statistical purposes. These
statistics are then used to raise awareness of the security problems
associated with these types of networks (typically wireless). The
commonly
accepted definition of WarDriving among those who are actually
practitioners is that WarDriving is not exclusive of surveillance and
research by automobile - WarDriving is accomplished by anyone moving
around a certain area looking for data."

As you can see, this is a far cry from the "cyber thieves" that you make
WarDrivers out to be.

I run the WorldWide WarDrive (www.worldwidewardrive.org) an annual event
where members of the wireless security community participate in
attempting
to raise an awareness of many of the problems that are noted in your
story
such as unsecured wireless networks and wireless access points deployed
with default settings.

You should also be aware that warchalking is largely looked at in the
wireless community as a falsehood. I spoke at the DefCon Security
conference last year about the WorldWide WarDrive to an audience of
about
800 WarDrivers. I asked the question if ANYONE in the room had ever
seen
an actual warchalking symbol. As expected, only one person had, and it
turned out to be at a Starbucks...that had marked their OWN wireless
hotspot.

Please feel free to read through the Frequently Asked Questions document
at the WorldWide WarDrive site
(http://www.worldwidewardrive.org/faq.html)
to get a better idea of what WarDrivers actually are.

Please feel free to join in discussions with ACTUAL WarDrivers at the
NetStumbler Forums (http://forums.netstumbler.com/) or the WorldWide
WarDrive Forums (http://www.c2security.org/forums/wwwd/).


Also, a repository of information is available at WarDriver Central
(http://www.wardrivercentral.org/).

By perusing any of these links, and actually talking to the
practitioners
of WarDriving, many of whom are current and or former law enforcement
and
government employees, you will see that you have made an error in your
characterization of WarDrivers as thieves when in reality, they are the
exact opposite.


Thank you,

Chris Hurley (aka Roamer)
roamer@worldwidewardrive.org

[lil_freak]

You can "catch" WarDrivers all you want. They aren't doing anything illegal. WarDriving is not a crime (hmm..). Once a person accesses a wireless network without authorization he has ceased to be a WarDriver and has become a criminal. The two should not be confused.

Chris is right.

I know that the Computer Crimes Detectives from Colorado could care less if your WarDriving.

Actually, they love to go out WarDriving themselves and they look at Wardriving like this: “if your not accessing the the networks you find, then your good to go”.

(This comes from a first hand experience with my "friends" at the CSPD and my WarDriving frolicking :D )

[KeLviN]

chris,
you're publishing a book?! why have you hidden this from me?!


on topic: 2 things, the last line re. targeting the hardware alone concerns me.... and 2, his reply to your letter didn't actually correct or explain any of the bs or misconceptions..... i'm kinda getting sick of shock TV "news"......

[Floydr47]

Slow down there champ. You are making the same incredibly short sighted and incorrect assumption that the chump who penned this piece of garbage story did.

You can "catch" WarDrivers all you want. They aren't doing anything illegal. WarDriving is not a crime (hmm..). Once a person accesses a wireless network without authorization he has ceased to be a WarDriver and has become a criminal. The two should not be confused.

Be careful how you use terminology or you will cease to "own" it. This is apparent with the word hacker that has been taken from us and given over to the sheeple who think that "hackers" are out to destroy the world with a quick game of Global Thermo Nuclear Warfare.

In my humble opinion, a Security Professional who hacks with the intent of improving security is a person providing a worthwhile and needed service to the entire IT community. A "hacker", who hacks to do damage to websites or to play other childish games IS a criminal. In the past I have had to deal with damage done to my personal computer by hackers. It always ended up costing me money. Sites like this one have helped me to defend my property. This is how I distinguish between "hackers" and Security Professionals. Many people are unaware of the difference because they have not been fortunate enough to meet people like the ones in this forum.

[JiTRiF]

In my humble opinion, a Security Professional who hacks with the intent of improving security is a person providing a worthwhile and needed service to the entire IT community. A "hacker", who hacks to do damage to websites or to play other childish games IS a criminal. In the past I have had to deal with damage done to my personal computer by hackers. It always ended up costing me money. Sites like this one have helped me to defend my property. This is how I distinguish between "hackers" and Security Professionals. Many people are unaware of the difference because they have not been fortunate enough to meet people like the ones in this forum.

Note: What you labeled as a "hacker" is actually a cracker, what you labeled as an "IT professional" is what a real hacker is.

[Webster]

You can "catch" WarDrivers all you want. They aren't doing anything illegal. WarDriving is not a crime (hmm..). Once a person accesses a wireless network without authorization he has ceased to be a WarDriver and has become a criminal. The two should not be confused.

This is apparent with the word hacker that has been taken from us and given over to the sheeple who think that "hackers" are out to destroy the world with a quick game of Global Thermo Nuclear Warfare.

War Driving isnt a crime, nor is it to have the equipment to do so. Media pisses me off, the word "hacker" has been abused and mis-used. "War Games" is a turning point in which normal people think hackers can make a few phone calls and start a whole war. "Hacker" is associated with anything and everything to do with computer crime >:/

-Also how much does your book cost? Im deffinately going to buy it, unless i win the wwwd logo contest 8-)

[murakami]

chris,
you're publishing a book?! why have you hidden this from me?!

I saw a copy at O'Reillys ETCON in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. Tres cool, non?

[Grifter]

I saw a copy at O'Reillys ETCON in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. Tres cool, non?

The book is not being published by O'Reilly, it's being published by Syngress. And isn't going to be released until April 1st. If you did indeed see a copy of this book, then my review copy is late.

[murakami]

The book is not being published by O'Reilly, it's being published by Syngress. And isn't going to be released until April 1st. If you did indeed see a copy of this book, then my review copy is late.

The book table also had Syngress books (one of the smaller publishers with an agreement with O'Reilly ). There seems to be a series of wireless books with a simiilar titles like Wireless Stuff: Drive and Defend. Chris announced the book a month ago so the title caught my eye while passing by the table.

[ch0l0man]

i dont partake in wardriving but i will be buying chris's book, support of our community is of utmost importance. :D

[highwizard]

Note: What you labeled as a "hacker" is actually a cracker, what you labeled as an "IT professional" is what a real hacker is.

I understand it now... You're one of those kids who read a book after seeing the movie hackers and thought it would be cool to be a "hacker" or atleast "hang out" with them.

[Chris]

In my humble opinion, a Security Professional who hacks with the intent of improving security is a person providing a worthwhile and needed service to the entire IT community. A "hacker", who hacks to do damage to websites or to play other childish games IS a criminal. In the past I have had to deal with damage done to my personal computer by hackers. It always ended up costing me money. Sites like this one have helped me to defend my property. This is how I distinguish between "hackers" and Security Professionals. Many people are unaware of the difference because they have not been fortunate enough to meet people like the ones in this forum.

I have to say that this response is a perfect example of exactly what I am talking about. Floydr47 has completely misrepresented hackers.

Hacking is good.
Hackers are good.
Crimials are not.

Hackers are not criminals.
By refering to "hackers" that damage websites you are applying a misnomer. Criminals damage web sites. Hackers do not.

[Chris]

The book table also had Syngress books (one of the smaller publishers with an agreement with O'Reilly ). There seems to be a series of wireless books with a simiilar titles like Wireless Stuff: Drive and Defend. Chris announced the book a month ago so the title caught my eye while passing by the table.

Syngress has had the posters for the book out at cons for a couple of months now. I told them to send one to my mom...hell, she deserves one for all the pre-orders she's made :)

[JiTRiF]

I understand it now... You're one of those kids who read a book after seeing the movie hackers and thought it would be cool to be a "hacker" or atleast "hang out" with them.

Nope, not at all.

[renderman]

Syngress has had the posters for the book out at cons for a couple of months now. I told them to send one to my mom...hell, she deserves one for all the pre-orders she's made :)

Everyone order the book on April 1st from Amazon and lets see if we can screw with thier rating system and get the book to #1.

Stupid I know, but could be fun.