Wireless Piggybacking / Mooching case sets precedent

When 17-year-old Garyl Tan Jia Luo piggybacked on his neighbour's unsecured wireless Internet network to chat online, he could not have imagined that in doing so he would make Asian legal history. Information technology (IT) experts and lawyers say Tan was the first in Singapore, and possibly Asia, to be sentenced in court for "wireless mooching," or piggybacking on an unsecured wireless network to surf the Internet.

Tech-savvy Singapore, one of Asia's most wired nations, appears to be the regional pioneer in clamping down on wireless network freeloaders. It open the floodgates for similar prosecutions in the future. Countries may place a lower priority on wireless mooching than on hacking and more severe technology-related crimes, unlike Singapore, some may not even have clear laws prohibiting wireless piggybacking.

Residential wireless networks are more vulnerable to piggybackers than corporate networks because only about 40 to 50 percent of home networks are secured, compared with 80 to 90 percent for corporate wireless.

Many freeloaders regard the act as harmless, while others may not even be aware they are committing an offence. piggybacking can happen easily because computers sometimes automatically search for the strongest signal. Therefore, may not be aware when the piggybacking is happening, let alone (that he is) committing a crime. Home users who pay for unlimited Internet access would also not be bothered if others tap into their bandwidth, they just merely suffers a minor drop in Internet speed.

Garyl Tan's case has emphasised the need for tighter & heightens wireless network security awareness. Guess what, he was arrested by a passer-by call to the police that inform them of a suspicious teenager sitting by the road using his laptop late at night. Moral of the story, stay off the road during late hours..