Does harmful "hacking" make me mean?

[Turboaaa2001]

So heres whats up. Today before I left for work I was bored and decided to mess around with my wife's computer (WinXP)

I looked at what wireless networks were in range and found a new one that popped up. It is an 802.11G Linksys router and I was so far away that I got a 1Mbs (128KBs) connection.

So I first connect and try to connect to his computer (according to DHCP he had 1 computer connected through WiFi) However his computer must have been turned off or he had it at work.

I then connected to his router using default credentials
User: Admin
Pass: Admin

I changed his SSID from "Linksys" to "I hacked your router!!!"
Then I changed his password from "Admin" to "666"
I then decided to erase all his internet settings so that even if he got in he would still need to enter the information.

My wife is really upset with me and says that I'm mean and I needed to change everything back. Of course I didn't because people need to learn to listen when people tell them to secure their networks.

So many times have I gotten a response such as "I don't care if someone uses my internet" or "I have a password on my computer".

Now, if I find a network that is unsecure I take it down but not steal info. This is a teaching tool to either get "those kinds" of people to get secure or to abandon tech all-together.

Would you consider this "evil", "bad", or mean. Vote above and/or voice your opinion.

[-Ghost9-]

i'm sure that person is probably wondering what happened, but yeah, you're a prick. :)

[ltk5]

I won't go into any deeper philosophy... just one question.

Who gave _you_ the right to mess with other people's property?

[Lord Illidan]

Yes, you're a prick.

What you should have done is go to him with the information you got, and scared the guts out of him. Maliciously changing his settings makes you look like a prick.

[cmat]

I've been pulling jokes like that for a while. No one gets hurt and everyone has a good laugh. As long as it's not malicious. And you do it to people that can take the joke.

[Adamant1988]

No, it doesn't make you mean, but it does make me wish I knew who you were so I could report you to the authorities.

If you want to teach someone to secure their network, why don't you send them a message of some kind rather than screwing with their router?

What you did was immature, and stupid.

Also, it fails to make you '1337' in any way shape or form, signing into someone's router using default pass and all that is well.. easy. I honestly wouldn't consider this 'hacking', most script kiddies could do better.

[bigyoy]

well in this case I would say you did him a favor. It's a bit of an ethical grey spot as you shouldn't have changed his settings but it's better that you stopped at what you did and now someone else can't do it. If you knew the guy then you should have told him.

The funny thing is, I bet he will think the "I hacked your router" belongs to someone else and will be wondering where his ""Linksys" one is!

[~LoKe]

That was a jackass thing to do and it gives hackers a bad reputation. What's worse is you didn't even hack it, you just walked in and screwed around.

If I walk into your room and delete all your files and go "haha, I'm just teaching you a lesson: make backups next time", would you think it's all good and cool?

[tdrusk]

Why would you do that? That person just wanted to have a wireless network. It would be like someone going up to your car and slashing the tire to teach you you should always have a spare. Just leave people alone.

[Tomosaur]

Well for one it's illegal, and two yes you're a prick. It's none of your business whether someone doesn't take full security measures except when that person's negligence causes harm to you. The right thing to do would have been to tell your neighbour that you noticed his network wasn't secure, then offered to secure it for him.

[Ozor Mox]

I agree with the people that say you should have told this person that their network was unsecured, if possible. If it was not possible, then you should have left it alone. Other people may have claimed that they don't care that their wireless networks are unsecured, but this person may have just not been very technically minded and set up a WEP/WPA or router password yet. All you've done is probably caused them an evening of frustration trying to figure out what went wrong.

[goumples]

I would be overjoyed to learn that the guy you messed with a IT professional and came back at you hacking you so hard that your computer burst into flames. :popcorn:

[reyfer]

I can tell you this: if you come to my town, and do that to me, I won't report you to the authorities, I will hunt you down (yes, even that "innocent" thing you did leaves traces), tie you up, smile politely at you, keeping my language clean, and then leave a note telling you that you should secure your "backdoor"

[ltk5]

... All you've done is probably caused them an evening of frustration trying to figure out what went wrong.

This reminds me of a story about me and my router, which I can't seem to understand and which gave me a lot of problems.
And I don't think I ever will understand it, because I'm not interested in it.
So someone configured it for me...

Now imagine someone deleted all these settings.
You would actually ruin my whole week if not more,
and I wouldn't care about my router's security not even a bit more...

[Turboaaa2001]

First I want to explain the hacking part. I used that word because people who do not know the diff will understand what I was talking about. That is also why I placed it in parenthesis, because thats not really hacking. I see hacking as editing the TiVo software to work on a bigger hard drive.

As far as my question goes, I fully understand that this is something that will upset people. I have no idea who the guy, or gal, is so I can't just walk up to them.

Something I forgot to mention is that I also send text messages and print jobs to their printers saying "Secure your network". That will scare them :popcorn: and get the message across.

Now if it became apearent that people started to not carry spares with then spraypainting on someone's tires to get a spare is no problem. It costs the same and does no harrm (except upset someone)

[reyfer]

First I want to explain the hacking part. I used that word because people who do not know the diff will understand what I was talking about. That is also why I placed it in parenthesis, because thats not really hacking. I see hacking as editing the TiVo software to work on a bigger hard drive.

As far as my question goes, I fully understand that this is something that will upset people. I have no idea who the guy, or gal, is so I can't just walk up to them.

Something I forgot to mention is that I also send text messages and print jobs to their printers saying "Secure your network". That will scare them :popcorn: and get the message across.

Now if it became apearent that people started to not carry spares with then spraypainting on someone's tires to get a spare is no problem. It costs the same and does no harrm (except upset someone)

Then again, when and how was the voting process that elected YOU as the person in charge of enforcing what YOU think should be done? I have no problem with you giving advise, but to mess with other people's property is unacceptable.

[Adamant1988]

You disrupted a person's network in order to teach them a lesson. Now, if the person didn't know how to secure it in the first place, what do you think the odds are that they'll know how to fix the damage you did, and THEN secure the network.

No, they're going to probably end up PAYING someone to do it. Meaning you have caused monetary damage to them, and I seriously hope the next time you do this you get caught and fined for it.

[proalan]

Wooow, calm down with the bashing

OK I agree it was a terrible thing to do but some of you guys are being way to abusive in your replies.

The best thing to do would be to apologize to your neighbor and fix up his / her network. If your honest with yourself you probably did it for the power trip (with the 666 signature etc...) rather than with the intent to make him / her aware of the lack of security.

[walkerk]

This is a pretty stupid post. Why mess with people?

Oh.. and this is hardly "hacking"...

[cmat]

There is a router on my block called "Keep Out" and "Please don't hack". These guys need to learn about WEP keys.

[Turboaaa2001]

This is why I decided to start this thread. I respect this community and am willing to listen to what others have to say about this.

I'm a guy who will be willing to change how he goes about things. So far I realize that this kind of behaviour is not excepted by my peers. With this in mind I will re-examin what I do and how I do it.

I appreciate all your critisims! I really do!

FYI: I would never get caught. What I do may be wrong but I know who to hit and how to do it. I cover all my tracks and it's very easy to do it with wireless.

[Gadren]

I say you went overboard. When I was in high school, when I saw people leaving their computers unlocked for a long time, or left them logged in when they went to their next class, I would insert a flash drive that copied a small text file into their student folder reminding them to keep their stuff secure. I almost never copied stuff from their folder, and I NEVER deleted info.

It's important to keep in mind your purpose in doing this. For me, it was a desire to lift up those around me by making them more tech-aware (my time in the school's Web Design class showed me how incompetent so many of the students were about computers). So I would never act maliciously.

[walkerk]

This is why I decided to start this thread. I respect this community and am willing to listen to what others have to say about this.

I'm a guy who will be willing to change how he goes about things. So far I realize that this kind of behaviour is not excepted by my peers. With this in mind I will re-examin what I do and how I do it.

I appreciate all your critisims! I really do!

FYI: I would never get caught. What I do may be wrong but I know who to hit and how to do it. I cover all my tracks and it's very easy to do it with wireless.

Uhm. If you believe you couldn't be caught your wrong. Trust me. This is part of my field..

[Turboaaa2001]

Uhm. If you believe you couldn't be caught your wrong. Trust me. This is part of my field..

Um, ya. I've done this for years and have a degree in IT Network Security. Of course any one can be caught, but the proper precausions make it almost imposible.

Changing all the info on my wifes computer that shows up, ensuring that the logs that are left on the router are either generic or are deleted, and swapping everything back to my network when I'm done. The guy could hunt down signals except I'm with several other networks all around me.

But thats not what this is about, I just wanted honest feedback form my peers.

[aks44]

If your intention really had been to make your neighbour aware of his flawed security, you would have found other ways than disrupting his network.

Knowledge (even as limited as being able to "crack" a WiFi router) comes with responsability.

You tried to play the white hat, and ended up being a script kiddie.

[Gremlinzzz]

: Does harmful "hacking" make me mean?I think you answered your own question.If a neighbour left his door unlocked would you go in and graffiti his home. well you did!Look your a cracker your not a hacker.
:guitar:
Cracker (computing), a person who engages in illegal or unethical circumvention of computer security systems (through passwords, systems or security, or software)

[walkerk]

Um, ya. I've done this for years and have a degree in IT Network Security. Of course any one can be caught, but the proper precausions make it almost imposible.

Changing all the info on my wifes computer that shows up, ensuring that the logs that are left on the router are either generic or are deleted, and swapping everything back to my network when I'm done. The guy could hunt down signals except I'm with several other networks all around me.

But thats not what this is about, I just wanted honest feedback form my peers.

I would understand such behaviour from a teenage kid living upstairs..

I'm a Network Engineer and I work for the US Governement Computer/Network Forensics.. regardless..

You're behavior is childish.. Not a bash on you as a person. Just re-think your actions.. Perhaps go find them and teach them Network Security. :/

[PartisanEntity]

What you did was wrong for many reasons, you seem intelligent enough to know this, so I hope you did not post this hear to brag in any way.

1. What you did constitutes a crime, at least here in Austria for example.

2. From a pedagogic perspective what you did was primitive, it is like wanting to teach someone how to sky-dive, so you make them wear a parachute and then push them out of the plane with no warning or training. The result in most cases will be shock and they won't want to approach this topic ever again.

3. What you did invaded the privacy of another human being. People have the right to have an unsecured network no matter what the reason. It is not your business to mess with their property.

You have no idea if this user just did not have the time to set up the router, if they were a total newbie or if they left it open for some specific reason.

4. You took matters into your own hands without anyone asking you to do anything. You were not invited or asked to 'teach' anyone a lesson.

I could go on, but this thread is just too damn annoying. I really get annoyed with people who barge in somewhere assuming a role no one gave them and who think they have some God given mission in life to manage other peoples lives.

Try to use your knowledge for more helpful and productive means. If every time someone leaves their house door open, or forgets to lock their car we break into them and mess them up then we will end up with messed up societies.

If you really must act like a 'know it all' you could have merely sent a message to their printer informing them that they should secure their network, this alone would have been sufficient, you did not have to be an @$$ about it.

Please grow up fast.

[BDNiner]

WOW, you should not consider yourself an IT professional because there is nothing professional about what you did. And unless you spoofed your mac address and they can't contact the manufacturer of your NIC, then there is a reasonable possibilty that you can get caught if you continue to do this.

And legally this is hacking, even though they left the front door open, your entry was unauthorised and therefore illegal. You guessed the password to your neighbour's device and then acted in a malicious manner.

At least that is my 2 cents on the matter.

[Adamant1988]

WOW, you should not consider yourself an IT professional because there is nothing professional about what you did. And unless you spoofed your mac address and they can't contact the manufacturer of your NIC, then there is a reasonable possibilty that you can get caught if you continue to do this.

And legally this is hacking, even though they left the front door open, your entry was unauthorised and therefore illegal. You guessed the password to your neighbour's device and then acted in a malicious manner.

At least that is my 2 cents on the matter.

Right, what he did was the rough equivalent to guessing where someone keeps the key hidden on their porch, entering the house, leaving some notes about security, and changing the locks.

[aks44]

What saddens me most is that not less than 4 people in this poll don't know what "ethics" mean.

[rickyjones]

It's wrong and illegal - how can you consider it "OK" to have done this?

Do you own it? No - keep your hands off of it unless you have permission.

It's a very simple concept, I suggest learning it.

-Richard

[Darkhack]

Had you just changed the SSID to "I hacked your router" and left the password alone, I think it would be okay because he could get back in and fix it. It's not the fact that you hacked him that makes you an ***, it's the fact that rather than just "letting him know" you decided to screw up his entire setup. Do you see the difference?

BTW, I stole your car. I guess you should have implemented better security.

[Kingsley]

Messing with neighbor's router and bragging online = automatic FAIL

[toupeiro]

Congratulations. Your "hack" has proven nothing worthwhile to anybody.

The funniest thing about this is you automatically assume that its "his" router. For all you know, you just screwed up some nice old grandmothers router who does nothing more than download recipes for snickerdoodles from the food network... That doesn't make you cool, or prove that you have any more aptitude than being able to type something in google and click "I'm Feeling Lucky". It proves you're lame, you're mean and you have an "I think I am better than you" complex, and would rather hurt somebody than help them. A Hacker would have found the other machine on that open network (waited until it was online another time), and broadcast a message to it telling them how to protect themselves. It is a "router" you know, so you can set some route statements to a web server that you host and securely cloak with a nice little webpage telling them how to do it and reset her route statements. Heck, write a script for the route statements if you think they are too complex, and give her a link to download it! She may have even given you some snickerdoodles for your time and efforts in helping an old lady. Then, I would have tipped my hat to you and said, nice hack! Instead, you chose what you did.. You were probably picked on as a kid, and never got over it, so you take your frustrations out on wireless routers of sweet old ladies who pinch cheeks and smells like grandma.


Real hackers aren't trying to harm anyone, belittle anyone, or destroy anything. They are out there to learn and understand how things work. What you did is at about the level of an angsty 16 year old who thinks it will earn him some clout amongst his friends.

Stick to watching Hackers, The Net and Live Free or Die Hard, and leave the "hacking" to people who still remember what it means.

[Afoot]

Wow, you're an ***.

[Wiebelhaus]

and then telling people on the Internet makes you a prick more so than pranking some poor dude.

[Bungo Pony]

I could understand doing something like this to a person who has owed you money for a long period of time (and has no plans of paying you back), but to a person you don't even know? What's the point in that?

The "hackers" that were innovative were the more interesting and amazing ones... the ones who knew how to get out of paying long distance charges to download games from Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s. But sabotaging something for the hell of it? If you feel the need to destroy something for the sole purpose of destroying it, format your hard drive or something.

[init1]

Do you know him? If it was a prank, I don't see any issue. But I guess it is kind of mean. But honestly, I do see the temptation of hacking, not to cause harm, but to prove that I can. You may want to change it back. Especially if you don't know him.
Edit:
I guess maybe it is a bit more serious then this. There are better ways to alert someone on the severity of security. You should change it back, and not do it again.

[MetalMusicAddict]

Yes. You're a tool. It's better to just send him a note in his print queue or find his house and help him.

[Redache]

Jesus.

Who gave you the right to play with other people's things? Who gave you the right to destroy someone else's property?.

What gives you the ******* right to screw around with someone you don't even know?

This is so pointless. All you did was change his password, it's not hacking its taking advantage of someone who doesn't have the same level of knowledge as you. They are known as asshats and you sir are an ******.

You have no right, no right at all to touch anything anybody else owns.

If you want to teach people about security start a weekly meeting where you discuss security matters with your neighbors.

How about I break in to your house and kill your wife, that'll teach you to not have her secure and passworded.

Christ.

[Turboaaa2001]

Ok, do you guys feel better?

What makes you think I'm here braging about it? I clearly stated why I posted, so whats the point of berating me? I've stated that I'm curious about what the community has to say about this and that what I did was not hacking.

I've explained this all so will you please just be patient with me.

Is what I did childish? Yes, very much so.

Do I condiser my self an IT Pro? Not really. I lost interest in the field right before I recieved the degree. It's title only and is worthless to me.

Was I picked on as a kid? I was picked on in college. It was always because I was "smarter" than anyone else. I passed exams with no problems. finished labs before anyone else, was respected and honord by my instructors. Because of this I was dispised.

If you want to take that as the "why" then be my guest. I'm just here asking my peers for their opinions....

[KiwiNZ]

I think I have seen enough here ):P