A Down Side to Open Wireless

An interesting byproduct of maintaining an open wireless network? Apparently a man in Mumbai had his life disrupted by a raid on his property when authorities suspected his open wireless as being the source for messages relating to a recent bombing.

So what happens when a crime is alleged to have been committed using your open network?

For individuals who happen to get caught up in a crime involving something like what happened in Mumbai, and who don't have the backing of corporate legal departments, I suspect that the process wouldn't be much fun.

A person has open wireless because:
  • They don't know it is open.
  • They know it is open but don't know how to secure it.
  • They know how, but are to lazy to bother securing it.
  • They know how to secure it, but they don't really care.
  • They know how, and they are leaving it unsecured on principle.
If someone gets caught up in something like this, I hope they are in one of the latter categories, rather than in one of the first couple categories.