11 'War Drivers' indicted

By: drivers.com staff
Date: 2008-08-23

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WiFiPlanet .com recounts the story of Lee Almodovar of Fremont, CA, obtaining an inexpensive WiFi card, fitting his car with a custom built antenna, and setting out to locate unsecured WiFi-enabled computers.

Almodover admits it was a game that was more thrilling because it was of doubtful legality. He was one of many thousands of participants but these days he doesn't do it much any more. He has 3mbps mobile internet in his car now, but he admits to every now and again indulging in a little bit of piggybacking on someone else's access.

The game was "WarDriving," a hobby that reputedly took its name from the movie War Games, in Which Mathew Broderick set his computer to repeatedly dial numbers in search of a modem connection and wound up almost starting a nuclear war.

The more serious, and nefarious side of wardriving was highlighted recently when the U.S. Federal bureau of Investigation announced the Department of Justice (DOJ) was indicting 11 individuals from around the globe on charges of hacking into the computers of nine major retailers and stealing credit card numbers, passwords and account information.

Three of those charged are U.S. citizens. Others are from places such as Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus and China. According to Data-Storage-today.com, a key part of the investigation was evidence from 27-year-old Cuban American Albert Gonzalez of Miami, described as "a reformed hacker turned U.S. Secret Service informant."

According to the indictment, Gonzalez and two Miami accomplices, Christopher Scott, 25, and Damon Patrick Toey, 23 began their activites along the South Dixie Highway (U.S. route 1) in Miami about 5 years ago. When they found a vulnerable wireless network they installed a "sniffer" program which could intercept communications within the network and pull out credit card numbers and other sensitive information. Their hacking activities expanded from there, alleges the DOJ.

The indictment was returned last Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Boston. One of the eleven alleged conspirators is in the process of extradition from Turkey and another is in Jail in Germany.

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