Hey There, Beware!

In a recent newsarticle, a Singaporean hacker was charged for posting a fake bomb threat on technology website in July 2005. Futhermore, his charges still include 60 counts of illegally accessing a wireless network.

Lin Zhenghuang, 21, was charged with warning of a bomb at a local bus stop - just after the London subways and bus bombings. Other site users reported Lin's post to authorities, according to an Associated Press report. Lin goes by the name of krisurf to do his misdeeds. He also faces 60 charges of illegally accessing 9 wireless network between July 2005 and Feburary 2006. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison. This means that he may face up to 180 years in jail.

A similar case is that of Garyl Tan Jia Luo, 17, was alsocharged with accessing the web by tapping into an unknown person's internet connection in November of last year. A neighbor told authorities that Tan had accessed his web connection in May 2006.

Through this cases, we can see that there are many people are helping themselves to unlocked wireless connections and can be also viewed it trespassing of property. Though many users still disregard the severity of this issue, it is still better to take precautions.

Else where in the world, hackers hack into the electronic signs in Denver and displayed messages such as "ZOMBIES AHEAD". There are instructions for changing the electronic signs on the Internet which explain what the default passwords for the signs are and explains how to reset the password if it has been changed. The control boxes for the orange signs are usually locked, but apparently some of the control boxes aren't.

in Houston, a similar case also surfaced. A person admits to hacking the detour sign and displayed messages like "POOP" and ":) LOL".

These real life cases thus show how real the threat is. You wouldn't leave your back door or your front door open and similary, you shouldn't leave your connections or computers open to hackers out there.

BEWARE!