Device finds child porn on WiFi

Device finds child porn on WiFi

www.kval.com

A local company is giving police another way to track down child pornography on the Internet.

Everett-based Fluke Networks adapted a troubleshooting product to help law enforcement officials fight crime.

A feature on iPhones and laptops allows users to detect WiFi networks in the area. Fluke Networks made a device, called the Aircheck WiFi Tester, that can focus in on any networks being used to handle child pornography.

Detectives who have a lead on a child predator can use Aircheck to quickly locate the WiFi network used to handle child pornography.

The directional antennae on th

(visit the link for the full news article)

Don't worry. We are just checking for child porn.
No this device can't malfunction ever. It's 100% error proof.

Yeah. Here's is some scary stuff. A handheld device that can check open wifi networks for child porn.
And if it can find child porn. What else can it find.

I can see someone being arrested for posting pics of their kids who may be in their underwear or taking a bath or something.

Not good at all.

And you'd think something like this would fall under wiretapping laws.
Or even privacy laws.

Someone who isn't tech savvy could end up not turning on their wireless security. And get accused of doing something they weren't.

This is one giant can'o'worms.

www.kval.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I have a campground with 260 sites and the WIFI is free. Figure out that will ya.I 'm just trying to compete with the mom and pop place down the road. We change our password every month and get calls every time we do,

There isn't much left for anyone else to say. I think the OP summed it up for everyone.

I'm sure the software still requires that the wifi network be without a password.. if you're worried about your wifi privacy you should have strong encryption, regardless of what you're doing with it.. and they are doing something illegal with it then I don't have a ton of pitty really if they are stupid enough to also not protect their networks.

Edit: You're right about being accused falsely, however, much like the mp3 piracy claims like this I'm sure it would just give them a right to issue a warrant.. they'd still have to find it on your equipment to have a case, so someone using your wifi network alone won't be enough to do it.

reply to post by isitjustme


Yessir it's getting scary out there. I'm surprised some enterprising soul hasn't come up with something even more rights infringing.
And then outsourced the man power to India.

Might be the next step.

Originally posted by grey580
reply to post by isitjustme

 

Yessir it's getting scary out there. I'm surprised some enterprising soul hasn't come up with something even more rights infringing.
And then outsourced the man power to India.

Might be the next step.

I'm sure it's been done... the blackhat hackers can get on your wireless if they really wanted to .. most wifi networks are unprotected, you can tell that just by driving down the road with a laptop .. and I'm willing to bet that most of them that are, are using simple passwords for convenience... or weak, outdated encryption with old firmware on their devices.

Most people don't take security very seriously.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but the article says nothing about this being capable of scanning content. It sounds like a combination of WiFi Hopper and some pretty low level diagnostic type network tools combined when they already have something solid on the bad guys computer to track him out of the rest. Sounds interesting actually, but nothing revolutionary. I'd spend some evenings at the truck stop idly scanning the whole area for wifi's and basic information on each. I'd never log into them of course, but every laptop in the place which had an antenna turned on came up on the list with the right software...this sounds like a highly automated and idiot proof version of that.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Correct me if I am wrong here, but the article says nothing about this being capable of scanning content.

Hey stop confusing het paranoid with facts!!

It sounds like a combination of WiFi Hopper and some pretty low level diagnostic type network tools combined when they already have something solid on the bad guys computer to track him out of the rest.

Yep - it enables them to figure out WHIC Wi-Fi network is carrying the porn.

and if the pornos are dumb enough to leave their networks open - and it seems many are - then more power to the cops!

no surprise that a fairly basic IT story got distorted on here tho

When I first got my DSL routor tried like crazy to go wireless and I almost had to start a fight to get them to understand that I was not going to wireless and wanted a hard wired system. I have heard too many stories about WiFi.

reply to post by miniatus


well cops can arrest for the smell of marijuana in the USA can't they? so it might turn to be the same thing

The trick here is to find the client, not the WAP. I suspect this can be done with KISMET and a directional antenna, but way too complicated for the cops, hence this device. But the real question is how did law enforcement know something illegal was on the network in the first place? I suppose they could have a list of known hosts. But really, wouldn't porn be distributed over a torrent or those rapid share sites? And there is lots of legit data going over those channels. I bought some computer peripheral where the cheapskates at the factory used a rapidshare account for firmware.

We all know what they mean when they say 'child pornography'.

As far as I care, it's just cracking down on privacy more. Getting rid of the option to use public wifi to obtain it. And, I'm not an advocate of piracy(which a lot mean when they say privacy).

If they use this against child porn, good for them. Any real invasions of privacy, as I'm expecting, I cannot support this.

Some articles I had read several years ago suggest almost every kiddie porn site was a sting operation conducted by the government. In my opinion it was entrapment but for those phishing for the kiddie porn seekers it was a justified sting.

Seems very likely it is the government still out there making it available and probably have some kind of identifiable mark on their signal that would make it detectable by those using this device looking for the users. Otherwise it would seem they would have to monitor every signal anyone connects to. I'm sure the providers, the government, have provided a way to detect it.

Child porn. Forget 'scary hacker groups' etc. It's child porn that is currently being used as an excuse for mandatory internet filtering in Australia and now, a handy excuse for devices that can scan WiFi usage.

I DESPISE those who are involved in child pornography; however it seems to me as though the Government is using its existence to clamp down on anything they don't agree with.

That is a tad frightening to me.

reply to post by TRiPWiRE


Ya mean kinda like how looking for terrorists gives them a reason to search anything they like when we travel? It does sound like a pretty convenient boogeyman to look for doesn't it? The same old "Look, we don't *want* to take away all your rights - we have *have* to in order to get the bad guys. Its really for your own good. " argument.

Why not? This is a great thing. Why not take an additional measure to fight a horrid thing such as this? Any technology *could* be used for some sinister purpose, but doesn't mean that it is. We have devices for parents that use GPS tracking on our children's vehicles so that we can monitor where they go. That same technology can be used for other tracking measures, but doesn't mean it always is.

I typically am one to stand up against invasion of privacy concerns with the statement of "when do you trade in enough liberties to feel safe?" but with crap like this I say let them have at it. Install something on the device that castrates the perv at the same time.

Great idea to me...

Anyone can set up a "wifi dragnet"....an no you dont need the password to view images or even page urls as they are sent in a raw unencypted manner. All you need is an antenna(wifi) and a program that can read and then process the raw data. You can by a "chumby one" wifi toy(or almost any net device with a accessable micro processor and reprogram it or program something to run on it) and make it display all the images of the surrounding wifi networks and pages in real time..or you can just make it do data logging.

This can be done for less than 100$ depending on your programming knowledge(or just a PC and Driftnet).

A soon-to-be-trashed Pentium II laptop was rescued from Free Geek Vancouver. A lot of coffee shops around Vancouver feature local art and free wifi, so [AUTUIN] decided to combine the two. The project is designed to hang on the wall of a cafe and sniff images transmitted on the wireless network – an invasion of privacy, but as [AUTUIN] says, “that’s kind of the point.”

After gutting the laptop and putting it in a custom picture frame, Driftnet, a program that listens network traffic and picks out images from TCP streams, was installed. [AUTUIN] tested his build with an open wireless connection in his building. The results provided a wonderful narrative that started with pictures from news sites than slowly devolved to pictures from a hot-or-not style website, an online dating site and finally pictures from the inevitable conclusion of that browsing session.

Wire tap picture Frame

The sad part is that somebody is probably selling these to cops for like 10-20 thousand just in some kind of hardened case.


You should only use wifi for portable devices or gaming. Your browsing should not be done without a hard connection to a router. The router only has a password to gain entry, none of what you do however is hidden or encrypted.

Originally posted by miniatus

Originally posted by grey580
Edit: You're right about being accused falsely, however, much like the mp3 piracy claims like this I'm sure it would just give them a right to issue a warrant.. they'd still have to find it on your equipment to have a case, so someone using your wifi network alone won't be enough to do it.

Great they kick in your door take your computer and on the news at 5 they report that to everyone.
two weeks later the cops quietly drop everything because they found nothing on your computer.
The cops are not going to hold a press conference to say they made a mistake unless they have someone else to hang.

What do you believe the public is going to think of you.
Do you really think everyone is going to believe you are innocent.
Is your job going to believe your innocent.

Or will you have a number of people believing that you are a child porn pedophile that just got lucky or found some way to hide it from the cops.

I will bet a number of background check companies will leak it that you were under suspicion of having child porn

You could probably use this to keep a personal eye on local and state elected officials. If they are on the clock then any citizen has the right to monitor them as they pay the wages in tax. A boss clearly has the right to keep tabs on any and all employee activities(at least when they are on the clock). Be proactive and turn it back on them.

For the lazy who want information overload or are just peeping "comps".
drifnet app