Is wardriving for wireless LANs illegal under UK Law?

[Roland Perry]

In message <200205211314.g4LDEAr81330@mailserver4.hushmail.com>,
g.leonard@hushmail.com writes in rather looong lines:

>However, I'm little concerned about the legality of a wardrive
>particularly given the RIP Act which makes it illegal to intercept
>communications.  Does the interception of WLAN beacon frames count as
>interception of communications?  Or do you need to use a packet sniffer
>or connect to the network to break the law?

Ask yourself if you think it's a public network, in the RIP sense. (Not
forgetting that no guidance is yet available on such definitions). I
suspect that most of them aren't (members of the public can't buy a
subscription to them - to pick one possible criterion).

Notwithstanding concern about computer misuse claims (again, the sorts
of action you propose are in a murky and ill-defined area) the remedy
under RIP would only be a civil action - and can WaveLAN APs sue people
[1(3) ... actionable at the suit ... of the sender ..."]. A potential
defence would be to show that you had "implied consent" - because the
beacon signals are *meant* to be picked up - it's in the relevant
standards docs.

Or there's 2(3) which says: "References in this Act to the interception
of communications do not include references to the interception of any
communication broadcast for general reception".

But others would claim it to be like port-scanning - something you might
only do if up to no good.

And then you could argue that every Ethernet card on a LAN is receiving
everyone else's traffic (but there's no well-known Netstumber equivalent
telling you the results).

However, an interesting question that does bear fuller investigation.
-- 
             Roland Perry | tel: +44 20 7645 3505 | roland@linx.org
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