Cyber Crime

Unsecured Wi-Fi Behind Child Porn Arrest

NY man’s neighbor had been using his connection for downloads.

Lock your Wi-Fi routers, everyone, or you'll end up on the floor of your living room with a SWAT team calling you a pedophile. That's what happened to a Buffalo, New York, homeowner who didn't set up a password on his new router. His neighbor had used his open Internet to download child pornography, but it took investigators three days to be convinced that it wasn't him. "We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night," the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, "Doldrum." This is not the first time this has happened: A Florida man discovered someone in a boat docked in a marina outside his building used a potato chip can as an antenna to boost their wireless signal and download 10 million images of child porn.