London man in wireless broadband access arrest
By Rene Millman,
Police in London have arrested a man in Chiswick for illegally using someone else's wireless broadband connection.
According to the Metropolitan Police, two police community support officers (PCSOs) on patrol on 21 August, became suspicious of a 39-year-old man sitting on a wall outside a house in the area. When questioned by the PCSOs, the man admitted he was using someone else's wireless connection that was open and unsecured.
As the PCSOs do not have the powers of arrest, the man was taken to Chiswick police station where police officers arrested him. The case was handed over to the Met Police's Computer Crime Unit (CCU). The man has been bailed to return on 11 October pending further investigation.
Detective Constable Mark Roberts of the CCU said that the arrest should act as a deterrent to anyone "who thinks it is acceptable to illegally use other people's broadband connections."
"To do so potentially breaches the Computer Misuse Act and the Communications Act, so computer users need to be aware that this is unlawful and police will investigate any violation we become aware of," said Roberts.
As reported by IT PRO, two people were arrested for similar offences in Redditch, Worcestershire in July.
You may also like...
Sponsored Links
advertisement
You may also like...
Latest Security Analysis & Insight
Do British police get cyber security?
Davey Winder listens to telephone conversations between the FBI and the Metropolitan Police, courtesy of Anonymous, and isn't impressed.
- Who to trust after the VeriSign hack?
- Striving to solve the security skills crisis
- Would you employ a hacker or malware writer?
- Q&A: Raj Samani, CTO McAfee
- Erase and rewind: the EU and privacy
- My email address is [CENSORED]
- Is there such a thing as a secure tablet?
- 2011: The year in news
- BYOD: Old or new, good or bad?
Latest Security Reviews
Check Point 2210 Appliance review
Rating: ![]()
advertisement
Most popular
- Ubuntu vs. Windows 7 on the business desktop
- York researchers heat storage to speed up data
- BlackBerry Bold 9790 review
- OneNote hits Google?s Android
- O2 trials Olympic-scale remote working
- Will someone rid me of these troublesome Macs?
- Lenovo beats expectations again
- Who to trust after the VeriSign hack?
- Google to promise fairness after Motorola buy
- Report: Google cloud storage coming soon
Latest News Videos in Security
IT PRO Podcast: Are UK data protection laws flawed?
We bring in two experts to talk about the problems with UK data protection law and the way it is managed.
Register for IT PRO
You'll get exclusive member benefits including free whitepapers, downloads, Webinars and weekly newsletters full of the latest IT PRO news, reviews, insight and expertise.





