Tuesday 24 July 2012

’Can’t Stop The Signal…’

It is not known where the signal is coming from but it is at full strength at the front door of the restaurant.
Oh, really? Because that contradicts a little with something the police may later rely on in this story….

But read on, there’s more! First comes the inevitable bandwagon-jumping:
Taha Idris, chief executive of race relations charity Swansea Bay Regional Equality Council, said it was vital police punished whoever was responsible.
"I am really appalled that anybody should be using this sort of language so publicly," he said.
"It is a case of a racially aggravated public order offence. I will be contacting Dyfed-Powys Police separately."
Why? They already know. You know they know. What are you going to usefully do by contacting them, other than tick a box so you can justify your cozy little sinecu…

Oh. Right…
Asked if he thought police needed to act swiftly to deal with the perpetrator, he said: "Absolutely. This needs to happen. "It is a moral crime as well as a crime against a person.
"I would like to see Dyfed-Powys Police come down hard on these people."
Yes, I’m sure you would. Personally, I’d rather they caught muggers and rapists, but I’m sure there’s someone in Dyfed-Powys Police with an eye to promotions who'll leap on this like a starving wolf.

And here he is, right on cue:
Sergeant Mark McSweeney said: "Hate crimes such as this are not tolerated by Dyfed-Powys Police.
"We take them extremely seriously and ensure each one is thoroughly investigated.
"I would like to reassure the community once again that we are doing all we can to find the person responsible.
Well done, Mark! That’s buzzword bingo all sewn up!
"Inquiries to date suggest an insecure router in the vicinity of King Street has had its identifying name maliciously altered.
Eh..? Hang on. I thought you said you didn’t know where it was coming from?

If that’s true, how can you assume the owner hasn’t done it deliberately him/herself?
"At the moment we are waiting to speak to the router manufacturers to see if it's possible to determine who altered the router's name in such a vindictive way, and if that is possible we will do all we can to track down that individual.
"Throughout our inquiry the local community has been very supportive and have assisted us with our inquiries."
Curiouser and curiouser…

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should be interesting.

If the router is "insecure" (i.e. allowing internet access) then it wouldn't be hard for el plod to access a known page on their sites, at a given time, and backtrace the internet IP to the owners ISP, get the connection details and thus trace the owner.

Routers typically don't store/log configuration changes - all they'll likely have is the "last rebooted time".

Personally, if the owner used the wireless, he'd have noticed if someone changed it (I'd noticed if my network vanished!) and it'd be easy to see if any of their equipment was setup to connect to that network.

Also, some routers can advertise multiple networks (mine for example) - and it IS possible someone added one (if their security was crap).

Curious, nonetheless.

PJH said...

It's even easier than that Anon.

0) Log onto the AP
1) Go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ to get IP address
2) Enter the IP address at http://whois.domaintools.com to get provider
3) Submit court order to provider for owner of ip address at step #1 at the time step #1 was carried out.

Steps 0-2 will take all of 2 minutes. Step 3 will take the longest.

Given that the strength is strongest at the door, it's likely to be either someone on the 1st/2nd floor of that same building , or the buildings opposite

Robert the Biker said...

Don't see the problem personally; If you dont want to log onto that WiFi, dont do it. What is REALLY wrong is to log on for the purpose of giving the ownwer a hard time.

Woman on a Raft said...

How dare anybody give free wifi. Shocking.

Noggin the Nog said...

Is it honestly a crime to dislike Pakis?

What about Scots? Brits? Aussies?

If we are going to start locking people up for disliking pakis, my nan is in big trouble.

So am I.

microdave said...

If plod have nothing better to do than pursue "hate" crimes they could always do a spot of "war driving".

Just download and install the handy little freeware programme "Net Stumbler" on a laptop or other suitable device, and see what other SSID's are being broadcast!

My local football club used to feature in a non too complimentary WiFi name...

Lynne said...

What the feck is a moral crime? Is it the same thing as a thought crime?

Do these outraged people have the right to be universally loved and respected and not be called nasty names?

No.

Do they have the right to censor and prosecute people who don't universally love and respect them and who call them nasty names?

Apparently they do.

Do the police have nothing better to do?

Apparently they don't.

Pavlov's Cat said...

oooh a Firefly headline , nicely done Julia

Shiny

Bucko said...

A racist wifi signal? I've heard it all now.

blueknight said...

What offence has been committed and who is the offender? Order the popcorn, the twists and turns of this case should prove interesting...

JuliaM said...

"If the router is "insecure" (i.e. allowing internet access) then it wouldn't be hard for el plod to access a known page on their sites, at a given time, and backtrace the internet IP to the owners ISP, get the connection details and thus trace the owner."

Well, indeed. So this should have been an easy clear up, no?

"Is it honestly a crime to dislike Pakis?

What about Scots? Brits? Aussies?"


I think you can dislike Brits all you want!

"What the feck is a moral crime? Is it the same thing as a thought crime?"

According to the Treasury Minister, it's something quite different! ;)

"oooh a Firefly headline , nicely done Julia "

I think it's my second. Or maybe third. Loved that series.

David Gillies said...

The Plod are generally about as technically competent as the average basset hound. Any half-way competent IT guy could have found this router in about three minutes. And if it's unlocked (as opposed to simply having no encryption on the signal) then just go into the admin page, set a 32 character random WPA-2 password, alter the SSID to gibberish, turn off SSID broadcast, change the admin password and reset it. Wait for the shrieking. And I can't see what crime is being committed here. It's not against the law to hate Pakis. It's not against the law to say you hate Pakis. It's against the law to incite people into hurting Pakis because you hate them.

Furor Teutonicus said...

WTF are they ON about here?

Is this something being blasted at the shop by some kind of loud speaker....An errent parrot hiding in the eves,or what?

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX David Gillies said...

The Plod are generally about as technically competent as the average basset hound XX

Worrying thing is, last I was there, they were the same with firearms.

(O.K early 80s, but I can not think the attiude of "who gives a fuck HOW it works,it is only a gun" has changed much).

Robert the Biker said...

Best firearms officer I ever had to deal with was a civilian and simply loved guns in all their many forms

microdave said...

@ FT - it's about the SSID being broadcast by the router in question. That is the "Name" that is either provided as a default setting, or subsequently changed by the user (or hacker as is being suggested here).

Look at this Google search term:

Furor Teutonicus said...

Cheers MD.

Robert. I meant more the "users" rather than the office where certs are issued.

An interest, ANY kind of INTEREST, in guns would get a copper a life time ban from even APPROACHING a firearm in the Merseyside police in Ken Oxfords days. (70s-80s). Those that DID manage to get firearms trained, were the biggest bunch of tossers you could ever not wish to meet.

JuliaM said...

"And I can't see what crime is being committed here."

I suspect it'd be charged - if they ever tracked someone down - with the good old catch all Public Order offence.