CIA

[alextulu]

[Ezzy-525]

That's fairly funny.

 

But you seriously created a post for this? Use a status update man! 

[Guest]

Come on man, they are just trying to send a tweet at work. 

[Virus__]

Eh, I used to call one of my WiFi net works "ASIO Data Retention Van #42"

 

For those who don't know ASIO is Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

[Guest]

I never thought to use a number, I used to do "FBI Van" and that was it.

[Real_PhillBert]

When I was in an apartment in college, one of my neighbors had "PrettyFlyForaWiFi" That one made me laugh.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My WiFi is named Surveillance Van 42. I steered away from using any law enforcement or spy agency name so I couldn't get into trouble for impersonating a law enforcement officer. 

[dalekphalm]

21 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

My WiFi is named Surveillance Van 42. I steered away from using any law enforcement or spy agency name so I couldn't get into trouble for impersonating a law enforcement officer. 

I really don't think there's any risk of that.

 

For one, most state laws about law enforcement impersonation specifically mention you as a person impersonating them, and also mention wearing a "regulation uniform".

 

So:

1. You can't wear a regulation uniform from the state you live in (or wear one in the state you're visiting, etc).

2. You also can't claim to be a law enforcement officer, or otherwise attempt to convince people that you are.

 

However, there's nothing in any of the laws I've read that would make naming your SSID that way illegal. Your SSID isn't you, and it isn't a regulation uniform. No one will see your SSID and assume "Lady Fitzgerald must totally be in the FBI!"

 

For starters, how would they even know it's your SSID? It's not like you posted a sign outside your house saying "Hey guys, that FBI WIFI is mine! Dope, right?"

 

If you ever were arrested over it, a competent lawyer would be able to get you off no problem, and you'd likely have cause to sue them for tons and tons of money.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

I really don't think there's any risk of that.

 

For one, most state laws about law enforcement impersonation specifically mention you as a person impersonating them, and also mention wearing a "regulation uniform".

 

So:

1. You can't wear a regulation uniform from the state you live in (or wear one in the state you're visiting, etc).

2. You also can't claim to be a law enforcement officer, or otherwise attempt to convince people that you are.

 

However, there's nothing in any of the laws I've read that would make naming your SSID that way illegal. Your SSID isn't you, and it isn't a regulation uniform. No one will see your SSID and assume "Lady Fitzgerald must totally be in the FBI!"

 

For starters, how would they even know it's your SSID? It's not like you posted a sign outside your house saying "Hey guys, that FBI WIFI is mine! Dope, right?"

 

If you ever were arrested over it, a competent lawyer would be able to get you off no problem, and you'd likely have cause to sue them for tons and tons of money.

And you being Canadian makes you an expert on U.S. law how?

 

It depends on how an agency perceives my intent or thinks how others may perceive it. As far as identifying my through my SSID, law enforcement agencies, etc. have the capability to figure it out or, at the very least, get a warrant from the few ISPs in the area (only one of which is cable, the remaining being dial up and satellite.

 

I agree it's unlikely to ever happen but why take chances?

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

And you being Canadian makes you an expert on U.S. law how?

 

It depends on how an agency perceives my intent or thinks how others may perceive it. As far as identifying my through my SSID, law enforcement agencies, etc. have the capability to figure it out or, at the very least, get a warrant from the few ISPs in the area (only one of which is cable, the remaining being dial up and satellite.

 

I agree it's unlikely to ever happen but why take chances?

ISP's don't have access to your SSID so searching via them would be pointless. The only thing they can do is get a search warrant for the whole building and go threw with a frequency strength detector (apps on phones do this quite well). Simply put it would be extremely hard w/o evidence that your sole purpose in using the name is to impersonate in order to get a building wide warrant.

 

Now if you live in a home or where someone who walks on public property with such a device can find out where you live, you'd be fairly dumb to do so anyways, esp if you own a van as that could lead to probable cause.

[alextulu]

1 minute ago, Egg-Roll said:

ISP's don't have access to your SSID

If you're using the ISP provided router, who knows what they put in the firmware. Maybe they're spying your internal network.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

ISP's don't have access to your SSID so searching via them would be pointless. The only thing they can do is get a search warrant for the whole building and go threw with a frequency strength detector (apps on phones do this quite well). Simply put it would be extremely hard w/o evidence that your sole purpose in using the name is to impersonate in order to get a building wide warrant.

 

Now if you live in a home or where someone who walks on public property with such a device can find out where you live, you'd be fairly dumb to do so anyways, esp if you own a van as that could lead to probable cause.

What's with these Canadians giving legal advice for the U.S.?

 

I live in my own home but I guarantee if I was in an apartment building, they could still find me easily enough.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

3 minutes ago, alextulu said:

If you're using the ISP provided router, who knows what they put in the firmware. Maybe they're spying your internal network.

I have my own router and modem but that doesn't matter, the ISP can still monitor what traffic goes in and out still see into an internal network.

 

Good grief, why is everyone making such a big deal aboutt this?

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, alextulu said:

If you're using the ISP provided router, who knows what they put in the firmware. Maybe they're spying your internal network.

That in itself would raise privacy concerns, as what else are they collecting? So, while it is possible I highly doubt it. I personally use 3rd party modems and not ones given out by providers.

 

1 hour ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

What's with these Canadians giving legal advice for the U.S.?

 

I live in my own home but I guarantee if I was in an apartment building, they could still find me easily enough.

How could they easily find you? Cops can't randomly walk into a building saying "we are here to just walk around" and use such a device. At least here most if not all buildings have security measures where even if a cop can gain access using a master key it is not legal to do so w/o cause.

 

1 hour ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I have my own router and modem but that doesn't matter, the ISP can still monitor what traffic goes in and out still see into an internal network.

 

Good grief, why is everyone making such a big deal aboutt this?

Once again in a apartment situation no court will issue a building wide search and seizure, let alone collect everyone's browser data.  As unless it's a criminal ring (impersonation is not that it's usually one or 2 people) they want to take down, it's literally a waste of government resources not to mention some ISP's might fight back for their clients privacy as it is seen as sloppy work on the enforcements end.

[alextulu]

10 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

the ISP can still monitor what traffic goes in and out still see into an internal network.

If the router is spying on you, then they can see things, that are not visible outside of your internal network, like how many devices you have (if you have IPv6, then it's visible anyway), the MAC addresses of your devices and the SSID of your WI-FI.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If anyone thinks an ISP isn't able to see what you send and receive over your connection, think again!

 

@ Egg-Roll Have you ever heard of warrants? Also, they can easily track a WiFi signal to an individual apartment or home. For that, matter, so can you using a Wi-Fi sniffer that has a signal strength meter or other such indicator easily found and bought on the internet..

 

[dalekphalm]

17 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

And you being Canadian makes you an expert on U.S. law how?

 

It depends on how an agency perceives my intent or thinks how others may perceive it. As far as identifying my through my SSID, law enforcement agencies, etc. have the capability to figure it out or, at the very least, get a warrant from the few ISPs in the area (only one of which is cable, the remaining being dial up and satellite.

 

I agree it's unlikely to ever happen but why take chances?

Since when do I need to be an American to look up US laws?

 

Arizona:

Quote

A. A person commits impersonating a peace officer if the person, without lawful authority, pretends to be a peace officer and engages in any conduct with the intent to induce another to submit to the person's pretended authority or to rely on the person's pretended acts.

https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/02411.htm

 

There's a Section B and Section C, which basically say that it's not a defence if you made up an agency that doesn't exist, and that the crime is more severe if you also do a list of other things while impersonating.

 

Setting your WIFI network to "FBI Surveillance Van" is not - by itself - enough to fit this crime.

 

Seriously, laws are publicly available for anyone to look at. I don't need to be an American to tell that in Arizona, it would be legal to do this.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

@ Egg-Roll Have you ever heard of warrents. Also, they can easily track a WiFi signal to an individual apartment or home. For that, matter, so can you using a Wi-Fi sniffer that has a signal strength meter or other such indicator easily found and bought on the internet..

 

 

1 hour ago, Egg-Roll said:

Now if you live in a home or where someone who walks on public property with such a device can find out where you live, you'd be fairly dumb to do so anyways, esp if you own a van as that could lead to probable cause.

1 hour ago, Egg-Roll said:

The only thing they can do is get a search warrant for the whole building and go threw with a frequency strength detector (apps on phones do this quite well)

Once again if the person using the name is on the 5th floor it would be fairly hard for them to pinpoint that person out w/o accessing the building or its property. That would require a warrant, like I said w/o cause I doubt a judge would issue it.

 

Seriously the internet is full of pictures of people doing stupid stuff with SSID's esp in apartments...

[DildorTheDecent]

I call my phone "FBI Surveillance Van"

 

Gets a few keks whenever someone plugs it in or I use Bluetooth.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

8 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Since when do I need to be an American to look up US laws?

 

Arizona:

https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/02411.htm

 

There's a Section B and Section C, which basically say that it's not a defence if you made up an agency that doesn't exist, and that the crime is more severe if you also do a list of other things while impersonating.

 

Setting your WIFI network to "FBI Surveillance Van" is not - by itself - enough to fit this crime.

 

Seriously, laws are publicly available for anyone to look at. I don't need to be an American to tell that in Arizona, it would be legal to do this.

You need to work on your reading comprehension. Section B says:

 

B. It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact exist or that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact possess the authority claimed for it.B. It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact exist or that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact possess the authority claimed for it.

 

All that refers to is using a made up law enforcement does not excuse one from prosecution for impersonating a law enforcement agency (btw, any private detective firm can have surveillance vans so just saying Surveillance Van 42 is highly unlikey to be construed as impersonating a law enforcement agency).

 

Go back and read Section A:

 

A. A person commits impersonating a peace officer if the person, without lawful authority, pretends to be a peace officer and engages in any conduct with the intent to induce another to submit to the person's pretended authority or to rely on the person's pretended acts.

 

Again, if a law enforcement agency interprets naming one's WiFi using an law enforcement agency's name as intent to induce someone to submit to the supposed authority would easily be grounds for prosecution. Getting a conviction would be questionable but who needs to go through that hassle? And you are dreaming if you think a lawyer could make you money off such an event.

 

Again, you all are making mountains out of molehills.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

15 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

 

Once again if the person using the name is on the 5th floor it would be fairly hard for them to pinpoint that person out w/o accessing the building or its property. That would require a warrant, like I said w/o cause I doubt a judge would issue it...

You aren't paying attention. If the apartment building has public access, then the LEOs can just waltz right in and trace the signal to the apartment it comes from, then, if they don't have a warrant that allows them access to the appartment the signal is traced to, they can quickly get one over the phone. If the building doesn't have public access and the building owner chooses not to allow access without a warrant, getting a warrant that allows the LEOs to track the signal and enter the apartment it came from would also be easy.

 

The one exception would be if residents in the apartment were using a shared WiFi.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

You need to work on your reading comprehension. Section B says:

 

B. It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact exist or that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact possess the authority claimed for it.B. It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact exist or that the law enforcement agency the person pretended to represent did not in fact possess the authority claimed for it.

 

All that refers to is using a made up law enforcement does not excuse one from prosecution for impersonating a law enforcement agency (btw, any private detective firm can have surveillance vans so just saying Surveillance Van 42 is highly unlikey to be construed as impersonating a law enforcement agency).

I think my reading comprehension skills are just fine, thank you.

 

All Section B. says is that if you make up a new agency - lets call it "Department of Federal Crimes", and you convince someone that you are a member of this agency, and this gives you legal authority, that's still a crime, even if "Department of Federal Crimes" is totally made up.

 

You're taking that and adding a connection that doesn't exist.

 

2 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Go back and read Section A:

 

A. A person commits impersonating a peace officer if the person, without lawful authority, pretends to be a peace officer and engages in any conduct with the intent to induce another to submit to the person's pretended authority or to rely on the person's pretended acts.

 

Again, if a law enforcement agency interprets naming one's WiFi using an law enforcement agency's name as intent to induce someone to submit to the supposed authority would easily be grounds for prosecution. Getting a conviction would be questionable but who needs to go through that hassle? And you are dreaming if you think a lawyer could make you money off such an event.

 

Again, you all are making mountains out of molehills.

You're the one making a mountain out of a molehill, when you think something is illegal, when it's not.

 

How would you having your SSID set to "FBI Van" induce someone to submit to your authority? That is the crucial thing here. Your SSID simply being set to some sort of "Agency" does it, by itself, constitute or fit the description of this crime.

 

A lawyer could certainly have a possibilty of making you money from such an event, if you were unlawfully imprisoned for something that is legal. Didn't say it would be easy for the lawyer to win you said money, but once they prove that the act was legal, then after that, it wouldn't be too difficult to prove your rights were infringed upon by being unlawfully detained.

 

But that's entirely besides the point.

 

My point was:

1. Nothing in the Arizona Law about impersonating an officer makes setting your SSID to that, illegal, since you - the person - are not impersonating an officer by the sheer act of changing your SSID. You would need to do additional actions for it to become impersonation, like say "Hey, I'm FBI, can't you see my WIFI network?"

2. The odds of any federal agency even finding out which SSID is yours, without a warrant, is incredibly slim.

3. Even if they did find out, the odds that they would care, especially enough to lay charges for which the law does not support, is insanely small.

 

Why take the chance? Because you have a bigger chance of getting a speeding ticket by driving 3 MPH over the limit. The risk is negligible, because it is legal, that's why people take the chance.

[dalekphalm]

5 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

You aren't paying attention. If the apartment building has public access, then the LEOs can just waltz right in and trace the signal to the apartment it comes from, then, if they don't have a warrant that allows them access to the appartment the signal is traced to, they can quickly get one over the phone. If the building doesn't have public access and the building owner chooses not to allow access without a warrant, getting a warrant that allows the LEOs to track the signal and enter the apartment it came from would also be easy.

 

The one exception would be if residents in the apartment were using a shared WiFi.

Actually the inside of an apartment building is still private property - whether the front door is secured or not. Granted, they could seek permission from the building owner/manager for access to the hallways, but even then, it's a touchy subject, legally.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

You aren't paying attention. If the apartment building has public access, then the LEOs can just waltz right in and trace the signal to the apartment it comes from, then, if they don't have a warrant that allows them access to the appartment the signal is traced to, they can quickly get one over the phone. If the building doesn't have public access and the building owner chooses not to allow access without a warrant, getting a warrant that allows the LEOs to track the signal and enter the apartment it came from would also be easy.

 

The one exception would be if residents in the apartment were using a shared WiFi.

Public access has limits esp with a security guard, their job is to prevent issues, cops just walking in w/o talking to them first is seen as a issue. At that time the security guard could either assist, call for help, let them pass or ask them to leave. Also who would be dumb enough to live in a public access free roam building? You only have one access point, and would be a huge safety issue.

 

You do realise a judge could say no to the warrant right? No different than inside a courtroom or over the phone at the station. We are talking about a likely joke, most cops will see it as just that, and the judge would likely ask if they have any evidence (the SSID is flimsy evidence, and might not be accepted if nothing else is found). They will only act on it if a person inside that building hints/says/etc to another about impersonating. So by simply putting surveillance van in your SSID no matter what you put before or after you have successfully caught the attention of the law.

[Syntaxvgm]

32 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

 

Once again if the person using the name is on the 5th floor it would be fairly hard for them to pinpoint that person out w/o accessing the building or its property. That would require a warrant, like I said w/o cause I doubt a judge would issue it.

 

Seriously the internet is full of pictures of people doing stupid stuff with SSID's esp in apartments...

I'll find what apartment it's coming from with just my cellphone and a standard signal mapping app, no need for a good antenna even.

I mean nothing would come of it, it's not like this

http://www.newsweek.com/planet-fitness-evacuated-wifi-name-michigan-888088