Singapore teen faces jail sentence and fine for stealing WiFi
WAR driving is a very popular activity. Whether to get online for free, just out of curiosity or a myriad of other reasons, around the world it has become a topic met with bitter controversy. Loved by some, annoying to others, it treads on new legal ground and opens up new privacy issues. Those issues, however, are closed in Singapore, where a 17 year old is facing up to three years in prison for hopping on to someone elses wireless network. While it doesn’t specify that he was in fact in a car, the basic principle is the same, and simply stealing Internet access was enough for him to face a jail sentence and a potential fine:
The teenager also faces a possible fine of up to 10,000 Singapore dollars ($6,425) if convicted despite the lack of aggravating factors to his alleged crimes. There’s no suggestion he did any mischief beyond allegedly freeloading his neighbour’s net connection without permission.
Despite the fact that just about every single home and office wireless access point and wifi-equipped router comes by default with an unencrypted, insecure configuration, most of the attention is being focused on those who are exposing and abusing these networks rather than those setting them up. Just about any Windows or Mac machine equipped with a wireless card will actively look for and connect to wireless networks, making many blissfully unaware that they’ve even done anything, let alone something wrong. While that’s certainly no excuse for blatantly stealing services from someone, the manufacturers of these devices aren’t helping any by producing such easily-expoitable default systems. Perhaps it has been made too easy to use?
This article can be viewed here.
———————————————————————————————–
My Thoughts and Opinions (Glossary at the bottom //tech jargon//)
As an internet user myself, I sincerely feel that this fellow who stole bandwidth from his neighbour is VERY wrong. I respect all fellow users on the internet by being polite in language and online “speech” (instant messaging/email). However, I think that this guy does not deserve a single ounce of basic respect at all! Why must he use his neighbour’s bandwidth when he has his own internet plan which provides him with bandwidth too?
I only despise people who cheat and swindle to get what they want but not need. If they need it, at least they still have some dignity left, but if they do it just because they want to do it, like the teenager in the article, they should hang their faces in shame! Why? I ask myself every single day when I use the internet… People are getting more technologically advanced, but so are the hackers… why do people bother to hack? Is their computer and internet not sufficient? Are they not contented with what they already they have to the extend that they wish to have more?
I recently finished reading a manga comic entitled “Marchen Awakens Romance”. The ending was unexpected with a greater evil hiding behind the person who was thought to be the root of all the evil in the fantasy world or MAR. This person, the queen, had betrayed her country because of her greed for weapons and magic, basically power. Because of power, she was willing to join the evil side as their ruler. Because of power, she was willing to betray her entire family and generations of ancestors who had put all their trust in her. In the very end, she was slain by her own sister, who did it reluctantly. At that instant, the evil in the queen vanished and she was returned to her proper emotional state, talking to her sister with her last breath.
From the story, I concluded that greed never came to a good end. If one is greedy, he can never be self-content. If he can never be self-content, he can never be happy and lead a contented life. What is the meaning of life? What are we meant to do in life? I think we’re just supposed to live life to the fullest and be contented with what we have so that we are not greedy or jealous to have what others have.
~402 words~
//Tech Jargon//
bandwidth – The amount of information or data that can be sent over a network connection in a given period of time. Bandwidth is usually stated in bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (kbps), or megabits per second (mps).
Signing off,
Ng Wei Zhong
UN says climate change as great a threat as war
Friday • March 2, 2007
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that global warming posed the same threat to humanity as war and warned of an “unconscionable legacy” being left for future generations.
In a speech to a UN International School Conference, Ban acknowledged that the “majority” of the UN’s work still focuses on the prevention and resolution of conflict.
“But the danger posed by war to all of humanity — and to our planet — is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming,” he said.
Pledging to raise the issue at a summit of the G8 major industrialised nations in June, Ban said the absence of decisive measures to combat climate change would place an appalling burden on succeeding generations.
“That would be an unconscionable legacy; one which we must all join hands to avert,” he said. “As it stands, the damage already inflicted on our ecosystem will take decades, perhaps centuries, to reverse — if we act now.”
The secretary general highlighted the far-reaching ramifications of global warming and its impact on economic growth, the spread of disease, migration patterns and other changes that “are likely to become a major driver of war and conflict.”
Referring to the G8 summit in Germany, Ban stressed that the task of tackling climate change was beyond the capacity of any one nation.
“We are all complicit in the process of global warming … these issues transcend borders,” he said. “Only concerted and coordinated international action, supported and sustained by individual initiative, will be sufficient.”
The United Nations is due to hold a conference on climate change in Bali in December.
Earlier this month, UN scientists delivered their starkest warning yet about global warming, saying fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar sea ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.
In its first assessment in six years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dealt a crippling blow to the shrinking body of opinion that claims higher temperatures in past decades have been driven by natural, not man-made, causes.
The United Nations’ paramount scientific authority on global warming highlighted a range of changes that had taken place in Earth’s ice cover, rainfall patterns and permafrost and declared that most of the temperature rise over the past 50 years had “very likely” been caused by human activity. — AFP
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.
This article can be found here.
———————————————————————————————–
My Thoughts and Opinions
I feel that global warming is just a time bomb which is counting down faster and faster as we humans destroy the earth by polluting the environment in all sorts of ways. I hope that the human race will turn around and unite as one to prevent this catastrophe from surfacing in our lives so that the next generations of people can live to tell the stories of how their ancestors saved them from a humanitarian disaster!
There are quite a few things we can do to prevent this impending disaster. One example is to use more public transport instead of private transport vehicles like cars which consume fuel and release huge amounts of carbon which pollute the environment. Certain environmentally-friendly cars can still be used like the solar-powered car though. Another example is to grow more plants all over the world so as to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the air which damage the ozone layer.
By reducing the amounts of greenhouse gases and carbon, global warming will be, if not gradually stopped, slowed down by quite a bit at the very least. I hope that scientists will soon find a way to totally replace fuel in cars so that carbon will not be produced on such a large scale every single day.
I feel for the environment as I live in it myself. This is why my Research Education group had decided to embark on the Singapore National GreenWave competition which requires us to contribute innovative ideas on how to save the environment from further harm. Our idea currently has been refined to a point where we are thinking of creating an interactive web portal where people can learn about caring about the environment. We will also include entertaining games which are environment related and we will put ads up for free on our website which advertise for environmentally friendly products such as biodegradable disposable cutlery, which helps in the waste management of the earth. I hope our greenwave project is successful and we might get the prize money so that we can sustain our web portal for a longer period of time.
~357 words~
Signing off,
Ng Wei Zhong
