Wi-fi broadband 'thief' arrested in London

A man in Chiswick, London has been arrested for 'stealing' bandwidth from a wi-fi connection.

The man sat on a wall outside a house and used his laptop to access the internet by tapping into an unsecured wi-fi connection in the house.

DC Mark Roberts, from the UK Computer Crime Unit, says: "This arrest should act as a warning 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."

James Walker, Product Manager at security supplier ZyXEL, says: "Home users must be educated to set high security standards, not just accept the basic default settings which can be easily bypassed. Although this arrest is intended to act as a deterrent, it is just a drop in the ocean as there are thousands of unsecured home networks, with thousands of people unlawfully using them to access the internet and potentially company information."