OT: unathorized network user.

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Wednesday 23 January 2008 10:21, Jimmy Bradley wrote:
>         I got the problem solved.
[snip]
>         Yeah, everyone did say pretty much the same thing, but at the
> same time everybody seemed to miss the fact that I mentioned that I
> didn't run the network open all the time, and no it wasn't really right
> to transfer files to their hard drive, but none of the files were
> malicious in any way. Most of the were cd image files for different
> linux distros, and video files from cbs news, and best of all, mp3 files
> of Bill Oreilly's weekly radio show. Now, I've built I don't know how
> many pc's, and I've filled up many a hard drive on them. I just don't
> see how you can damage some one's machine by saving files to their hard
> drive, unless the files are infected with viruses or some other
> malicious code, and that was just not the case here. All some one would
> have to do to undo what I've done is to simply delete the files.

According to your description, I would guess that your intruder is some poor 
soul who doesn't even know what is happening. I assume no computer savvy 
person would open his whole disk for writing by others, and believe that this 
guy is not even aware that he is being connected to your network at all. Even 
if he is, I guess he doesn't know how to prevent it.

Therefore, all the legal points aside, any kind of revenge (harmful or not) is 
just plain immoral. How would you feel if some hacker got into all your 
systems and filled up all your drives, just because he had a bad day (for 
ex.), and you don't have enough knowledge to protect your network? Sure, you 
can delete all the data he puts in, but you would still feel beaten up. The 
point is not whether this guy can recover his machine, but that you shouldn't 
act like a bully. Have you ever met the guy in person (he is your neighbor, 
after all)?

On the other hand, I do understand that you feel frustrated. I also feel like 
that sometimes, when I get a ton of spam and wish to track down the spammer 
and fry his machine dead, but then I remember that I would probably find an 
innocent uneducated user whose machine has been hacked by someone else to 
behave as a spam server. Therefore, I suggest that passive defence is better 
than active defence.

Having said that, I agree with you that wired networking is a good 
problem-solver in your case.

Best, :-)
Marko