The great WiFi robbery: police to patrol down your street

The Queensland Police fraud squad says it will be the first police force in the world to go on "wardriving" missions to warn homes and businesses if their wireless networks are not secure.

Detective Superintendent Brian Hay said criminals were piggy-backing on the WiFi connections of ordinary computer users and using them to anonymously commit crimes such as fraud and identity theft.

The process of searching for open wireless networks using a laptop or handheld in a moving vehicle is known in the geek community as "wardriving".

Many home networks can be accessed by anyone within range because strong security settings are often not enabled and passwords are rarely changed from the default setting.

"All unsecured WiFi networks out there are open for exploitation by the crooks and the average mum and dad don't understand the vulnerabilities," Detective Superintendent Hay said in a phone interview.

"More and more houses are going into WiFi and setting up multiple computers on a network, and not appropriately securing them.

"These things are going to be exploited more and more as time goes on ... we want to close the holes before too much damage is done."

Detective Superintendent Hay said it was important for police to get "ahead of the game" as crooks were now sharing information on satellite maps showing vulnerable areas with large numbers of unsecured networks.

He blamed computer equipment sellers for not doing enough to educate customers on the importance of security.

He said it was illegal to use someone else's network bandwidth without their permission, even if that bandwidth was not used to commit another crime such as identity theft.

Queensland Police has not yet decided how many officers it will task with seeking out unsecure networks, but it is calling on the private sector to help out with equipment and expertise.

Detective Superintendent Hay said the operation would be limited to Queensland but the idea might filter down to other states.

"I actually have not heard of this being done anywhere else in the world," he said.

"It's not about catching the bad guys as much as limiting their area of operations."

Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf, head of the NSW Police Computer Crimes Unit, said he was watching the Queensland Police operation with interest.

"Apart from notifying people that their wireless is unsecure I don't know what else would be achieved by it but if their trial is fruitful we'd always participate in something that works," he said.

The Queensland operation could attract criticism from those who believe police time would be better spent seeking out drug dealers and robbers, but Detective Superintendent Hay said the issue was just as important as any other.

Criminals could steal information from computers on vulnerable networks and also use other people's internet connections to launch malware and other cyber crime attacks.

"If we save mum, grandma and grandpa from losing their life savings, having their identity stolen or losing their kids' inheritance ... you ask them if they think it's a good use of police time and resources," he said.