Tests of my ethics

Two tests of my ethics were presented to me today.

1.  The case of the unsecured wireless network

While at the dentist’s office, I pulled out my laptop and found a nearby wireless network, named simply “linksys,” which was not configured for security.  Technically, even connecting to such a network would be considered illegal, whether or not you actually do anything mischievous.  But as a white hat information security professional, I was curious so penetrated further.

I connected easily.  I checked my IP address that had been assigned to me by the wireless router via DHCP - it was the standard 192.168.1.102.  I browsed to http:\\192.168.1.1 and confirmed that this was the address for the router.  It prompted me for credentials, first displaying the model number of the router.  A quick internet search would reveal the default password for this model, but I already knew this one from working on it in the past:  admin / admin.

It let me right into the router’s configuration page.  Immediately I saw that the connection was DSL, and there was a username and password already entered.  The username was an email address.  I googled the email address and found a link to the workplace of the owner of this router - an attorney’s office, which told me the names of the lawyers who work at the firm.  Another google search with the person’s name and the city name and state brings up the person’s address.   I check directions to the person’s house from the dentist’s office and bingo… it’s the next block over.

Further searching on pipl.com tells me, among other things, the date of birth of this guy - he’s almost 70.   I could have delved deeper and hacked into his personal computer as well, but I didn’t.

There are two ethical dilemmas here:

• Should someone connect to a wireless network that is unsecured, without permission?
• Should a person who discovers such a breach report it to the individual?

I’m pretty lax on the first one.  But I think I may anonymously let the old guy know he needs to secure his network.

2.  The case of the Best Buy gift card

Silly mailman (or woman).  Today as I was going through the mail, I felt something credit card sized and shaped in an envelope.  I opened it and discovered a $50.00 Best Buy gift card!  Woohoo!  Why was I getting one of these?  Ahhh… it was addressed to my neighbor.  Not too difficult of an ethical question here… I put it in my neighbor’s door.

That’s all the ethical dilemmas for today, folks…

Morning links

• Religious Cohesion - I’ve often thought, as an atheist, that we as a family need more rituals in our lives. I’ll have to ponder this some more.

“religious rituals and belief, especially in moralistic supernatural observers, together strengthen social cohesion. “ 

• If You Demand Magic, Magic Won’t Help - this was also interesting…  

“find the capacity to take joy in things that are merely real.  To be just as excited by hang-gliding, as riding a dragon; to be as excited by making a light with electricity, as by making a light with magic… even if it takes a little study…”

“Want to fly?  Don’t give up on flight.  Give up on flying potions and build yourself an airplane.“

“”Nothing is ‘mere’.”     — Richard Feynman 

• WalkScore.com - this site will score your address on how “walkable” it is… how many places are near enough to walk to… mine was about a 60 out of 100… but it reminds me that I could probably walk to the grocery store, and to the park which is pretty much right across the street…

Radical things

Well, as my regular readers are already aware, I did two radical things this week/end.  I dyed my hair black and got hitched (still doing the wedding + honeymoon in September)!  Afterwards, we went out for breakfast.  It was lovely.
We had four glorious days off due to schedules being just right and it being a holiday weekend.  We made the mistake of spending the first three being lazy and enjoying our sloth, and spent the last one furiously cleaning.   We had a nice Easter brunch at the folks’ of biscuits and gravy and deviled eggs just for my brother (who had previously complained about the lack of them at thanksgiving).

Last night, my husband and I watched McHale’s Navy, which was funny but not quite laugh-out-loud (LOL?) funny.  Now, it’s back to work, work, work.

Oh yeah… one semi-productive thing I did this weekend was build the frame for a raised garden bed.  We have high hopes of actually working in the garden this year!

And here are a couple of interesting links I have collected…

• Apocalypse now? - by The Economist … “It would be a nice irony if the best hedge against a collapse of the post-industrial economy turned out to be a return to the agrarian past.”
• Clean your monitor - the most adorable, shocking flash page of a pug dog licking your screen