While I have been jobless, some weird things have happened that have made me curious about the whole world of P2P software and WiFi. There are some interesting article about WiFi, P2P software, and the dangers associated with it. I knew you could get viruses from certain types of P2P software, especially Kazaa. But, I figured LimeWire was fine. After all, you pay for the software and its supposed to catch viruses before they can attack. If you have good anti-virus software, you should be fine, right? And wireless internet? What a great invention that is. You can go out on your back deck and surf the net, send IM’s to your friends as you sit by the pool. You can be in a strange hotel and get online without having to pay crazy hotel internet rates. All of it very positive and life-affirming.

So, I scoured the World Wide Computer in search of reassurance that all was well in my high tech universe. I was not greeted warmly. For example, this article talks about P2P software and the fact that even those that we consider safe are virus ridden. This one deals with a security flaw in Limewire that lets people see ALL of your files, even ones you haven’t purposefully shared. I used LimeWire and I didn’t know there was a security flaw. When I was asked if I wanted to update my version, I was told that since I bought it more than six months ago, I would have to pay for it again. Why would I do that? So, I continued to use it without the update, until I came across that article.

I don’t know how many of you read about the two guys who stole credit card information from Lowes, but it shows you how unsecure WiFi is. Here’s the most interesting thing from a criminal defense attorney’s point of view: While it may seem that if a wireless network is unsecured that it means the people who own it are basically okaying your use of it, apparently, you can still be charged with Unauthorized access to a computer network, at least in North Carolina.

The thing I find most frightening is that it would be almost impossible to track if someone is actually commiting a crime using your unsecured wireless network system. Let’s take the most insidious example of child pornography. Clients come to you and say they were asleep and the feds came a-knocking. They’ve come to their house because their information is that someone is downloading child porn from your house, from your computer, or at least it appears that way to them. Your client says the ususal “it wasn’t me! I don’t like kids! I like big boobs!” or whatever it is they say. And you probably don’t believe them, except for the fact that the feds didn’t find a single stitch of evidence in the house – no magazines, addresses of their perv friends, lists of websites. Nothing. Hmm. . . a bit unusual, but maybe they have a storage facility, or keep the stuff in their office, or something. So, you hire a private investigator who does his own search of the office, finds out that there is no storage facility, and then the feds computer team comes up empty – not a single damning file on the hard-drive, not a single picture on the computer memory stick.

It turns out your client was telling the truth. It’s very possible that someone has used their network to download the illegal stuff, and then just drove away, leaving them to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to prove that they are completely innocent. Good for me, the lawyer, bad for me, the person to whom it might happen. Don’t think it can happen? Read this.

Stay tuned for Part II and how the feds have not kept up with fourteen year old hackers.