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American Morning
Interview of Mark Rasch, Internet Lawyer
Aired April 16, 2002 - 07:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: They are new high-tech toys, if you will, wireless video cameras designed to increase security in homes and offices. But these same cameras can expose you to digital peeping Toms, who steal video signals and invade your privacy, armed with laptop computers, computer cards that can pick up wireless frequencies and an antenna.
There is a new breed of hacker out there known as a war driver. They tap into corporate networks and home Web cams and spy, and it's all done from their cars, and apparently it's all legal. So how do they do it, and what can you do to protect yourself?
Joining us this morning from Washington, Internet lawyer Mark Rasch -- good morning, Mark -- nice to have you with us.
MARK RASCH, INTERNET LAWYER: Good morning, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Where did this name come from? This is a little scary -- war drivers.
RASCH: Well, there has been a technique called war dialing, where you set up computer to keep dialing into other computers. And this is just an extension of it.
CAFFERTY: OK.
RASCH: You drive by with a computer and an antenna and pick up whatever signals you find in the air.
CAFFERTY: Now, how can this be legal? I mean, it's not legal to intercept somebody's cell phone for example. How can something like this be legal?
RASCH: Well, parts of it are legal. When you are broadcasting using a wireless network, you are sending parts of that communication out to the world. And if you drive by, you capture those types of things. What you can't do is then use that information to later hack into a network.
The other problem is that the law deals with interception of communications and interception of the audio portion of a communication. If you are driving by and somebody is broadcasting, say, their video, that's probably not covered by the law. So you can capture nanny cams and things like that, surveillance camera video without violating the law.
CAFFERTY: Is this something I should be concerned about? If I go out and spend 100 bucks, I get a digital camera. I want a monitor the babysitter or the, you know, cleaning people, whoever, in my home. Should I be worried about thieves looking at the painting on the wall that might be worth a few bucks? Or I mean, how concerned should the average person be about this?
RASCH: If you have a wireless network in the house, or you are using a wireless camera, then you need to be concerned that somebody can go ahead and do that. Now, whenever you've got the camera on, they can capture the communications, capture the signal and see what's going on in your house for days or hours or weeks even.
CAFFERTY: Wow! Now, they do this stuff with corporations too, which potentially is even more troublesome. Are there ways that companies, corporations that use this technology can safeguard against these things?
RASCH: A lot of companies have recently started to use these wireless networks, because they are convenient, they allow the workers to go from one place to another within the corporation, within the building. The problem is they haven't done a very good job of securing them, and you can walk around the streets of Manhattan with a hand-held device and just capture corporate communications. So corporations need to start encrypting and locking down these kinds of communications to prevent unauthorized people from capturing the communications.
CAFFERTY: Now, if I look out my window, and I see something that looked like that chubby little dude with the dark glasses with the thing on top of his car, with the antenna, and he's sitting doing this, can I call the police? And if I do, what will the cops do? Will they do anything?
RASCH: The odds are if you call the police, they won't do very much. And he doesn't have to look like that. You can walk around with a little palm-held device and capture everything.
CAFFERTY: Wow!
RASCH: And there is not a lot the police can do, unless you're actively actually going in and intercepting communications. If you're just going out and seeing what is out there in the ether what's being broadcast, it's probably not illegal.
CAFFERTY: All right. Well, at some point, I suppose, the legislatures will get around to looking at this, seeing if there are laws that are needed. Mark, I've got to leave it there. It's good to have you with us -- thank you.
RASCH: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: All right. Mark Rasch, Internet lawyer, joining us this morning from Washington. Watch out what you do with those little digital cameras. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
