A dangerous kind of internet criminal is threatening increasing numbers of Wanganui people, says a local IT specialist.
Keith McCulloch is warning residents to secure their home wireless internet networks, having encountered growing numbers of clients who have suffered "piggybacking".
"There are people out there illegally using others' internet connections via unsecuredwireless networks," he said.
"This enables them, among other things, to use up your bandwidth, use a 'sniffer' to gain access to email or banking passwords, and read internet conversations and browsing history."
They might also download copyrighted information, such as films or music, said Mr McCulloch.
A "piggybacker" could potentially hack government and banking networks, or even trade child pornography using the router of their victims. This would lead police back to the person with the original network connection.
"These threats are well proven to exist, often hurting innocent people who don't know how to secure their wireless networks. It is a simple process to eliminate the threat but extremely important people do it."
Director of KLM Computers, Mr McCulloch provides IT services and advice to customers throughout the Wanganui region and has found the issue is not restricted to the older generation.
"It is occurring with people who consider themselves technologically adept as well."
He said internet providers did not inform customers how to secure their networks properly - or tell them of the dangers of not doing so.
"This causes problems, since most people aren't otherwise aware of the issue and they aren't likely to research it themselves."
