If you found an unsecured hotspot at a coffee shop, how tempted would you be to use it to check your email every day? A lot of people probably would not think much of it, but a man by the name of Sam Peterson realized the harsh consequences of just someone else’s hotspot to check his email.

Maximum prison term of 5 years and 40 hours of community service.

Some may say this is a little extreme while others will be pleased. The real question though is will harsh consequences like these really deter people from using unsecured hotspots? I’m likely to say no.

A Michigan man who parked outside a local Wi-Fi cafe every day to check his email has been fined $400 and sentenced to 40 hours’ community service.

Sam Peterson can consider himself unfortunate since if he’d simply popped into the Re-Union Street Cafe in Sparta, Michigan, for a coffee while checking his email he’d have avoided punishment. Peterson was collared for fraudulent access to a computer network after his presence outside the cafe drew the attention of local police chief Andrew Milanowski.

Peterson admitted he was surfing the web using the cafe’s unsecured Wi-Fi network. He didn’t realise piggybacking on the network might be an offense so it must have come as a surprise when he was summoned to court, charged with offences punishable by a maximum five years’ imprisonment.[more]

Tags: Wireless Security