Swatting

[MikeG]

Online threat - but SWAT raids wrong house

This seems to be a growing prank where someone hacks into someones network and places a 911 call through VoIP or makes threats.

Dunno if this will stop all of it but everyone should do it.
1. change password to your wireless router.
2. use WPA or better encryption
3. Turn off SSID broadcast after everything is setup correctly (people driving by searching for networks won't see yours)
4. Use MAC address filtering so only your devices get IP addresses from the router. (MAC addresses are unique to the device and we usually know what devices we want to connect to the internet ). This works for bother wired and wireless connections.

Wireless router also don't have to be expensive. Wireless 802.11N Router w/ WPS & WISP Function (300Mbps) | Wireless Routers / Wireless Access Points

[rwreagan]

A few years ago there was a 17 year old teen in Muklteo, WA who placed a skype call to 911 in Orange County, said he'd killed his wife and was holding their children hostage, and directed them to an address he picked out of complete random.

Amazed no one has gotten killed yet.