SWAT team raids wrong home in open Wi-Fi network cock-up [VIDEO]

Is your home Wi-Fi network left open for anyone to use? Maybe this staggering story from America will make you think twice as to whether that’s a good idea.

After spotting threats posted online, a heavily-armed police SWAT team broke down the door of a house in Evansville, Indiana, smashed windows and tossed a flashbang stun grenade into the living room where an eighteen-year-old girl and her grandmother were watching the Food Network.

Can you imagine how terrifying it must have felt to have been in that room when the grenade was thrown in, and the house stormed by police with their guns drawn?

Oh, and just a small detail – the police had the wrong house. The home had an open Wi-Fi connection, which meant that it could be used from an outside location.

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The dramatic events were helpfully captured on video, as the police had invited the local news station to record the raid (presumably their intention was to show themselves in a good light, rather than making a massive goof)…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "The AI Fix" and "Smashing Security" podcasts. Follow him on Bluesky and Mastodon, or drop him an email.

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