Tencent Security Researcher Fined For Hacking Hotel WiFi and Publishing Internal Network Credentials Online

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for ZDNet: Singapore authorities have fined a Chinese security researcher with SGD$5,000 (USD$3,600) for hacking into a local hotel's WiFi system without authorization and then publishing a blog post about it, revealing passwords for the hotel's internal network. The incident took place at the end of August, this year, when Zheng Dutao, 23, of China, visited Singapore to attend the Hack In The Box conference that took place in the city. Zheng took it upon himself, without asking for permission first, to hack into the WiFi network of a Fragrance Hotel branch, where he checked in for the conference's duration. The researcher, who works for Chinese internet giant Tencent, hacked into the hotel's internet gateway system, an AntLabs IG3100 device that controls access to the WiFi network for staff and guests alike. He discovered that the device was using a factory default Telnet password, which he used to gain access to a limited shell on the device. [...] The researcher didn't report the security issues to the hotel but instead wrote a blog post about his findings, which he later shared online.