Author: Wayne Slavin
2,286 posts
BBC News Online has been shown just how lax security is on wireless networks used in London's financial centre. Via [news.bbc.co.uk]
We were thwarted. We were going to review a cool product as promised last week but . . . well, the PC we were using bit the big one and stymied our endeavors. But, miracle of miracles, we were investigating something else that we think you will be equally agog over (we will return to...
Network administrators deploying an 802.11b wireless network need site survey tools to help plan locations for access points. Once installed, the access points need to be checked periodically to ensure they are providing adequate coverage. Via [pcmag.com]
Current authentication in the 802.11 standard is focused more on wireless LAN connectivity than on verifying user or station identity. For enterprise wireless security to scale to hundreds or thousands of users, the current method of authentication must be replaced by an authentication framework that supports centralized user authentication. Via [nwfusion.com]
There are some interesting reports of people in Europe and undoubtedly elsewhere doing their own version of the now common War Driving.
How many network administrators do you think would allow a complete stranger to walk into their wiring closet and plug in their notebook to their company's network? Not too many, I suspect. But that's what's happening to companies coast-to-coast. Well, not exactly. Strangers aren't plugging into networks, but they are attaching to networks using 802.11b...
While most of Auckland was sheltering from an unexpected late-winter blast, a band of evil crackers set out to map vulnerable wireless networks in city’s central business district. Via [pcworld.co.nz]
Federal law enforcement officials may use a controversial surveillance technology to monitor e-mail and other text messages delivered through wireless devices, such as cell phones--a fact that has one telecommunications group concerned. Via [news.com.com]
With the deployment of wireless network access in the workplace, the requirement for a more enhanced security design emerges. Wireless technology offers a more accessible means of connectivity but does not address the security concerns involved with offering this less restrained service. In order to facilitate management of this network, maintain a secure network model,...
AirSnort is a wireless LAN (WLAN) tool which recovers encryption keys. AirSnort operates by passively monitoring transmissions, computing the encryption key when enough packets have been gathered. Via [airsnort.shmoo.com]
"This is why I love New York," says Anthony Townsend, standing in the middle of Washington Square Park, holding his laptop computer like a butler's tray and scanning the adult playground the place becomes on hot summer evenings. Where else, he asks, can you walk around with a computer, surf the Web, and go utterly...
A group of researchers from Rice University and AT&T Labs have used off-the-shelf methods to carry out an attack on a known wireless encryption flaw -- to prove that it "could work in the real world." Via [cnn.com]
A new report dashes any remaining illusions that 802.11-based (Wi-Fi) wireless local-area networks are in any way secure. The paper, written by three of the world's foremost cryptographers, describes a devastating attack on the RC4 cipher, on which the WLAN wired-equivalent privacy (WEP) encryption scheme is based. Via [eetimes.com]
From etiquette experts to senior executives at Microsoft, a growing number of people say wireless Internet access is becoming an annoyance--a technology that could potentially become more annoying than cell phones or pagers. They point to the alarming number of attendants at technology conferences and even internal office meetings who ignore speakers to focus on...
When you start Windows NT, NTDETECT searches for the pointing device (usually a mouse). In the course of this process, data is sent to the serial (COM) ports. If a serial mouse is detected, Windows NT disables the port so a device driver for the mouse can load instead. If a device is not detected,...