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Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 22:21:20 EST5EDT4,M4.1,M10.5
Sender: os2-wireless_users-owner <os2-wireless_users-owner@2rosenthals.com>
Reply-To: os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com
From:  Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
To:  os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com
Subject: [OS2Wireless] WSF-1 rf detector

I don't know. He was probably picking off Wintendo machines (at least, 
I'm sure those were the desktops he was able to remotely view, using 
RDP, no doubt). Grabbing email usernames & passwords? Easy enough over a 
wired link, as hardly anyone uses APOP for mail, and authenticated SMTP 
with encrypted passwords is almost nonexistent.

This is why client-side security is so important: digitally signed & 
encrypted email, passwords kept in encrypted files (I use KeyRing/2, and 
recommend it to everyone using OS/2: 448-bit Blowfish encryption), 
spreadsheets password protected, etc.

The legality of snooping is an annoying one. Yes, it's legal to pick up 
stuff in the airwaves, just as it's legal to peer into someone's 
livingroom from the window. For me, the line is crossed when a person 
leaves his front door unlocked and someone from the outside steps in, 
uninvited. This goes beyond the barrier which is currently the applied 
standard to electronic eavesdropping, where as long as you don't record 
any of the information, you haven't committed a crime. I think it's akin 
to horsestealing or cutting a convertible top to steal a car. (I know; 
the analogies don't line up logically, but morally, they're in sync.)

The problem with hotspots is that encryption is near impossible. By the 
time you encrypt, everyone is in on it. You have no way of knowing that 
the guy next to you - with an encryption key - isn't sniffing. As you're 
both on the same encrypted network, you have no security.

Metropolitan areas are admittedly difficult to seal. At my house, I'm 
not concerned about anyone picking off my signal because here in the 
wilds of Long Island, my house is set so far back from the street and my 
neighbors that there's not much signal left beyond the boundaries of 
where I'm using my Wi-Fi. When I visit clients in Manhattan, I don't use 
any Wi-Fi gear. That's not as a precaution; I just haven't had the need! 
I suppose when the need arises for me, I'll have to deal with the 
situation appropriately.

Good article, though. I'd like to build one of those antennas he was 
using...

Stanley Sidlov wrote:

>IN the vein of this thread, what did everyone think of the NYT Sunday Magazine article on WiFi 
>Hacking?
>
>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E1FFF3E590C708DDDAE0894DB404482
>
> 	
>MAGAZINE DESK | July 13, 2003, Sunday
>THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 7-13-03: PHENOMENON; Walk-By Hacking
>
>By Erik Sherman (NYT) 1221 words
>Late Edition - Final , Section 6 , Page 22 , Column 1
>
>DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF 1221 WORDS - ''We've got 12 . . . wait, 13. Another just came ... On the hunt 
>for 30 seconds, Gary Morse is jazzed. We've walked about 45 feet down Avenue of the Americas in 
>Midtown Manhattan, and he has been counting the number of chirrups coming from the speaker of his... 
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Lewis
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Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA
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