Mailing List os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com Archived Message #4379 previous message next message back to list

From: Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> Full Headers
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Sender: os2-wireless_users-owner <os2-wireless_users-owner@2rosenthals.com>
Subject: [OS2Wireless] WSF-1 rf detector
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 22:21:20 EST5EDT4,M4.1,M10.5
To: os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com

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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