Re: Wireless ISPs

[Ron DuFresne <dufresne () winternet com>]

        [SNIP]

> all I am after is raising the level of knowledge
> needed to access the data beyond that of an 8 year old
> with windows on a laptop running netstumbler and a
> wifi card
>
> do u not agree this would be prudent ?

Wireless products, as is most often the case with new technology in our
field, was rushed to market with poorly designed and thought out security
measures.  This is a common practise, and money maker.  Wep as a bad
design, Wap not much better.  So, as with the wired realm, we shim and
refurbish to make things tighter and a tad more controled.  There is
better coming down the wireless toys pipeline, now that rethinking flawd
methodolgies has had time to understand the issues.

Will the 'better' that is soon to be coming be enough?  Time will
certainly tell and test.

Now as it pertains to wireless ISP's, the problems are not much different
then was witnessed not long ago in the cable realm, whence people were
able to scarf up all sorts of traffic from the shared media, and in some
cases spoof and play as a neighbor, or wreck havoc upon their neighbors.
The cable folks woke up and learned to isolate some aspeacts of their
network layout to help limit and prevent some of the most blatant.  So,
yes, wireless ISP providers should and certainly will be woked up to the
issues they have.   Prudent is perhaps a good term here, as in prudent for
their own best interests, let alone for their clients and client retention
and avoiding legal hassles along the line of due dilligence.

Thanks,

Ron DuFresne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity.  It
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation." -- Johnny Hart
        ***testing, only testing, and damn good at it too!***

OK, so you're a Ph.D.  Just don't touch anything.

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html