| I mentioned yesterady that some factions in the USA consider WiFi to be a threat to "Homeland Security". Today there's an article in Wired. Feds Label Wi-Fi a Terrorist Tool in which federal cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke who said "Companies throughout the country have networks that are wide open because of wireless LANs.... Millions of houses are getting connected, which means that more and more are getting vulnerable," then we have Daniel Devasirvatham, who headed the Homeland Security task force for the Wireless Communications Association International trade association saying "We know that (an attack) could bring down the network of this country very quickly. Once you're on the network, it doesn't matter where you got in," Does anyone else find this mildly ridiculous? Let's take that last point. "It doesn't matter were you got in". So if I launched a denial of service attack from a Taiwanese server that I controlled via a box in Australia by using a laptop in Bryant Park with the park's Free WiFi access, Bryant Park is responsible? Hello? Or what if I share WiFi internet access round my home and incidentally someone in the road uses it to attack Whitehouse.gov to what extent am I responsible? These are difficult questions but if we take the view that I and Bryant Park are responsible, what do Feds think we're supposed to do about it? Can we expect them to mandate that all WiFi hardware is to have a Fed chip installed to provide positive identification and that the protocols are modified to ensure the ID is used, and that anyone tampering with it gets a minimum 20 year gaol sentence? And do we really think that will make any difference at all to the ability of a determined hacker to break it? Scott McNealy famously said "There is no privacy, get over it". Well I'm tempted to say to the Feds, "There is no security, get over it." And put your efforts into securing the critical systems at the centre, not into trying to mandate security at the edge. [from: JB Wifi] |
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[ 06-Dec-02 3:07pm ]
