Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices and cordless phones use radio waves that fall within a non-licensed portion of the frequency spectrum. This means that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. and regulatory bodies in other countries allow usage in these public bands without coordination among users.
The OpenBSD project has long been associated with security. Indeed, thanks to proactively and regularly auditing its code, the project's web site is able to boast "only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 8 years," and another page states "our aspiration is to be NUMBER ONE in the industry for security (if we are not already there)." However, security is not the only focus of OpenBSD, as reflected in the project's slogan which reads, "Free, Functional and Secure." All three of these words are strongly backed by OpenBSD developers.
Agency officials in charge of setting policies for wireless use and related technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) still have a difficult job. Technologies are evolving, as are the security standards that they use, and employees are not always judicious about using their own wireless devices on an agency network.
Imagine a wireless hotspot the size of Philadelphia or a rural community in the American heartland. U.S. cities and companies are eyeing an emerging technology known as WiMax as a way to make high-speed wireless Internet services available in areas much larger that a typical Wi-Fi coffee bar or the local McDonald's. But it may prove difficult to make such services commercially viable, analysts say.
Wireless LANs are taking over the world's airwaves, pushing up Wi-Fi Latest News about Wi-Fi equipment sales to US$2.8 billion in 2004, a 15 percent increase from 2003, research released today has indicated.
According to Infonetics Research's latest quarterly market share service, some 36.1 million units of Wi-Fi kits shipped last year, up 51 percent from 2003. The study predicts that unit shipments will continue growing through 2008, when they will reach 80.4 million, 123 percent more than in 2004.
Just as I was reading Verizon's latest proclamation that "with Wi-Fi, you are limited to one spot" (see Glenn's post on Verizon's latest wireless FUD in Texas), in comes a Skype call from Martyn Levy of RoamAD who tells me that the world's first highway Wi-Fi mobile voice network has been successfully tested on a US interstate highway – the Canamex Interstate Highway (I-19) from Rio Rico to a point south of Green Valley, Arizona. Wi-VOD deployed it using a Department of Homeland Security grant; the network is managed by the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council.
Wireless computer networks could be secured against fraud and identity theft using a novel cryptographic protocol designed to keep passwords safe from prying eyes.
Markus Jakobsson and Steve Myers of Indiana University, US, demonstrated the new security scheme, dubbed "delayed password disclosure", at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington DC on Saturday.
I finally settled on a strategy for wireless security. As wireless access points began appearing on our company's network, we configured them with Cisco's Lightweight Extensible Access Protocol. (See my Nov. 8 column, "Taking the Leap to PEAP for Wireless," QuickLink 50430.) LEAP forces users to authenticate to the access point with their enterprise credentials -- the same credentials used for virtual private network access, as well as services such as payroll and Microsoft Exchange e-mail.
The Wi-Fi alliance will use its pull in the industry to improve security measures in wireless LAN hardware over the next year.
The Austin, Texas, trade organization, which confers the right to use the Wi-Fi label on hardware, plans to increase encryption requirements for certification. But members of the security task groups within the alliance stress that the onus of WLAN security still lies with the customer.
To start off, lets define the word “wardriving” : the act of locating and possibly exploiting connections to wireless local area networks while driving around a city or elsewhere. [techtarget.com] Wardriving can be a very useful tool if you don’t feel like paying a monthly fee for a high speed internet connection. It also can be useful if you want to search the web anonymously.
