Wireless

The upscale suburb of Chaska, Minn., will soon become one of the few, but growing, U.S. cities almost entirely within a 'hot spot' of high-speed wireless access to the Internet.

CHASKA, Minn.—This upscale suburb will soon become one of the few, but growing, U.S. cities almost entirely within a "hot spot" of high-speed wireless access to the Internet.

The Wireless Fidelity network will blanket virtually every home, business and city office with broadband-grade bandwidth —that is, super-fast access to the Internet without a hard-wired connection.

I'm one of the world's most rabid fans of wireless networking -- known variously as Wi-Fi, 802.11 or AirPort. It's just so glorious to be standing in an airport, hotel lobby or city street, open your laptop, and discover that you can go online at cable-modem speeds without hooking up a single cable. I'll admit, though, that I'm confused by the urgency of the oft-repeated concern about wireless security. On the Web, dozens of articles meticulously detail how to make your wireless network secure. But you'd be hard-pressed to find one that spells out what, exactly, the security risk is.

Passengers flying on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to Los Angeles on Monday became the first to experience in-flight Wi-Fi - a broadband wireless internet connection.

The satellite-based system enables passengers to surf the web and send emails from their own Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or handheld computers instead of using the more limited services some airlines offer through their seatback displays.

THE AUSTRALIAN COMPUTER Emergency Response Team has sent out warnings about just how easy it is to jam Wi-Fi networks, apparently as easy as using a PDA and a standard Wi-Fi networking card.
It was first thought that Wi-Fi networks, although accepted as jammable, would not be taken down without the use of large expensive equipment. However, Queensland University of Technology students have proved this false.

It was nearly impossible to traverse a significant part of the show floor at this year's Networld+Interop without encountering solutions that dealt with the thorny issue of wireless security.

Indeed, when it comes to the threat matrix associated with wireless security, there are many issues demanding attention: everything from keeping unauthorized wireless users off wireless local area networks (WLANs) to making sure that the traffic flowing through a WLAN is encrypted in a way that keeps the payloads safe from prying eyes.

Three Brisbane university students have discovered a major flaw in wireless network technology that means hackers can bring down critical infrastructure in as little as five seconds.

The finding, which is likely to have worldwide ramifications - was identified by the Queensland University of Technology's Information Security Research Centre.

A newly-discovered vulnerability in the 802.11 wireless standard allows attackers to jam wireless networks within a radius of one kilometre using off-the-shelf equipment.

Affecting various hardware implementations of the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard - including widely used 802.11b devices - the flaw was found in the collision avoidance routines used to prevent multiple devices from transmitting at the same moment.

Despite quickly becoming one of the leading sellers of wireless networking products, Microsoft has decided to discontinue its entire line of Wi-Fi gear, CNET News.com has learned.

A source close to the company said Microsoft entered the Wi-Fi field with hopes of "raising the bar" on security, ease-of-use and performance and now feels it has accomplished those goals.

Microsoft confirmed the move late Monday.

In June the IEEE is expected to finally ratify the 802.11i security standard that uses for the first time AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) technology, a powerful 128-bit encryption technology. While AES, a standard currently approved for government use, FIPS 140-2, (Federal Information Processing) will give the enterprise the kind of strong encryption and sophisticated ciphers it has been asking for, it will also require new access cards and in many cases new APs (access points), according to Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Senior directors now have no choice but to ensure that their businesses address security vulnerabilities in their Wi-Fi-enabled PCs and laptops, Capgemini will tell delegates at Infosecurity Europe this week. Over the past year, businesses have bought tens of thousands of PCs with Wi-Fi capabilities that have the potential to open holes in their corporate defences, said Andy Mullholand, Capgemini's global chief technology officer. The introduction of corporate governance rules leaves directors with no alternative but to take responsibility for Wi-Fi security.