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To: Paul Engel who wrote (147606)	11/12/2001 10:51:11 PM
From: tcmay	Respond to of 186894

Paul wrote: "Cool report - thanks for taking the time to write it up. "You comments on 802.11b "security holes" were quite illuminating - especially since Intel today announced a slew of 802.11a products. "These will enable your "war driving" friend to suck up even more data at a faster rate !" Well, he shows little interest in _actually_ sucking up the passwords and files and stuff...his main interest is in showing that it's possible by actually _doing_ it. The fix, of course, is for better attention to crypto hygiene, and having people realize that a single wireless access point to their network can compromise the whole network. My friend found major corporate LANs at companies like Oracle and Siebel where someone had a laptop on their desk that was tied to corporate networks and also acting as a wireless point of presence. Instant access! 802.11b offers up to 128-bit encryption, so in principle it's very strong. It's just that many machines are defaulted to 40 bits (bypassable in a few minutes, or less) or have essentially no crypto (turned off, or stupid passwords, etc.). 802.11a will come with stronger tools and probably the OSes will have better reminders to users. Still, many will change to easier-remembered passwords (like "Spot" and "000111222333..." and the like). I also met some friends whose companies I am still an investor in. It turns out that Intel is starting to work in their same area: ultrawideband. --Tim May