Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Unlicensed Wireless: License to Attack?

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 00:46:43 -0400

Unlicensed Wireless: License to Attack?

By  Caron Carlson
 May 13, 2003

Warning: Using unlicensed wireless networks could be so damaging
to the safety of your data that industry experts are suggesting
the need for a Surgeon General-like warning label.
Regulators, private industry and law enforcement widely agree that
data networks-wireless and wireline alike-will forever be
vulnerable to attack. The difference with wireless technology,
some in industry say, is that users have no idea just how
vulnerable it is.

"[Wireless application protocol] protection is virtually useless,
and I don't think consumers are aware of it," said Jacob
Christfort, chief technology officer and vice president of Product
Development at Oracle Corp. Speaking at a forum on unlicensed
wireless networks Tuesday, Christfort said he could support
regulation requiring network providers to display a cautionary
label, such as those shown on alcohol and tobacco products.

As hotspots and other unlicensed wireless technologies
proliferate, there are growing threats to data protection from
information brokers, industrial spies, and "bad apple" divorce
attorneys seeking data on their clients' exes, according
 to Ted Phillip, senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
However, wireless LAN users, often equating wireless access
 with traditional telephony, can have a false sense of security
about the privacy of their information.

"The money part of the equation is really starting to pick up,"
Phillips said at the forum sponsored by the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration in Washington.
"We have to face the fact that there is a growing and increasingly
severe threat that's going to be out there. It actually scares me,
and I've been at this for a while."

Apart from small regulatory fixes such as the warning label idea,
industry representatives generally oppose more intrusive federal
initiatives to secure wireless technologies. One reason is that
the possibilities for anonymity in wireless networks make it easy
for sophisticated offenders to dodge enforcement. Criminals can
buy inexpensive computers and wireless access cards and then
quickly dispose of them, making it impossible to track crimes.

WLANs remain a noted concern in the federal government, and the
Administration has toyed with ways of promoting better security.
The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace holds agencies
responsible for implementing risk management processes and
security controls. The government is particularly concerned about
the problem of anonymity in attacks on national security, said
Paul Nicholas, director of Critical Infrastructure Protection at
the Homeland Security Council.

"Attacks happen and you don't know where they're coming from,"
Nicholas said, adding that increased funding for security
technology research and increased information-sharing would help.

For private enterprises, many in industry maintain that sufficient
methods exist to secure WLANs as needed.

"802.11 security is not a big concern because we can deal with it
if we need to for certain applications," Oracle's Christfort said.
"802.11b is like walking on an unlighted street at night. You can
do it, but you better know where you're going."

Displaying a rising profile in wireless telecommunication, the IT
industry is pressing the government to make more spectrum
available for unlicensed use. However, the most useful bands of
the electromagnetic frequencies are already being used, and the
incumbents-from cellphone operators to the Department of
Defense-are lobbying hard to keep what they have and get more.

"The fundamental problem we have here today is that spectrum is
artificially scarce. It is mandated scarcity," said Peter Pitsch,
government affairs officer at Intel Corp.

http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3668,a=41587,00.asp

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