🚀 go-pugleaf

jon_care@hicom.lut.ac.uk writes:

>In article <jenn_b.5@aci_1.aci.ns.ca>, jenn_b@aci_1.aci.ns.ca (JENNIFER BAKER) writes:
>>What are some of the security measures to consider when dealing with 
>>WIRELESS LANS.


>1) Wireless LANS, at frequencies below 10GHz, are easy to monitor relatively
>cheaply. (At the 10Ghz range, one has to intercept the path of the microwave
>signal).
>Commercial receivers are available that will happily monitor any frewuency
>up to about 950 Mhz - If a TNC (with modem chip set for the correct baud rate)
>is then connected in to a PC, packets received can be decoded and analysed
>very easily.

The 950 Mhz one that we have tested is a spread spectrum implementation
with a setable frequency spread (to avoid the case of either accidental 
or purposeful interference from an identical box). In that particular 
case, I don't see any more security problems than with a normal Ethernet
(which in and off itself is a less than secure medium!.
	Spread spectrum, (for those of you who have never heard of it) is
a military invention that spreads the transmitted power out over a large
number of different frequencies (a little of the total power on each
frequency) which makes it hard to jam, and somewhat harder to monitor (in order
to get a decent signal level, the receiver needs to know all the frequencies
in use). In this particular application, it provides security (as noted above)
from a person with a single freq receiver, and probably as importantly,
resistance to interference, and the capability of having several units
operating independently (on different frequency spreads) near each other.


Peter Van Epp / Operations and Technical Support 
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Canada