October 17, 2001, 8:25 am
Major vendors tighten WLAN security
Oct 17, 2001 CNET
As part of the 802.1x standard, which has been approved but not implemented within 802.11b, the Windows XP client natively supports Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), which provides dynamic, session-specific wireless encryption keys, central user administration via specialized third-party Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) servers, and mutual authentication between client and Access Point (AP) and AP to RADIUS server.
Windows XP is also compatible with EAP-Transport Level Security (EAP-TLS), which uses digital certificates for authentication. Windows XP’s integration of these features will significantly ease deployment of EAP solutions because separate client utilities will no longer be necessary. These capabilities will reduce the risk involved in using 802.11b within a corporate network.
October 16, 2001, 9:16 am
Safeweb is a Fed Front. An enterprising Cryptome reader has discovered that the vaunted web privacy provider (already known to have CIA funding) Safeweb utilizes a Department of Defense server(s?) (anongo.com) as a proxy for user requests. [kuro5hin.org]
October 15, 2001, 8:00 pm
October 15, 2001, 7:53 pm
Fog Creek President Michael Pryor figured out a brilliant trick which makes it so that you see new topics, and topics that have followups you haven’t read, in blue. If you’ve read the entire topic, it will be purple. And it’s all done without keeping any state on the server.
October 15, 2001, 10:24 am
Robert Fleck, Cigital: Wireless insecurity + ARP Poisoning (pdf) (FAQ)
Observations:
- It’s true.
- It’s shameless security consultant self-promotion.
These are not new problems.
- ARP poisoning is still a problem on wired networks too. VPN and/or encrypted security contexts (e.g. SSL) are the solution.
Related article:
DowJones: Security Experts Are on Alert Over Wireless-Hacking Technique. Quicken.com Oct 15 2001 6:32AM ET
“Mr. Fleck of Cigital combined those wireless vulnerabilities with an attack that has been identified and addressed in most wired networks. Known as ARP poisoning, from the acronym for address resolution protocol, the attack manipulates software in the circuit boards that connect computers to corporate networks. That software contains addresses of other connected machines; a skilled hacker can fool the software to make it seem like his machine has an authorized address to receive data packets on the network. An attacker who understood both techniques, Mr. Fleck said, could use a laptop with a wireless connection to enter a company’s wireless network, and then effectively tell machines on the wired portion of the network to pass all data packets through his laptop.
“The most obvious solution to the problem is to segregate the gateway device that acts as the front door for machines making wireless connections to a network. That can be done using routing devices or filtering programs known as firewalls.”
[via Moreover Computer security news]
October 13, 2001, 11:58 am
Here’s one of those good ideas you’re glad someone else implemented. “When you find a page on the web whose address is too long to paste into an email or other document, you can use our free service to generate a shorter, simpler address.” Let’s give it a try. Here’s a pointer to Stewart Alsop’s article on Fortune through the shorterlink service. 
[Scripting News]
October 13, 2001, 11:53 am
October 13, 2001, 11:49 am
October 12, 2001, 3:23 pm
Yahoo:
Demonstrators hold up a poster of terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden during a pro Bin Laden rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh Monday, Oct. 8, 2001. Within the poster, at center right, is a printed image of “Sesame Street” children’s television character “Bert.”
Azad Products, who manufactures the poster was not aware of the appearance of Bert in one of the collaged images that make up the poster. “We got the images through e-mails and off the internet. We did not give the pictures a second look or realize what they signified until you pointed it to us,” Mostafa Kamal, production manager, told The Associated Press. Sesame Street or Bert are hardly known in Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)
Previously covered in http://www.lindqvist.com/bert.php.
October 12, 2001, 3:19 pm
Don’t eat while you read this 
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Terror isn’t only something that is done to people. It’s also what makes people to do terrible, terrifying things. I was one of the Taliban’s torturers: I crucified people is the brief story of Hafiz Sadiqulla Hassani, an accountant who committed hideous atrocities as a member of the Taliban secret police and finally as a bodyguard for Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s leader. The story is apocolyptic, right out of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, or the more familiar Apocalypse Now, with Osama bin Laden playing Col. Kurtz. Consider this narrative, which begins with a profile of Omar: |
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“He’s medium height, slightly fat, with an artificial green eye which doesn’t move, and he would sit on a bed issuing instructions and giving people dollars from a tin trunk,” said Mr Hassani. “He doesn’t say much, which is just as well as he’s a very stupid man. He knows only how to write his name `Omar’ and sign it. |
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“It is the first time in Afghanistan’s history that the lower classes are governing and by force. There are no educated people in this administration – they are all totally backward and illiterate. |
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“They have no idea of the history of the country and although they call themselves mullahs they have no idea of Islam. Nowhere does it say men must have beards or women cannot be educated; in fact, the Koran says people must seek education.” |
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He became convinced that the Taliban were not really in control. “We laughed when we heard the Americans asking Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden,” he said. “The Americans are crazy. It is Osama bin Laden who can hand over Mullah Omar – not the other way round.” |
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While stationed in Kandahar, he often saw bin Laden in a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers all with darkened windows and festooned with radio antennae. “They would whizz through the town, seven or eight cars at a time. His guards were all Arabs and very tall people, or Sudanese with curly hair.” |
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He was also on guard once when bin Laden joined Mullah Omar for a bird shoot on his estate. “They seemed to get on well,” he said. “They would go fishing together, too – with hand grenades.” |
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This time, however, we don’t seem to be sending a Willard up the river to “terminate the Colonel’s command.” But when it’s over, if it ever is, how do we save this hell from itself? |
[Doc Searls Weblog]
