[clue-tech] Wireless security again

[Nate Duehr]

Collins Richey wrote:

>I'm just wondering what the real exposure is, since neither of my
>regular PCs will ever be on the wireless connection. I can train my
>wife and daughter never to do financial transactions on the laptops,
>but how are the hardwired units exposed?
>
>Perhaps one of you gurus would like to expound on this?
>  
>
Certainly no security guru here, but simple RF engineering maybe.  ;-) 

I keep my AP in my basement.  The RF goes upward vertically okay, but 
the concrete foundation walls tend to absorb 2.4 GHz RF pretty 
effectively.  Depending on your setup, windows and other things may not 
make that an effective option.

The other comments were good about the bank being SSL, etc.  Everything 
I've read about good security is that it's layered.  More layers, more 
hope for security.  I say "hope for security" because nothing is 100% 
secure.

Unless someone's specifically targeting you personally for some personal 
reason, making yourself a harder target than the guy "next door" is 
usually more than adequate.  It's getting hard to NOT to find an open AP 
when driving around these days.  Grab a copy of Netstumbler and throw 
one of the laptops in the passenger seat sometime, don't even bother 
with an external antenna.  You'll be surprised/amazed.

Nate