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[IP] Cybersecurity: they just don't get it...





Begin forwarded message:

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 26, 2004 2:09:11 PM PDT
To: Dave Farber <farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>, Peter Neumann <neumann@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [johnmacsgroup] Cybersecurity: they just don't get it...

FYI
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: wes_morgan@xxxxxxxxxx
To: johnmacsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [johnmacsgroup] Cybersecurity: they just don't get it...

I'm watching CNN's Headline News, and they run a story on security
preparations for this week's Democratic Convention in Boston. They go on, at great length, about the extensive network of cameras--approximately 75
of them, scattered around various Federal buildings and convention
sites--and make it a point to illustrate how the security force, with their wireless networks and handheld devices, can grab the feed from any of these
cameras at the tap of a stylus.

So, they show one such device - with it's 802.11b card clearly identifiable - and show another agent viewing a webcam of the Boston Harbor shoreline - with the URL of the hosting site clearly readable. When talking about the cameras, they show several different cameras on different buildings, some
of which seem fairly unusual in their architecture.

I now know that they're using 802.11b, and I know the name at least one
system handling the webcam feeds, and (with a bit of reconaissance) I can
probably determine the position of at least one camera.

So much for cybersecurity; I can't believe that the Feds even let that
stuff on the air, much less that they did so without obfuscating critical
information.

*sigh*  What were they thinking?

--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
 "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
   "Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
    -- Arthur C. Clarke
    "You Gotta Believe" - Frank "Tug" McGraw (1944 - 2004 RIP)

                          John F. McMullen
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