The Hindu Business Line : Wireless infidelity can fail in Wi-Fi hotspots to put you in a spot

CHENNAI has always been a political hotspot, it is said, providing lively entertainment to people, what with intense activity in party offices. Now, the city's airport has a Wi-Fi `hotspot', the first of 300 that BSNL has planned for launch in 15 major cities across the country, as www.bsnl.in announces in a press release dated August 22.

Remember that we are not talking about hotspot as a place of `dangerous unrest or hostile action', as in "Gaza, a long-time hotspot of Palestinian militant attacks," but as an area that allows `wireless fidelity' access to the Internet.

But what is Wi-Fi? Already, Word redlines and suggests wife, instead. "If talk of a `Wi-Fi hotspot' makes you think of someone having trouble with their spouse, then you are not alone," reassures http://news.bbc.co.uk on how people are confused by Wi-Fi jargon; but that was in August 2003, when about 1,000 public hotspots were available throughout Europe.

Respondents came up with other bizarre guesses as possible meanings of Wi-Fi hotspots, such as: a nightclub, something smelly that had been left in the sun for too long, a posh hot tub, a sun-bed, and a microwave ready meal.

It is "a group of technical standards enabling the transmission of data over wireless networks," states Concise Oxford English Dictionary defining Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi is "a local area network that uses high frequency radio signals to transmit and receive data over distances of a few hundred feet," and it uses Ethernet protocol, according to http://dictionary.reference.com. The word is short for wireless fidelity and is meant to be used generically when referring to any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, and so forth, says www.webopedia.com.

About the `generic' part, I have my doubts, because the term is promulgated by the Wi-Fi Alliance, "a global, non-profit industry association of more than 200 member companies devoted to promoting the growth of wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)," as www.wi-fi.org proclaims, intent on "enhancing the user experience for mobile wireless devices".

The `Wi-Fi' entry on www.bambooweb.com, the `Open Content Encyclopedia', states that the term 4G is occasionally used for Wi-Fi, "the implication being that the bandwidth and capabilities offered are already greater than those promised by the 3G cellular telephone standards." The main difference between cellular and Wi-Fi, as BambooWeb explains, is that cellular system use licensed spectrum, while Wi-Fi is implemented over unlicensed bands, which is already "crowded with other devices such as Bluetooth, microwave ovens, cordless phones and video sender devices."

To get around the Wi-Fi trademark, perhaps, www.wiphi.net offers `weekly wisdom for the wireless generation' in neat packets. Packet 4 reads: "If you were totally and absolutely wireless, all failure would dissolve instantly. Failure can't survive when you're unattached." And packet 6, "Wirelessness is the freedom you've always wanted, (with no strings attached)."

One of the FAQs on wi-fi.org explains 802.11b as a standard developed by IEEE or the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (http://standards.ieee.org). "The 802 committee develops standards for local and wide area networks (LANs and WANs). For example, the 802.3 committee develops standards for Ethernet-based wired networks, the 802.15 group develops standards for personal area networks, and the 802.11 committee develops standards for wireless LANs."

That is not all, because 802.11 committee is further divided into 802.11b, or Wi-Fi, a standard for wireless LANs operating in the 2.4 GHz spectrum with a bandwidth of 11 Mbps. What about 802.11a? It lays down the standard "for wireless LANs operating in the 5 GHz frequency range with a maximum data rate of 54 Mbps".

Please note that more are in the making, such as draft standard, 802.11g, for WLANs operating in the 2.4 GHz frequency but with a maximum data rate of 54 Mbps. "Other task groups are working on enhanced security (802.11i), spectrum and power control management (802.11h), quality of service (802.11e), and so forth."

Easier guidance is available in `Hackers, Hits and Chats: An E-Commerce and Marketing Dictionary of Terms' on www.udel.edu: "A Wi-fi network requires an access point (base station) and each computer attached to the network needs a wireless network card." Wireless networks are fairly easy to set up, and very useful, so they are spreading quickly in companies, schools, and homes, informs the site.

But, on security, there is bad news. "Wi-fi security is easily compromised, so you should consider anything transmitted via Wi-Fi as public knowledge. The encryption is auto-crackable, and the clients can be monitored or subject to man-in-the-middle attacks," the dictionary cautions. It is almost impossible to make a wireless network private, it notes, because their range will be more than you expect and can be picked up for long distances. "This can be a good thing (public commons) or a bad thing (compromised corporate networks). One unauthorised access point on a poorly set up network can compromise the entire network."

Though for protection, Wi-Fi commonly uses WEP (that is, Wired Equivalent Privacy) protocol, experts point out that this can be cracked easily.

Writing about `Wi-Fi High Crimes' on www.securityfocus.com, Mark Rasch asks: "If the door is open, I can come in. But what if it's not open, but is unlocked? Or if it is locked, but locked poorly? Can I still come in?

"The answer right now is simply that we do not know." In an era of `ubiquitous wireless computing', you can think of inexpensive Wi-Fi protocols, mobile VOIP communications, and `near universal wireless Internet access'; but first "we are going to have to persuade the law to get the hell out of the way," adds Rasch commenting on the `oppressive latticework of outdated criminal laws'.

A July 4 headline in St. Petersburg Times (www.sptimes.com) cautions, `Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder'. The story begins with the arrest of a man who intruded into a network from a parked car, and the author, Alex Leary, notes that there have been instances of people having used the cloak of wireless to traffic child pornography, steal credit card information and send death threats!

"A drive through downtown St. Petersburg shows how porous networks can be. In less than five minutes, a Times reporter with a laptop found 14 wireless access points, six of which were wide open." Alarming input, even as `entire cities are unplugging'.

Leary cites a case where a man in an apartment complex used his neighbour's Wi-Fi to access bank information and pay pornography sites to get sex products sent to his address. Authorities found that he kept an antenna hanging out his window to get a better signal from his neighbour's network!

"Just ask Peter Shankman, who recently returned from a business trip to Europe," suggests Christopher Elliott in an article titled `Using Wi-Fi safely: encryption and other tips' posted on www.microsoft.com. "On a stopover at the KLM lounge in Amsterdam, he opened his laptop and tapped into the wireless connection. Big mistake. `By the time I got to Berlin, the machine was totally and completely dead,' says the New York communications consultant. `My computer had gotten infected. My file trees were completely shredded.'"

The day's story on The Inquirer (www.theinquirer.net) is that Wi-fi is totally insecure for press, according to Intel, which supplies Wi-Fi access at its forum.

The company cautions the media people about the inherent security weakness of the wireless networks, and that it is not liable for any lack of privacy.

Criminals are using Wi-Fi to hide Internet footprints, one learns from an August 8 posting on http://wifi.weblogsinc.com. "The term `wireless security' may seem a contradiction in terms," argue Tony Bradley and Becky Waring in `Complete Guide to Wi-Fi Security' on www.jiwire.com.

"Every time you log on to a public Wi-Fi access point, you are transmitting your login name and password over open airwaves, and often a credit card number as well... After all, how can any data sent into the open air be secure?" they ask.

So, before you open your laptop in a hotspot, bear in mind that wireless technology can forsake fidelity, and betray, to put you in a spot.

ZeroBase@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali

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