Don't know what all this discussion is about. Wireless is dead in the water. It is banned and shouldn't even be used. Well, at least that is what I understand to be the case:
Check out the text on Airsnort. This clever little program can be easily downloaded; and runs on Linux by the way!
AirSnort is a wireless LAN (WLAN) tool which recovers encryption keys. AirSnort operates by passively monitoring transmissions, computing the encryption key when enough packets have been gathered. 802.11b, using the Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP), is crippled with numerous security flaws. Most damning of these is the weakness described in "Weaknesses in the Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4 " by Scott Fluhrer, Itsik Mantin and Adi Shamir. Adam Stubblefield was the first to implement this attack, but he has not made his software public. AirSnort, along with WEPCrack, which was released about the same time as AirSnort, are the first publicly available implementaions of this attack. AirSnort requires approximately 100M-1GB of data to be gathered. Once enough packets have been gathered, AirSnort can guess the encryption password in under a second.
Also this weeks news!
Whitehall refuses to back wireless Lans By Andrew Donoghue [14-02-2002] The government has effectively banned the use of wireless local area networks due to security concerns. The Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG), which approves technology for use by government departments, has not approved any wireless Lans and will not do so until better levels of encryption are available. Computing last year revealed the ease with which unencrypted signals from wireless networks can be intercepted (Computing, 15 November). A spokesman for the CESG says each government department can make a decision on whether to use wireless Lans, but the CESG advises them not to use the technology at present. "This technology is attractive from a functional point of view but it carries certain security risks. These have been documented in the media," he said. "The assumption was that these were quite sophisticated things and it would need a very sophisticated person to attack them. That is not necessarily the case anymore." The CESG says no wireless technology has been approved under its Assisted Product scheme which approves IT products as 'suitable for purchase by HM Government as well as the UK public sector.' The effective ban has been in place for at least 12 months, says Paul Docherty technical director at government advisor Portcullis Security. Sorry if this bursts some people's bubbles. Regards to all, Bruce Miller.