[NTLK] WEP

After all the hoopla over Hiroshi's driver, I finally got curious enough to
go to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy) and
learn just what WEP was all about. I had somehow envisioned that it was
some sort of secure commo that could be implemented over public wireless
internet. I didn't know how it worked, figured some sort of secure shell
protocol or maybe public key encryption, which really are relatively secure,
despite Hollywood's misguided attempts to convince the public otherwise.
What I discovered is that WEP can be cracked using off-the-shelf software in
as little as two minutes. OK, so maybe it would be useful to send one quick
burst, but after that, the mysterious black hats (illuminati, satanists,
G-men, terrorists, whatever) would have access to any transmissions.

OK, now, barring military grade frequency hopping devices and such other
esoteric things not available to the public, WEP is simply not secure. That
being the case, why all the excitement? Why would anyone use WEP enabled
commo to broadcast sensitive data?

Alternatively, I don't care if somebody knows I am looking at pictures of
say, naked women from Osaka. If I am a political candidate, let 'em try to
figure out which old man in the airport is looking at pictures of Mio
Saegusa (beautiful Japanese model). In that scenario, WEP is not necessary,
is it?

Would we all not be better served with the implementation of something like
SSH or GnuPG on a Newton OS platform? This way emailed transmissions from a
wireless device could be secure, and SSH could be used to tunnel to a remote
server which could then be commandeered for secure web surfing.

So far as I am aware, these tools have not been ported to the Newton OS,
despite the fact that there are open source models of both available for
other platforms.

As near as I can tell from what I have read, wireless internet is a
wonderful way for governments to keep tabs on its own citizens without going
through any major effort. No wonder there is all this push to provide free
wireless internet to entire cities. It would be a spymaster's dream!

Now, if I can't fix something with a hammer, I normally don't try, so I am
not well versed on all this stuff. My own network resides behind a machine
running FlopppyFW, and the important machines behind it all run their own
internal firewalls.

Yeah, I know I am paranoid, and I only hope I am paranoid enough. Am I
missing something though?

Dale the Paranoid Ornery Old Man

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