Ack! (exclaims the guy who's working on fixing that problem at CSOM)

We've had a box sitting around waiting to be plugged into the right ports
for a while now.  I know there are holes in it too, and if that security
company is worth anything, they still would have gotten in.  It's meant to
be a stepping-stone to a more secure network, using the technology we have
available to fix the inherent problems with wireless access points.  (I'd
really call them design flaws, though I'm not aware of anybody suing
yet..)

I wasn't too concerned about the effects of this until I saw the report. 
There must be some sign at WCCO that subliminally tells reporters, ``you
must always speak in a condescending tone.''  I'm a little pissed off at
them right now, though mostly just because of the condescending bit.

It's probably inappropriate that the security company demonstrated
printing and sending e-mail over the open network downtown.  I guess we
were warned at least in part.  Someone from UMN's central Office of
Information Technology called someone at the Carlson School.  My boss was
paged at some point, but he was stuck in an Oracle class at the time.

The reaction to this reminds me of what Microsoft has been doing recently,
telling the people who find vulnerabilities in their products to keep
quiet about it.  Certainly, the report is going to speed up our efforts to
make the network more secure.  It's annoying that it happened basically on
the eve of our rollout (though that has been pushed back way too far
already).

Wireless security is a big problem.  Too bad there aren't (yet) large
numbers of people who know that, or how to fix it.  It's certainly
stretching the extent of my knowledge.

Thanks for reminding me of TCWUG, Scott.  I sent in a subscription request
(should have done that months ago, but it slipped my mind).  The next step
in the development of secure wireless at Carlson will be the deployment of
encryption.  Something good, yet readily available, is all I ask for. 
(Unfortunately for me, this probably means that I'll have to go back and
finally figure out how to get RADIUS working).

-- 
 _  _  _  _ _  ___    _ _  _  ___ _ _  __   That was ZEN. This is TAO.
/ \/ \(_)| ' // ._\  / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__   
\_||_/|_||_|_\\___/  \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __)  
[ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088 at tc.umn.edu ]
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