RE: [fw-wiz] Hopefully not too OT

From: Paul Melson (psmelson_at_comcast.net)
Date: 05/02/05

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    To: <jimmy@chickenhollow.net>, <firewall-wizards@honor.icsalabs.com>
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 17:12:59 -0400

    I fear that a jammer would give you a false sense of security. For one,
    they're not totally effective, especially against ad-hoc networks in close
    proximity to each other. Sure, they kill performance, but they don't shut
    it down. Secondly, they can actually assist those airsnort-ing your space
    in collecting unique IV's should your rogue users be well-intentioned enough
    to use WEP. Thirdly, many jammers only operate in the 2.4GHz band - in the
    US alone you can buy WiFi products that operate at 915MHz and 5.8GHz, to say
    nothing of FHSS vs. DSSS. And, perhaps more importantly, jammers are not at
    all neighborly if your offices share space or proximity to businesses that
    do choose to use WiFi.

    Not to say that I have a better technical solution, but if you don't want
    *people* in or with your organization to use wireless, then you have a
    *people* problem that requires a people solution.

    PaulM
     

    -----Original Message-----
    Subject: [fw-wiz] Hopefully not too OT

    Good afternoon,

      This is not strctly firewalls per se, but more security in general, and as
    I usually find the quality of responses on this list to be of value, I will
    post it here.

      I work for an organization of about 5000 employees, with 55 remote sites
    hooked into our central site (ie, all traffic chokes at our main site and
    it's firewall.

      We have NO wireless network, and until the security of it matures to a
    point where I am reasonably comfortable (or until I am told to deploy one,
    more likely).

      With all of the recent identity theft, and the fact that we would be a
    potential target for such activities, I am trying to see where our
    vulnerabilities lie. In my searching, I pondered long and hard on rogue
    wireless APs and contractor/vendor laptops with wireless ebabled becoming a
    potential vector.

      While I scan our main building once a week with some wireless security
    tools, it is not feasible for me to contiuously drive around and scan all of
    our sites. I know also that I could put some sort of wireless IDS/Honeypot
    type thing out at each site, this would be expensive, and right now we are
    not flush with cash.

      I have been pondering putting an 802.11 jammer on site at each location
    (again, we don't use wireless, so it should not impair anything) and thought
    that might be a cheaper option.

      Have any of you done something like this, and have any tips from your
    experiences with this sort of scenario.

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