>
>> In the end you have to measure what is at stake and take the proper
>> steps to protect your self. We go through this at work all the time
>> with our customers. Some are totally oblivious, and others are so
>> stark as to be totally paranoid and not take advantage of these
>> technologies (with proper protection) is to their detriment.
>
> Not trying to start a flame war, but I'm curious, are you saying that
> not taking advantage of WiFi is detrimental. Sort of like not using
> cable and only stick to dialup?
No not really, but I am giving some examples that we have to deal with,
I work for a company that does mobile work force management and by
the very nature of the way the product works (there is a piece that
runs in a MDT (hardened laptop) in the service vehicle that the service
person uses. At the start of the work day the service people pick up
the work orders and other work related data, up until the past year
the bandwidth available over the wide area networks was that of CDPD
(19k2 over the air and 14k4 best thruput to the user) so most of them
would have the service people pick up the downloads at service centers
or through some other high speed mechanisim at the service center.
Most of them went to WiFi so the techs (service people) would not
have to pull the mdt out of the vehicle but some would not even though
the means were there to make it quite secure. That forced a level of
additional work and wasted time on the service people as they hade to
remove the mdt from the vehicle take it into a service center and down
load the work. Then in the evening that had to upload all of the data
that was not sent over the WAN while out on the road in order to
conserve bandwidth.
We had one customer have a big internal fight between the network admin
who did not want WiFi and the radio guys along with the service people
who wanted to put it in the service centers. They did a pilot and were
able to place the antennas such that the only area they had connectivity
was at the service dock, the equipment yard (full of the kinds of hardware
you find at any electric utility, BIG equipment) extended so far as to
make receiving the signal from the antennas impossible even with a high
gain antenna, but the admin was adamit that he was not allowing WiFi,
even after they demoed the addiition security and the inability to copy
it from the outside. They then did a little test to see how much longer
it was taking the techs to load the machines off of 10baseT connections
and then get going and the difference was about 30 minutes/tech. Needless
to say at that point management stepped in and said YOU WILL USE WiFi.
And management was very very critical of the security issue also but
once they saw that it could be made to do what was needed with the security
they needed, and they saw how much time the techs were loosing doing
the docking thing they changed their minds.
Again you have to weigh your options and see what you are willing to
do in order to use it. I agree that I do not want people poking around
in my network so I have one, but I have it behind a firewall and turn
it off when it is not in use. I also use a VPN through it, and my home
is about 400 feet from the street. I have gone out and checked with a
21 db gain antenna to see if I can get enough juice on the street to
be copiable, and it just is not there. The only way they might get to
me would be from the river, but that would be sort of obvious.
So I put up with having to go and turn the thing on set up a vpn and
then I can use it, but it is handy because I can move around the house
and do my work with the laptop where ever I want within reason, I can
not go to the neighbors and the far end of the property with it as
I have seen some people do (chee are they walking around with a hit
me sign on them or not??) but it does what I need it to do without
having to run wires (I hate fibreglass insulation with a passion,
not only does it make me itch it also makes me sneeze and feel like
I have a bad head cold) through the attic and down the walls.
In your environment you do what makes you feel comfortable, if the
level of comfort with WiFi is not good for you and you do not want to
go through the hassel of doing all the other stuff to get that comfort
level, you run wires. I was going to do that but the last trip up in
the attic gave me a really bad reaction and at that point I decided
that I would go the WiFi route, and do the security stuff to keep it
clean. The WiFi box is also on DMZ off of my cable router device.
And that piece is also firewalled.
>
> Guess I should go off line with this. But I'm interested in peoples
> views. It's very easy to have misunderstandings through this medium.
>> One must strike a proper line between too loose and too tight.
>
> Yup. My observations have been that due to lack of clear
> understanding of not only the vulnerabilities, but also the frequency
> and ease of abuse. Most have the view that it will not happen to them.
Yes, similar to flying airplanes, when I was learning to fly they told
me that with regards to retractable gear aircraft there were two types
of pilots, those who had landed gear up and those who would. I have done
it twice,(down lock failure to engage and broken downlock adjustment
screw) both times there was a gear malfunction, so I have done it, but
there are a great number out there who say "it will not happen to me"
the forget to put the bloody thing down! Same goes for WiFi. Sooner or
later some one will try it so why leave the door open?
Chuck Hast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To paraphrase my flight instructor;
"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
and twisted metal."
*****************************************************************
This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is
addressed. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify
the sender immediately and destroy any hard copies you may have printed and
remove all copies of the e-mail from your hard drive. Opinions, conclusions
and other information in this message that do not relate to the official
business of Utility Partners, Inc shall be understood as neither given nor
endorsed by it.
Visit us on the web at http://www.utilpart.com
*****************************************************************
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:08:56 EDT