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Russian Spies Remarkably Incompetent

The alleged Russian covert agents uncovered in the suburbs used ridiculous communications methods: I’m flabbergasted by the techniques described in the FBI complaint about how the soi-disant spies communicated. In at least a couple of cases, the FBI states, a Russian official and one of the accused covert agents used ad hoc Wi-Fi to communicate over short ranges.

I suppose this seemed like a sensible method…to a six year old, although I wouldn’t want to accuse a six year old of such simplemindedness. Perhaps spycraft for Russians hasn’t caught up to, say, 1999, but needing close physical proximity is a simply bizarre requirement for passing information.

Ad hoc networking broadcasts information about the senders all over the place, which the FBI captured. The communicators clearly didn’t even change the MAC address (the unique Wi-Fi adapter number) or the ad hoc BSSID.

I won’t be surprised to learn that they were using WEP encryption, which the FBI broke, and lacked a layer of encryption on top of that.

Without jeopardizing national security, because I don’t know anything that every attendee at DEFCON isn’t better aware of than I am, I would have used one of the following methods.

Ultrawideband (UWB). While UWB hasn’t caught on, there’s plenty of gear out there. Indistinguishable from noise without special equipment, two relatively close devices could shift tons of information rapidly via UWB without creating overt attention.

Public Wi-Fi. Creating an ad hoc network is suspicious. Instead, the two parties communicating could log into a cafe network and use local network discovery to create an encrypted tunnel. That could be spotted, too, but it would appear potentially more innocuous.

Public Wi-Fi in freaking different locations. Explain to me again why, what with the Internet and plausibly unbreakable strong encryption, VPNs, and other obscuring tools, why spies would use close proximity to exchange data? Log in 100 miles away at separate cafes, create a tunnel between the two machines that doesn’t betray origin, destination, or contents, and there would be vastly less to make a case on.

Now, I suggest these methods not to encourage spies, but because every goshdarned techie with any slight knowledge of encryption and wireless communication would think of them first.

(I also like the alleged spies leaving one-time pads lying around, and writing down a critical 27-letter password.)

The former Soviet spy agency is clearly not recruiting from its elite Internet hacker division for wet ops.

Copyright ©2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

Researchers Can Force Mixed-Mode Cisco Routers to Spit Up WEP

WEP continues to rear its ugly head: Researchers from Core Security Technologies have found a way to force Cisco Aironet 1200 Series access points to use WEP for broadcast communications if a mixed-mode WEP/WPA security model is set.

I’m not surprised. Devices in mixed mode behave in peculiar ways, and being able to force a WEP broadcast means that the entire network is susceptible to that weak method.

The only good WEP is dead WEP. Companies that have been weaning themselves off WEP need to do an audit, figure out if they have any mixed-mode networks operating, and why in god’s name any piece of gear on the network has a need for WEP a this point.

WEP should be dead, but legacy gear that would be expensive to operate provides holes in retail and corporate networks. Companies should have taken the pain to upgrade, rather than face multi-million-dollar risks.

Copyright ©2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

Keeping PCs and Macs in perspective

Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Communications, took the unusual step — given the Softies’ usual reticence to mention their rivals — of sharing a bunch of data on Microsoft and its competitors in various industry segments.

Who is pushing the private cloud: Users or vendors?

No two pundits, partners or customers seem to be able to agree exactly what a “private cloud” is/isn’t. But that’s not the only cloudy party of the cloud. There’s also disagreement as to who wants private cloud computing.

Salesforce retaliates; sues Microsoft for alleged patent infringement

It took just a little over a month for Salesforce.com to answer Microsoft’s charge of patent infringement. On June 24, Salesforce sued Microsoft, making its own claims of patent infringement.

Microsoft’s latest (and oddest) Windows 7 promotion yet

Microsoft has been doing lots of early back-to-school and other kinds of promotions for Windows 7 in recent months. I haven’t seen the company do much to entice potential customers to buy the Professional version of the product, though, until now.

Microsoft ready to deliver another IE 9 developer preview

Like Neowin, I’m hearing from my sources that Microsoft is planning to make available for download later today, June 23, its third technical preview (i.e., pre-beta) of Internet Explorer 9.

Bing Spring updates: What’s new besides Zune Music?

Microsoft went public with some of what it’s calling its Bing Spring updates on June 22. Tonight’s focus is on what Microsoft is doing to enhance its entertainment search vertical.

9 Free WordPress Online Workshops Announced

Here’s some WebDesign.com free online workshops coming up soon …. we’ve added a number of webinars, including:

• Setting up Local WordPress Hosting – Thursday, June 24, 11a.m.-Noon
• Plugin Focus: Gravity Forms – Monday, July 19, 6 p.m.-7p.m.
• Plugin Focus: Introduction to Shopp Ecommerce Plugin – Wednesday, July 21, 1-2 p.m.
• How To Write Content, Blog Posts and Titles That Attract Traffic To Your Site Like Magic… Even If You Hate Writing – Friday, July 23, 11 a.m.-Noon

Here are the previous publicized workshops …

• BuddyPress for Dummies Webinar with Lisa Sabin-Wilson – Wednesday, June 23, 1-2 p.m.
• Setting up Local WordPress Hosting – Thursday, June 24, 11a.m.-Noon
• Creating Stunning Blog and Website Headers – Thursday, July 8, 11a.m.-Noon
• Convert Your Website to iThemes Builder – Saturday, July 10, 8a.m.-Noon
• Social Media Consulting – Wednesday, July 14, 11a.m.-Noon=

Sign up for these free workshops on our Events page …. or get a free trial membership of our WebDesign.com premium training here.