The Land of Ozz

Today we feature a case of making a mountain out of a mole hill. The Washington Post released a story about how a Windows Wireless Flaw a Danger to Laptops. I have a news flash for you WaPo. This is a functionality of hard wired Windows based laptops and computers anywhere. Yes, you can gain access in more unsuspecting places like on airplanes via wireless, but this is not a new idea. The types of additional tools required to hack a laptop via a wireless connection as described in this article can also be used to hack a hard wired computer over a dial-up, cable modem, LAN, or DSL. Simply having an IP address on the same IP segment does not constitute hacking a computer as this article suggests. The meat of the story was skipped to satisfy the fear of the general population. In order to gain access to the target Windows computer remotely you must also gain user rights on that computer which requires using software that is not included on Windows computers. Computers plugged in via a standard network cable to a hotel, office, or home network are susceptible to the same kinds of attacks if they are not taking measures to “try” to stop hackers.

This news story is not really that big of a story after all. The most interesting portion of the article found below was where they are talking about hacking a laptop while on a plane over international waters.

Loveless said he believes that since the attacks were mostly carried while the plane was over international waters that U.S. law enforcement might have a hard time making the case that he was violating any laws. The real answer to that very interesting question, he said, would probably not be evident until someone gets sued in court for it.

Law enforcement authorities don’t seem to have a problem prosecuting a person for other offences over international waters. What makes computer crime over international waters any different than computer crimes committed on the ground?

The bottom line is that your data is only safe when it is on a computer that is turned off, unplugged from power and network, locked in a safe, and guarded by the US Marines.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2006 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Media, Techie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.