Anyone still using FAX?

Lets say somebody wants to 'sniff' the WiFi traffic at a local coffee shop. It could be your competitor, hoping you are going to send some data while sitting at Starbucks. Or just someone sniffing the general traffic, looking for SSNs.

There are hacks that people can use to knock the network DHCP service off. Then, they just run their own on that subnet, directing traffic anywhere they want. Its even possible to set up 'man in the middle' attacks on secure sockets, making https services insecure (This assumes that users don't pay attention to certificate warnings that pop up, or the web site's certificate chain of authority has been compromised). The entire hostile system could easily be implemented on one powerful laptop and, in the event the hacker thinks the law might be on his trail, packed up and removed.

This appears to have happened at a local hangout near my home. Its actually a service provided by the county library system. In spite of my warning their administrator that 'something funny' appears to be going on with their network, they have yet to catch on after several months. I'm trying to correlate instances of odd network behavior with the presence of certain individuals. Unfortunately, this is also the hangout of the local organized crime muscle, so I'm guessing its their operation and the hacker with the laptop is being looked after.

I get 'level 1' pay-as-you-go voip call termination in NZ for

And they're not the cheapest provider around, by any means. I think I've seen 1.2 or 1.5 cents per minute.

It's pretty much transparent (works like a POTS phone) once it's set up.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

YourISP.Com

option

some does, some ftp clients and servers support TLS encryption. ftp isn't intended for sensitive data. (it's a bit of a mess there are at-least 2 different ways (not including sftp which is ssh)).

for windows machines putty and pscp are pretty easily had, (I don't know of any windows ssh server)

that seems slightly confused you don't need to be able to set up FTP accounts (which typically requires admin permission) to set up security on web pages or trees.

...do you call getting spam FAXes "successfull?

Don't forget that all phone switches are required to have law-enforceent gear so the feds can monitor your phone calls.

I assume the phone company and government will tell you that stuff is secure. I don't know enough to trust them.

The was a story going around a while ago about how the Pentagon got infected with some nasty virus. The bad guy droped a thumb drive in the parking lot. Somebody picked it up and plugged it into his PC to see who owned it.

No matter the path, spam faxes will occur.

But my favorite trick is, since I'm PC-based, is to send them back 100 pages of all-black, except for a small window in the middle declaring, "Don't send to this number again" ;-)

...Jim Thompson

When I tried emailing a few years ago. it was problematic, but now greatly inproved. I still fax out, and I like having the hard copy right there for record. Might as well fax if your going to print a record. I have had good luck on the email filtering being done, but sometimes it can pose problems. On my main email, I don't see those 20-30 spams each day.

greg

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Of course not. But this isn't exactly the right time to let our guards down some more.

Yes, https would be the next step. However, FTP can also be used to transfer encrypted files and, like Linux, doesn't have enough critical mass to garner the attention of crooks. They are more interested in careless email senders, looking for account information and "hot" attachments.

Yes, pain is Mother Nature's way of saying, "Don't do that." ;-)

I once felt the signs of incipient CTS (carpal tunnel syndrome) and so I just repositioned my hand, wrist, and mouse so that my wrist didn't hurt. I've never, ever carpal tunnel. It's caused by people ignoring the pain, or "playing through the pain", and a real handy excuse for people who want to get out of work.

If it hurts, stop! ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Yes, I believe they won't let you do that via a cell phone. Maybe there are options, too, like a number you call that then relays you to your destination. But I haven't looked because I do not need an expensive cell plan with oodles of "free" minutes.

That fee is IMHO reasonable. After all, I guess they must pay AT&T for the two or more additional pages that they have to print out, collect the money and send it over to them. It all gets invoiced on your regular POTS bill, no credit card numbers or any of that. Doesn't get any easier than this.

telephone

Or become "pointing device ambidextrous". That's how I do it, using the mouse/trackball with my left half a day, then right.

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I'm don't like to load up my mind with paranoia ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Hi Paul,

Essentially WiFi without encryption is the same as providing an "insert phone tap here" connector in front of a residential T1 concentrator and knowing that no one is likely to notice if you make use of it: You now have a relatively small number of connections to sort through simultaneously, so if no additional encryption is employed for the actual data transmission, yeah, you're vulnerable.

Putting together binary PDF files that are embedded as e-mail attachments is still a bit trickier than just searching for a short text string that looks like it could be a SSN, though. Hmm... next time I'm at an airport or hotel with WiFi, I'll be sure to send lots of text with "457-55-5462" embedded in it. :-) (That's Todd Davis's SSN, of LifeLock "infamy," who makes $10/month for notifying the credit bureaus that his subscribers consider their identities to be at risk, and therefore any credit checks should be flagged. I suspect his profit margins are around 90%...)

You may be correct that someone's trying to hack their network, but given how the vast majority of wireless network "funniness" is due to slightly incompatible bits of software and hardware, if the library's administrator isn't particularly proficient when it comes to in-depth networking knowledge, I'm not surprised he hasn't really given you a satisfactory response: He probably doesn't know how to proceed in tracking down the problem.

---Joel

Wow, that's a handy web site, thanks Hal.

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Not paranoia, common sense. When we installed a sturdy lockable mailbox some folks chuckled. Sure enough, a few month later ... now they want to know where we got it.

Some protection cannot be achieved with a 9mm Glock :-)

Say Joerg,

Do you *have* a cell phone? :-)

---Joel

Yeah, but a basic "phone phone", a Nokia 2115i. Roughly five bucks a month and that airtime never expires (unless the provider expires ...).

When at a business meeting I thought I'd be bottom of the ladder WRT cell technology with all those iPhones and such on the market. Lo and behold, the exec of a major enterprise whipped out his cell phone, a Nokia 2115i ;-)