Mobile and Secure.Com

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My partner asked me today if there was a baby channel.

“A what?” I said?

She was in the kitchen attempting to tune the kitchen TV into the WiFi video sender unit that was broadcasting from the front room. On the screen was a picture of a sleeping baby.

The WiFi video sender comes with 3 preset channels. The image was being broadcast on channel 3.

“It’s not a baby channel” I said. “Someone has a baby monitor that is utilising WiFi”.

The picture on our screen was of a neighbours sleeping baby. Taking a guess, I nipped outside and introduced myself to some neighbours that had recently moved into the area. They have a baby, and they are now aware that their baby monitor is broadcasting into the street.

I do like the idea of being able to keep an eye on your baby while you are out of the room, but it might be a good idea if these video baby monitors used some form of signal protection so that only you are the one receiving the signal.

Asda (UK Wallmart) is offering PAYG mobile phones for a fiver, thus offering the paranoid among us a cheap way of making calls from a phone that is not traceable back to it’s owner - unless you were stupid enough to pay for it with a credit/debit card that is.

So if you need to make a couple of untraceable calls, pop into your nearest Asda store now.

You can share your Symbian S60v3 device’s 3G data connection with everyone by turning it into a WLAN Wi-Fi hotspot using JoikuSpot beta software.

The software is still in the beta stage so be warned as there doesn’t appear to be any mention of security in the White Paper. This implies that anyone within range can freely use your hotspot and internet connection.

If your mobile phone supports the microSD format then you could soon be having secure conversations with your friends with the use of a new technology developed by KoolSpan. The KoolSpan TrustChip™ offers 256bit AES end-to-end-voice encryption.

Instead of having to connect to your home broadband or going in search of a Wi-Fi hotspot when out and about to get internet access, you can now just use UMTS services to access the internet. Not satisfied with HSDPA, Vodafone have brought out a HSUPA USB modem that provides a possible 5MB/s download speed.

Most broadband users today access the internet via a hardwired connection but this may not be the case in the not too distant future. It may not be long until we won’t be needing a phone line coming into our homes.

I was reading some time ago about the Eye-Fi wireless SD card. It allows you to upload your digital photos straight from your digital camera to your favourite online photo hosting site. Well, according to the marketing speak anyway. In reality, from the reviews I’ve read, you have to set it up to talk to your home Wi-Fi access point (not ad-hoc) as it can’t use public hotspots. In other words, it allows you to upload photos from your camera to your PC in your own home without the use of cables.

The reviews and technical specs I was reading started me thinking about the security implications of this card. Eye-Fi supports WEP (oh dear) and WPA/2 PSK, which means having to configure the card with your wireless network encryption key.

Think about it, how many people leave their digital cameras unattended at parties and social events? All a hacker needs is the Eye-Fi SD card reader and a laptop and he can get your wireless network encryption key in under a minute. There would no longer be any need for a hacker to sit in a car outside your home trying to crack your network encryption. They could just follow you to a bar and wait for you to leave your Eye-Fi enabled digital camera unattended.

The movements of a group of pupils attending a UK secondary school are being tracked via RFID in a current trial. The RFID tags allow the school’s computer system to determine whether the pupils are in the right classroom, in areas that they should not be, or not on school grounds during school hours.

While the wearing of the tags during the trial is voluntary, campaigners are already raising a commotion about human rights. What they are failing to realise is that the average child is more clued up on technology than the average adult. It’s not rocket science to figure out that if this technology becomes adopted by the nations schools, that the kids will figure ways around it, or to use it for their own benefit. Instead of getting your mates to say you were in a particular class, you give them your tag or the item of clothing that it’s attached to, and they take it into class so that the computer system will say that you were there.

I came across this article on the BBC website about using Wi-Fi and RFID to track people. The manufacturers of the technology say that it’s a great way to track assets or people within a controlled location, say a campus or a building, like say a hospital.

A hospital? Yes, apparently they recommend the use of this tracking technology in hospitals, a place where you are requested to turn your mobile phone off as soon as you walk in the door.

So while the government takes another look at the impacts of wireless networks on health, others are aiming to install wireless networks in hospitals.

The subject of RFID keeps coming up in conversations I’ve been having lately. So rather than pleading ignorance, I decided to read up on RFID and share my notes here.

RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) is a technology that allows the automatic identification of an object by the use of an embedded transponder device, usually a small (inexpensive) tag. The RFID tag is attached to an object, and comes in two parts, an integrated Circuit (IC) identified by an EPC and an antenna. The IC stores the information that the tag contains, the antenna receives and transmits data.

There are 3 types of RFID tag:

Passive tags have no internal power source. They are powered by the electrical current generated by the antenna from the incoming signal. They generally have a short broadcast range of a few feet.

Semi-passive tags have a small battery to power the IC. The antenna generates its own power to broadcast from the incoming signal without using the internal battery. Its broadcast range is generally the same as passive tags.

Active tags have an internal battery that powers the IC and is also used to broadcast the signal. These RFID tags have the greatest broadcast range of up to 300 feet and the battery can last up to 10 years. Some also have read/write memory so they can store received data.

RFID tags can be found in passports, chipped pets, car keys, credit cards, identity cards, travel cards, access cards, expensive products, shipping containers, human implants (rare), library books, and many more places where someone has a vested interest in tracking or identifying an item of value.

Security concerns: There are always privacy concerns where any new technology can be utilised to track an individual. Retailers that embed RFID tags in clothing for the purposes of reducing theft and stock taking do not necessarily remove the tag once the item has been sold. You could in theory have your movements tracked or allow others to know where you shop if your possessions retain RFID tags.

Whenever a new technology is capable of processing and storing useful data, someone will find a way to use that data in a way that you may not approve of.

It has already been reported that it is possible to infect an RFID IC with a virus. It is also possible to track RFID tag movement within an area (M-RFID). Your movements could be tracked and plotted on a map.

What can you do about RFID tags? Well you could get yourself a reader (or phone) and scan yourself and your possessions for any RFID tags. You could also buy (or make) an RFID Zapper which will render the RFID tag useless and unable to transmit without damaging the item to which it is attached. Others mention breaking the RFID tag by physically separating the aerial from the IC. RFIDs in passports, payment cards, or access cards can be shielded using special wallets.

Some RFID tags use encryption, but this has been proven to be pretty weak and easy to crack.