Feds Label Wi-Fi a Terrorist Tool

12-09-02

(Philadelphia & Conshohocken, PA)

02:00 AM Dec. 06, 2002 PT
By Paul Boutin
Full Article SANTA CLARA, California -- Attention, Wi-Fi users: The Department of Homeland Security sees wireless networking technology as a terrorist threat.
That was the message from experts who participated in working groups under federal cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke and shared what they learned at this week's 802.11 Planet conference. Wi-Fi manufacturers, as well as home and office users, face a clear choice, they said: Secure yourselves or be regulated.
"Homeland Security is putting people in place who will be in a position to say, 'If you're going to get broken into ... we're going to start regulating,'" said Cable and Wireless security architect Shannon Myers in a panel dubbed "Homeland Security vs. Wi-Fi."
Myers was one of several consultants for President Bush's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, which is finalizing its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace.
Since being named special advisor to the president for cyberspace security last year, Clarke has stressed wireless access points as a national security threat.
"Companies throughout the country have networks that are wide open because of wireless LANs.... Millions of houses are getting connected, which means that more and more are getting vulnerable," Clarke told attendees at the Black Hat Security Briefings in Las Vegas earlier this year.
"We know that (an attack) could bring down the network of this country very quickly. Once you're on the network, it doesn't matter where you got in," said Daniel Devasirvatham, who headed the Homeland Security task force for the Wireless Communications Association International trade association.

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