Flutterby™! : Privacy Nut 2010-09-01 11:54:21.811226+00

Privacy Nut

2010-09-01 11:54:21.811226+00 by meuon 4 comments

Despite the amount of posting online I do, I'm a bit of a privacy/security nutcase. The difference being what I choose to be private is possibly different from other people. I'm reading a summary of: this that includes: " a new privacy leak in residential wireless ubiquitous computing systems" and "..can observe private activities in the home such as cooking, showering, toileting, and sleeping by eavesdropping on the wireless transmissions of sensors in a home, even when all of the transmissions are encrypted. We call this the Fingerprint and Timing-based Snooping (FATS) attack".

And I had to laugh. It transcends my paranoia by large factors, has a kewl acronym, and my immediate response is: This is part of why mission critical command and control systems should not be wireless. Even minor home area networks and especially security systems. It's really easy to disable them with RF noise.

Walking around with Nancy last night, I joked about what I should have right after 9/11 was started a security consulting company. It's part of what I do now with some clients, but it's more of a perk. If I didn't like my customers and was more predatory consultant-ish, I'd be rich. Makes me think a small RV full of wireless/wired sniffing gear would be a great way to travel and work.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-09-01 18:07:52.643226+00 by: Shawn [edit history]

Whenever I talk about my ongoing work pulling [CAT6A] cable through the walls of our new house every person - without fail - looks at me in confusion and asks, "why don't you just use wireless?"

Keep forgetting to include the nylon string, though :-( We bought a roll - I just keep forgetting to include it in the bundle when we pull.)

meuon: I think it's safe to assume that one would have to be a real nutcase to try to discover what you don't share online! Like you used to say about reading other peoples' email: you only do it when you have to because you really just don't want to know.

Oh, however: I'd also note that even when the meters are around the back, with a good parabolic mic you could tell when the gas and water are running, and electric meters are usually visible from the front of the house, so, yeah, "wireless" includes the visible and audible spectrum and it's been this way for as long as there have been utility hookups.

One of the things I've been thinking about is whether, when we put the workshop building up, I should also run a separate conduit line for, at least at the beginning, Ethernet. But a 1½" line with a couple of nylon strings in it for pulling future wires.