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Airports As Secure As 802.11b

Posted by michael on from the free-upgrade-to-first-class dept.

INO_Fiend writes: "SF Gate is running a story about how at both Denver and San Jose Int'l American Airlines has been using unencrypted wireless to connect the curb check-in with the rest of their networks. They tested this by grabbing a laptop and hanging around the airport. I guess I might finally have something to do with a laptop and a WiFi card the next time I fly..."

2 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. True in dallas too by Kevinv · · Score: 5, Informative

    I accidently connected to an AA wireless network in Dallas. This was way before 9/11. At first I thought it was a freebie for exec flyers, once i realized it was their business network i disconnected.

    they had a dhcp server that assigned ip/dns to anyone that connected.

    didn't even think about it again until i read this article.

  2. My experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry, I am posting anonymous.

    The airline that I worked at (until just after 9/11) had a similar setup. An average sized hub airport probably has roughly 1700 things with an IP address. To help out, I used a machine with arpwatch to help keep track of what was running and to monitor changes. About 5-15 times a week, I saw non airport workstation names and mac addresses of nic's that we did not have. Luckily we did not have anything with a DHCP server running or everyone of these computers would have fit right in. We had coverage at every ticketing area and every gate, not hard to get a good signal.
    My purpose is not network security, only an installer and maintainer of the network and systems, so I made note of our insecure wireless network to our networking group and got nothing back. When I had left about a year after bringing this up, nothing had changed. With so many levels of IT support and groups of people protecting their specialized interests at the company, it was nearly impossible to find someone that could step back and look at more then what they were currently responsible for. I guess we needed a "wireless network security" position before anyone would care to address this.
    I don't know what you would do once on the network. Sure you could sniff around but I doubt you would get anything useful from the scheduling and ticketing part of the traffic.