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NSA Approves First 802.11b Product for Secret Data

Posted by michael on from the modprobe-orinoco dept.

joehoya writes "I realize this is a couple of days old, but the National Security Agency recently certified the Harris Corp's Secnet-11 as the first 802.11b system permitted to carry US SECRET level data. See press release. The system integrates NSA crypto with commercial chipset based 802.11b PCMCIA cards and access points to create a secure wireless LAN. Unfortunately, you and I won't be able to buy them, as they are only available to organizations with an NSA COMSEC account."

7 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. How is this unfortunate? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It's already possible to "leverage" "existing technologies" in order to do secure communications using "commodity hardware".

    Or, in English (and not marketdroidspeak) you can have perfectly secure communications over existing 802.11 as long as you encrypt at the protocol level rather than the hardware (link? I need to study my OSI seven layer network burrito) level. So why do we care about this anyway?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Public or private key? by thirty-seven · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wasn't able to find this in the press release. Does anyone know if the encryption algorithm would be public key based, or would it be DEC or something like that?

    --

    Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.

  3. But it only works with Windows.......... by jcrb · · Score: 5, Interesting


    who is fooling who here? None of the OSes (only Windows versions) it works with are certified for TOP SECRET data.... guess its pretty useless till someone does the linux port eh? :)

    --
    -jon
  4. why not in software? by mocktor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    impressive stuff... from what the datasheet says this all looks to be implemented hardware on the card - but given the low-level facilities of the chipsets on consumer-grade 802.11 cards is there any reason why some bright coder can't do a similar thing in driverspace?

  5. There's that secure wireless oxymoron again by kbielefe · · Score: 4, Interesting
    At my work we deal with a lot of secret and/or export controlled material. There are areas at my work set aside for foreign customers that we aren't even allowed to run a wired LAN connection to. If you want to run some software over there, you have to put it on a floppy or CD and carry it over from your desk. This can be a real pain when trying to find an elusive bug. Maybe it was just easier than getting the security measures approved to connect the LAN.

    If they have good reason at all to be that paranoid about a wired LAN, I think it won't take long for this "secure" wireless thing to come back and bite the NSA.

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    This space intentionally left blank.
  6. So what? Even the phone book is classified! by pvera · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a non-event. And secret is not a life-or-death classification level, as anything that is considered remotely important will automagically get tagged with TS + keyword.

    --
    Pedro
    ----
    The Insomniac Coder
  7. Most readers missing the point... by drunkrussian · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To get something approved for processing at the SECRET level is a moderately big deal for those who work with such data. For the outside world, it's not the last word on the quality of the system.

    You can't, for example, get a Linux box approved to process SECRET information (at least, last I checked). Windows is approved, however. Yet, for the commercial user, I would say that Linux is more secure than Windows. What matters is how the system is set up. I'm kind of surprised that there's any demand for wireless networking at the SECRET level. With few exceptions, a classified box has to be physically disconnected from all other machines and operate only from hard drives with no communications software on them. There was an article on cnn.com today about a hacker who got access to sensitive but not classified information on military networks. The reason he didn't get access to classified information is because of the way it's protected.

    And forget about anything at the TOP SECRET level or above. We have a room at the office that does work at the TS level. If you bring a disk in there, you can't leave with it. If you bring a hard drive in there, it can't leave the room. Once a computer goes in there, it can't leave either. Well, that's not entirely true...security chops them up into little tiny pieces, waves magnets over them, and does some other magic to make them completely clean before they can leave. They're certainly never useable again. They even destroy the monitors before removing them from the room, in case an image might be burned into them.

    Anyway. People who deal with SECRET information will probably be interested in this article, and I'm sure life will go on with no change for those who don't.