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NatSci 802.11x WiFi Tracker Zeroes In On Users
securitas writes "Techweb reports that IT admins can now track and physically locate 802.11x WLAN users within a few feet using the new Wi-Fi Tracker hardware from National Scientific, based on its DarkStar wireless product. NSC's site says it will also produce tracking-only 'tag or badge' formats so admins are not limited to tracking active WLAN users and equipment. The company is now shipping development kits to its first customers and a technical specs PDF is available. The product incorporates Ekahau triangulation software. This is reminiscent of an earlier Slashdot story about office surveillance using 802.11b triangulation to track and determine the location of wireless network users."
This is really great news for all online gamers, because this allows games like features in this article further down the top page without losing all your money to your wireless provider.
Just imagine all the geeky reallife RPGs you can build using this technique!
Well, maybe my boss will be intrigued to discover that I am sitting on a couch using my laptop instead of sitting at a desk using my desktop; but I can think of interesting games that one can play with this kind of technology. I mean, if you hook this thing up to a wearable computer, first person shooters could be a lot more first person. Will companies be tracking the movement of wardrivers that normally track companies' bad security policies?
A bit like:
Office tracking as already in use.
I'm not an Electrical Engineer, but would this system be able to tell where I am located if I'm using something like a yagi or parabolic dish from several miles away?
What if I had a multi-antenna setup pointing my signal at different APs? To make the thing more confusing, what if I had attenuators or amplifiers on some of those antennas?
Whenever I have to write up presentations or work on code, I disappear to this place for hours at a time, but magically, work gets done (free wireless, and decent, if not super speedy, net connectivity). I think smart managers (I'm one of them) understand that sitting in a cubie 8 hours per day does not consitute "putting in a day's work." WiFi lets us be the most productive we can be, no matter where we are. Sometimes, that means leaving the office.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
It's funny how we Americans get so extreme about rights - it's not "I have a right, and so does he/she/it" - it's "I have this right, that right, and then some - all very unilateral. I live in the land of the free, halleluja!.
But sure, the corp. network is the corp's network, the building is corp's building, and so on. That doesn't mean that a toilet-timer or toilet-cam is appropriate, even if weren't outright illegal. You want to put it into perspective? How about a supply-room closet-cam to ensure that neither too many Post-It's get snarfed, nor any hanky-panky after the x-mas party goes on. Well, I hear sexual harassment suits can be costly, best to make sure. And don't forget the company non-dating policy, analysing proximity/location information would be excellent there - hasn't Joe been spending a lot of time around Susan, eh? And sometimes circles a little before, he's obviously indecisive then, and we don't want those kind of managers.
I think we're forgetting a very basic thing here. If you're worried about a device being used 'outside', then fine, worry about tracking the device - not the person. But the lowly card swipe/proximity-badge easily tells management what they need to know: Joe is at work, in the building, without knowing his lat/long. Joe's manager and surrouding staff will notice that Joe isn't there, even if Bob swipes Joe's badge for two days.
If that doesn't cut it for management, then the company has some interesting issues of trust to sort out. Spending time collecting, checking/auditing and sorting out noise ("the system alerted because policy X was violated", but Bob actually had a fully legitimate 4-eyes-only conversation with his boss in the parking lot, a.k.a. let's take a walk, we need to figure this one out).
And you guys actually cheered when the Berlin wall fell, didn't you? Yep, those KGB and Stasi people were horrible, what kind of government would keep tabs on the poor citizens like that.... we don't, of course, but the companies can, it's their airspace. Don't like it - take a hike.
This technology, coupled with MAC address filtering could easily allow a store to restrict the users of their free access point to users within the store.
So much for bringing your own food from home and parking outside the coffee shop for free wireless.
comment directly in my journal
What does this mean for US warships that use Wi-Fi?