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Anti-Wi-Fi Wallpaper
Alephcat writes "New Scientist is reporting on a wallpaper that can prevent hackers accessing secure networks via Wi-Fi - without blocking mobile phone signals - that's been developed by a British defence contractor. It is based on covert 'stealth' technology that was originally designed to hide military radars."
"Heathrow Tower, we can see London, but RADAR says it doesn't exist, then this weird music starts playing and this guy gets up from his seat with a big book and says we've entered some twilight thingie!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
what's to stop me from establishing a VPN connection over my GPRS cell? Either way, they can't win.
Does it come in 1280x1024?
http://sflip.com
... For an endless barrage of "tin-foil" jokes.
Well i guess tinfoil hats are about to be replaced. as an additional bonus, it is now easier to shield your entire body from "the man"!
Or on the ceiling? (Think multi-story apartment complex) Carpet?
Get real... the people who want security in the first place WON'T USE WIFI.
It'll never make it to market.
a wallpaper that can prevent hackers accessing secure networks via Wi-Fi - without blocking mobile phone signals
But... I want it to block cell phones as well.
And lining the whole house in foil just looks way too shiney for normal use...
Can they make wallpaper that enhances my wifi instead of killing it?
"Derp de derp."
Heh... I see an army of wallpapered tanks crossing the battlefield. :-)
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
I did! I did see the Puttee Tat! I did!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Yeah, I thought they meant software wallpaper... like a JPG covering my desktop. "How the hell would THAT work?" I wondered. Feeling silly now.
RP
Kind of neat, but I worry about the fragility of the wallpaper in any kind of commercial or industrial setting. It seems to me such a material would be far more useful incorporated in a vapor barrier *inside* the wall. I know it would be an expensive retrofit that way, but how else would you deal with drop ceilings and the masses of ducting and cabling therein?
Uninformed people want security, too, they just don't know it until they've been violated or 0wn3d. One former CIO thought WI-FI was extremely cool until I started showing him the stuff about War-Chalking on Slashdot. Funny reaction, though, seemed I was part of some problem by revealing such things. Must be the PHB self-defense mechanism kicking in... 'didn't make mistake, peon warning of possible security holes is actualy problem, move peon to desk further away, problem solved.'
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Something to replace the tinfoil in my hat!
That's right, I read at +2 and post at +1. Not even I care what I have to say.
I am selfish, if I pay for my net access, no war driver is allowed on. Right now I am just trying to be harder to get in then my neibores.
WIFE: "What do you mean we need it to prevent the hacker children next door from getting our credit card numbers?"
HUSBAND: "I know, honey -- it sounds bad, but think of all the information we have flying through the house and out the walls because we don't have this anti-wifi wallpaper in every room."
WIFE: "What information? You mean three to four hours every Friday and Saturday night of video game data? Are you scared the hacker children next door will get your serial number? Are you scared that THEY too will learn of your porn like I did last week? Christ -- they're 12!"
HUSBAND: "Hey -- the black hats start early these days, babe. Porn? What porn?"
WIFE: "Never mind. What's a black hat? What are you friggin' talking about? Enough -- stop bothering me with this tin foil looking wallpaper and help me pick out a nursery paint color."
HUSBAND: "Are you sure you want paint in the nursery, babe? What if someone hacks our wifi baby monitoring camera because we don't have this wallpaper and decides to kidnap our child?"
WIFE: "You sad little nerdy man. Shut up and pick out a paint color."
HUSBAND: "But -- what about our credit card num---"
WIFE: [SLAP!]
HUSBAND: "Yes dear -- I like Nemo Yellow."
HUSBAND: [SIGH]
IronChefMorimoto
But it is also the work of moments then for an outsider to breach that company's computer security using the Wi-Fi connection. Unless the Wi-Fi base station is protected by security measures that most amateur users would not bother to set up, it gives anyone up to 100 metres away the chance to bypass the corporate firewall and wirelessly hack straight into the network.
...
Yeah, cuz most amateur users are going to install special wallpaper
I understand that some compaines may want this, and it is a cool idea, but if you are going to use Wi-Fi you have better do your best to secure it, not just pray you can keep everyone out with some wall paper.
man
No manual entry for
If he had, he would have seen;
that rogue APs are a concern (Strike 1),
that they are working on transparent window treatments (Strike 2), and
that they have considered market pricing (Strike 3).
Wouldn't it be easier and less expensive to:
Come play Moral Decay!
...they'll beam a wifi and a cellphone signal at a building and measure the reflections. If the building is much more reflective at wifi frequencies than cellphone frequencies, they've found something really worth finding. How they get it once they've found it is another matter, of course.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
WEP is _far_ from perfect. And you are ignoring one of the main risks - that of rogue (ie non-authorised) APs set up by employees that are often unsecured.
Security is a process, not a milepost that can be passed. Risks need to be constantly re-evaluated and addressed. You can bet that UKP500/m^2 is a small price for a Gov't agency to pay to protect secrets that could cause lives to be lost should they leak. And that also goes for military contractors too.
You Fiend! Making people type "www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992461" when you could have just linked there! The horror, the horror! ;-)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
How to stop people from connecting an AP. First off dissalow any remote switches particualy dumb ones. Only allow one MAC address per port. Turn the port off if you see spanning tree. Run 802.1x auth and vlan selection with a 2 factor login (secure ID etc). Only allow one login per person. Not that hard to do with modern Cisco gear, expensive but not hard.
No sir I dont like it.
Glad it is Friday, as I just can get the picture out of my head of people sitting outside your house, downloading porn, and "coating your front wall".
That is some expensive "stuff"....
Not sure if you are aware, but WiFi is used for other applications than Internet access. Companies use it in inventory control applications in stores and warehouses and all kinds of places. I think they would be very interested to know they could prevent someone from setting with a laptop snooping what's going on with their inventory.
Hospitals and doctors offices would be especially interested to help keep their information inside their walls and further comply with regulations.
They would likely make more money selling to organizations like that anyway than selling to individuals.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
...and they can save half the money they spent (not because the idea is expensive but because I'm greedy). Simply fire ANYONE on the spot who connects an unauthorized wireless hub to the corporate network. No questions asked, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Show the employee, err...ex-employee, the door and make sure to have him escorted by no less that four security guards. Make him look foolish for his transgressions and make sure others see his shame. This idea works for opening e-mail attachments without verifying the source and giving out passwords to unauthorized people amongst other problems with security.
If you're using this to keep wireless data inside (and not pervent transmission altogether), doesn't it seem like this would defeat any chance at room to room wifi access? I mean, it's hard enough to get good signal strenth in buildings without having some futuristic alien-technology inspired government stealth ultra-anti-signal wallpaper in the place.
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
That damn paint-and-wallpaper trade group is just trying to scare everyone so they can unload a warehouse full of surplus foil wallpaper that went out of style in the 70's
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Yeah, give it up, I don't think they care....honestly neither do I at this point....just glad I dont pay for /.
"The saddest words of mice and men, are not those which were, but should have been."
it's not so bad with Firefox - doubleclick to select link text, middle click to go to Google's best guess (which is the actual site)
Set up my wireless access point as a deliberatelly unprotected box and watched packets fly by my router... Seems one of my neighbors was quite into high-bandwidth images and videos - guess he had a script or something to make downloading faster. Pretty effective denial of service attack on the WiFi access point.
It's not really wallpaper, it's a thin sheet of Kapton (1/10th of a millimeter). You can see trough that, so you can paste it on windows, and you can also put it under the carpet and in the crawl space above you.
:)
But I think you are right, people who want security won't use Computers
get 7 free Japanese lessons.
Brought to you by the makers of the tin-foil hat and the ionic bracelet...
- Have you ever noticed that the more you learn about technology, the more stupid you sound trying to explain it?
The tech behind that wall paper sounds like the same as selective interference used on camera lens anti-reflection coating.
In this case the spacing of the 2 reflective layer is tuned to allow maxium transmission of GSM and 3G signal; the reflection wave from first copper layer is 180^ out of phase with the reflection wave from the second copper layer.
IMO this wallpaper will block EVERYTHING and just allows the mobile channels to go through.
Maybe I'm the only one who ran across http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/ this little gem , but this seems like a very good low-budget option for striking back at your friendly neighborhood wi-fi swipers.
anything i tell you will cloud your opinion.
This anti-WiFi wall paper is grossly overpriced. The same effect can be achieved using EMSEC's paint at a cost of about $3 per square foot (about $500 per gallon) or using ASTIC Signals Defense's SD1000, SD2000, or SD3000 series window films (about $15 to $30 per square feet installed; substantially more for the bullet proof glass version installed at US Embassies).
See http://www.worldtechex.com/WorldTech/Browsing/frmC ategory.aspx?type=TECHNOLOGY&id=59&report-id=5 for more information about the ASTIC film.
Both products block most RF frequencies, including the WiFi frequencies. The window film also blocks infrared threats(e.g. laser microphones) and UV threats (see the cambridge whitepaper on CRT threats).
The paint essentially includes certain powdered metals, including copper, that block RF frequencies. The window film takes a blast-resistant film and uses a patented plasma sputtering process to place a thin layer of gold, silver, and other metals on the window film.
The film is currently installed on a variety of buildings dealing with defense, homeland security, and intelligence in the Washington DC area. The EMSEC paint is State-Department controlled and requires a license for export. The ASTIC film can be exported to any country except those on the terror / bad company list.
There must be (a possibly bigger) market in blocking mobile phones? Make the tuned circuits resonate at lower frequencies (larger) and block mobile phones. Its so obvious as a legal way to enforce 'quiet zones' in so many places. Modern mobile phones are at 800, 900, 1800 and 1900MHz. Larger elements and the added bonus mobile phones are close to harmonic intervals makes for a simplified design.
There is quite a bit of information (in books, not http) how to do this. Is about as 'hi-tech' as anti-theft tags on CDs. At five or ten bucks a m^2 there would definitely be a market for a variety of purposes, and frequencies, including wlan. This beats the hell out of active jamming. Except for perhaps the US, this is definitely NOT patentable.