On Tuesday 14 June 2005 19:13, Ronny wrote:

> >Maximum protection against what? Who?
>
> the bad guys including the ISP it'self :-)

And whose responsibility is that, the ISP? The vendor? To 
put it into perspective, the Ministry of Health will 
encourage the sale of condoms; they won't, however, make 
your wear them.

>
> >When you dial-up to an ISP, how less vulnerable are
> > you than when you connect to a hot-spot?
> >
> >Mark.
>
> I don't think...

"I don't think..." shouldn't be part of your strategy. 
Always assume the worst - you can't be secure by being 
obscure.

> my connection will be hijacked on a 
> dialup by my dialup neighbors though can be
> sniffed.

Well, in breaching security, gathering information is the 
first step a would-be cracker does... either by digging 
DNS zones, querying RIR WHOIS servers, getting a job as 
a janitor to clean the server room, sniffing, it's all 
part of the cracking game.

IP is IP, whether on PPP, HDLC, Ethernet or ATM networks, 
the fact that TCP/IP is the same across the board is a 
security hole in itself you have to acknowledge.

> Besides  it will require someone expensive 
> gadgets to route  the whole E1 line to his access
> server...

E-1's operate at Layer 1, and unless you are into phone 
tapping, wouldn't make much sense for you to go that 
route when IP is crossing that circuit. Besides, most 
E-1's will be carried over fibre, and while tapping is 
possible, it's hard to do it without turning a few 
heads.

Ethereal now supports packet sniffing on PPP circuits. 
How hard is it to sniff all the packets that traverse 
the NAS?

> yet with a wireless he just needs  a $15 
> wireless card to own the whole hotspot.

Not that simple (and probably much cheaper). That said, 
if an attacker takes over a hotspot, that's not your 
problem, that becomes the ISP's problem, and in 
deploying a hotspot, they should ensure their 
infrastructure cannot be compromised.

The case you describe would be typical of a 
man-in-the-middle attack. Packets would be captured by a 
thug, routed to some box for processing, and then passed 
on as if they were untouched. As other posters have 
mentioned, man-in-the-middle attacks are best foiled by 
using encryption.

As Cousin Moby 'The General' Apuli would say, "When it 
comes to being in public, always plan for the worst."

Mark.

> Ronny 

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