Archive for August, 2006
It’s time to really forget about WEP on WiFi networks
Check out this article from University College London & Microsoft, it explains how to crack any WEP-protected WiFi network in just a few seconds. Here is an excerpt :
The 802.11 encryption standard Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is still widely used today despite the numerous discussions on its insecurity. In this paper, we present a novel vulnerability which allows an attacker to send arbitrary data on a WEP network after having eavesdropped a single data packet. Furthermore, we present techniques for real-time decryption of data packets, which may be used under common circumstances. Vendor produced mitigation techniques which cause frequent WEP re-keying prevent traditional
attacks, whereas our attack remains effective even in such scenarios.
We implemented a fully automatic version of this attack which demonstrates its practicality and feasibility in real networks. As even rapidly re-keyed networks can be quickly compromised, we believe WEP must now be abandoned rather than patched yet again.
A proof of concept called “wesside”designed for atheros chip is available for download. Until now rekeying every 4 minutes or so the WEP key was enough … Now I guess we should rethink our security modelsand switch to WPA !
Typepad got mobile
I guess you already now everything about it as it has been relayed about every blog I know, so I guess I won’t bring some big news on this post, except my own personal feedback on the service. As you might now, I’ve got a Nokia N90 (and I’m not sponsored by Nokia, but I’d be happy touse their latest models) so I used to enjoy lifeblog quite
a lot and it worked pretty well. So Typepad mobile was kind of a non-innovation… But well with all the buzz I had to give it a try and in my own personal case it won’t work (I got my Bouygues GPRS SIM inside, not the Orange 3G)… So I’m a bit disappointed 
Anyway getting mobile is a noble ambition, so big up, Six Apart team!
Your DS as an MSN Client
CanardWiFi just pointed out this video to me showing the use of Beup, an MSN client for your Nintendo DS console (WiFi enabled, remember? )
Just as a follow-up to my latest post… so many new devices to keep you always connected 
Sony’s communicator device
Mobilecrunch just announced Sony’s new personal device “mylo”which stands for “my life online”. It reminds me of nokia 770 tablet, but looks so much more fashionable and design. It’s basically a WiFi communicating devices targeted to IM (it comes preloaded with Skype, Google Talk & Yahoo IM) and mobile multimedia including MP3 & MP4 player. It only has 1GB, but well as long as there
is WiFi youshould be able tostream audio & video. It also includes JiWire’s hotspot directory. Although it’s a bit expensive (350$) I think it’s huge although it remains a “nice to have” device.
There is bound to be so many more devices just like this one ! Look at the UMPC, Nokia 770, PDAs, there is a real seek for powerful mobile devices to connect to the Internet. I’m really looking forward to see real breakthrough in that era.
There are start-ups in Japan too
I guess that’s something you expected, although they tend to be out of sight from Europe or Us… I just found an interesting one named “General Robotix” that is creating robots and dedicated electronic boards for robots. A bit expensive but they seem to have a very complete offer. Too bad there is no WiFi extension board yet… I guess I should give them a call
Check their SDK it’s huge, it looks even more powerful than Microsoft’s
“Rich Presence” of your contacts
Jaiku is a new start-up created by Jyri Engestrom (expert on social networks) and 3 other finns providing a rich presence directory of your contacts. Using this application every user sends live its position through cell tower positioning, its availability depending on the phone ringer’s status and some details such as upcoming clendar events.
You can share this information with your contacts’ mobile phones. You can also create a badge for your blog, MySpace profile or any other Web page that shows your real-time presence on the Web.
This is an application I’ve been hearing a lot about, but they are the first one to roll it out ! Great job guys !
