Most large networks I've been to that care about security would notice a machine hardwired into their network that wasn't pre-approved based off the mac address of the ethernet interface alone. They'd be able to locate it just by the wirepath.
Wireless is a different issue, but most internal wireless is configured to only allow vpn traffic to their own gateway... so again blocked. =/ But I suppose in more lax environments it might be easy to cause damage. But it's not like this tech hasn't been around for near 10 years now. -Matt On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 10:06 AM, Thomas Lord <[email protected]> wrote: > Hacker News brought an interesting link today: > > > http://blog.andrewcantino.com/post/3565673304/why-plug-computers-are-a-security-nightmare > > The gist is that if blackhat hackers can penetrate your > environment and stealthily install some plug computers - > loaded with suitable software - those bugs would be > hard not notice, could sniff your wireless traffic (or, > if connected, your network), and can stealthily move that > information back towards the blackhat mothership. > > Which is nothing new. People have known about that kind > of thing of years. Trends in plug computing make the > threat cheaper to execute and easier to conceal - that's > the main thing. > > After reading that I was thinking what this meant > to Freedombox. I came up with two items: > > 1. The network hardening and stealth communications > ambitions of FreedomBox might *also* be a boon to > blackhat applications. That might give some people > and organizations incentive to interfere with or > corrupt those aspects of FreedomBox development. > > 2. If it is born out that such features are an important > new security threat, presumably there will be investment > in R&D to create and sell counter-measures to FreedomBox-style > mesh networking, tunneling, etc. > > To be clear: I don't see anything that "needs to be done" > in response to these speculated problems other than, > perhaps, to keep them in the back of our minds. > > -t > > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedombox-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss >
_______________________________________________ Freedombox-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
