Please pass this message to interested parties.*
Amateur Radio WiFi, Encryption, HIPAA, and HSMM-MESH
Santa Clara California, April 24
*At the Santa Clara ARES/RACES Monthly Meeting
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM,
1900 Walsh Ave, Santa Clara, CA 95050**
*
At their last board meeting, ARRL considered a request to change the
amateur radio rules to allow the use of encryption on the air. This was
the first meeting of what will probably be a long process.
* Health providers are responsible to protect patient information under
HIPAA, the patient privacy bill passed in 1996. It's made them
increasingly nervous about using Radio Amateurs to provide emergency
services. We're doing everything we can, but they're still nervous about
being sued. The advent of digital communications over Amateur Radio
presents a potential solution: encryption of patient information would
protect its privacy.
High power WiFi-like devices are now available for Amateur frequencies.
We share either the operating frequency or the IF frequency with
conventional WiFi, but we can use higher power and higher-gain antennas
than non-licensed users. But how do we keep non-hams off of Amateur
digital networks? Encryption is proposed for that, too.
*/But proposed rule changes to allow encryption could be a disaster for
ham radio:/*
* Amateur radio isn't for private communications, but encryption would
make communications private.
* Frequencies that carry encrypted traffic are no longer shared
frequencies. Hams who don't know the cryptographic key can neither
monitor nor participate.
* Encryption defeats self-policing in the Amateur service.
* Encryption facilitates the use of frequencies for purposes we don't
desire in the Amateur spectrum.
* Amateur Radio must be /harmless/ in order to continue to be
supported by governments. But encryption removes any assumption that
the content of a communication is harmless
The prospect of encryption on the Amateur airwaves has been so
contentious that ARRL's High-Speed Multimedia committee disbanded when
half of the members walked off in anger over the topic. The HSMM-Mesh
group prohibits discussion of encryption and the FCC rules on their
message boards because discussion has been so acrimonious. This,
however, has prevented them from arriving at any solution and a
consensus among Radio Amateurs on the issue.
*Fortunately, there **/are /**solutions and consensus /is /possible.
Bruce Perens K6BP explains:*
* What are the HIPAA requirements?
* How does ham-frequency WiFi work?
* WiFi distance records vs. practical radio links.
* What is /Fresnel distance,/ and how does it effect WiFi communications?
* What other forms of digital communications can we use?
* How does WiFi security work? Would it be secure over Amateur Radio?
* What sort of encryption does Part 97 permit today?
* What's the difference between /authentication/ and /encryption?/
* Can we authenticate without obscuring information?
* What is a /zero-knowledge proof/, and how can we use it on Amateur
frequencies?
* What are "Part 15 on-ramps", and how do they differ from Amateur
communications?
* What is OpenWRT, and how can it help us?
* What is HSMM-Mesh?
* What is end-to-end encryption, and how does it differ from WiFi
security?
* Should there be a capability for regulators and others to decrypt
recorded messages after acquiring the key? Why isn't SSH/SSL the
best protocol for this function?
* Should we use end-to-end encryption for patient information?
* Is there a chance for changes to HIPAA that would protect our served
agencies?
Bruce Perens K6BP is one of the founders of the Open Source movement in
software, and an expert witness and consultant who makes his living
explaining technological issues to lawyers, judges, corporate officers,
and government agencies. He is presently involved in the development of
Codec2 an Open Source ultra-low-bandwidth digital voice codec for radio,
and FreeDV, the Open Source HF digital voice application using Codec2.
See freedv.org <http://freedv.org/> for more information. Perens founded
/No-Code International /and successfully evangelized for the elimination
of the Morse code examination for Amateur Radio licensing worldwide. He
is the creator of /Busybox, /the foundation of embedded Linux and an
important component of OpenWRT and the HSMM-Mesh software. He is a
keynote speaker worldwide, and spoke at the /United Nations Summit on
the Information Society/ at the UN's invitation.
Contact Bruce via email to bruce at perens dot com, or phone +1
510-4PERENS (510-473-7367).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Precog is a next-generation analytics platform capable of advanced
analytics on semi-structured data. The platform includes APIs for building
apps and a phenomenal toolset for data science. Developers can use
our toolset for easy data analysis & visualization. Get a free account!
http://www2.precog.com/precogplatform/slashdotnewsletter
_______________________________________________
Freetel-codec2 mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freetel-codec2
