The Insignificance of Security

Source : http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/transfer-jet-ready-for-its-close-up/

Rating: UGLY

Explanation:
As I was reading David Pogue 's blog today, I came across a new wireless technology that concerns me. It is called transfer-jet. It’s a wireless data transfer technology that works only when the devices are within an inch of each other. Sounds cool. David Pogue also thought so:

“You bring a camera over to your computer and touch them together—and a whole memory card’s worth of photos are transferred in a few seconds. No wires, software, password, pairing, none of that. Just touch ‘em.”

No password or pairing. Its ok, security is vastly overrated, right?

David Pogue makes a valid point about how the physical security is implemented because of the range of the device. “It’s the short range, in fact, that lets you get rid of all that red tape; it’s not very likely that a bad guy could intercept your file transfer without your knowledge. He’d have to be the size of an atom.”

However he is missing part of the puzzle. Any wireless transmission can be captured with the right antenna. An attack does not need to be physically in between the two physical medians. An attacker for example, could produce the same signal on a device, amplify it so the computer thinks the devices are physically an inch apart, attach a virus, and sit in a coffee house scanning for these connections. Without a password or a form of encryption, the attacker can freely upload his virus to which ever machine he feels fit. Let’s hope it’s not a rootkit.

With a society that focuses on convenience, it is imperative that the security of our information is kept as a priority. I love the concept of the technology, but before this could ever receive a good rating it would need to incorporate encryption or passwords. Until then, my rating will stand at UGLY.