RE: Frame relay security

[Henry Hertz Hobbit <hhhobbit () cs weber edu>]

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Rick Smith wrote:

> At 10:32 AM -0400 4/20/98, Brock, Todd A wrote about frame relay:
>
> > I too would be REAL interested in any responses to this inquiry.  Because I
> > am VERY doubtful that there will be any but purely anecdotal response
> > supporting the assumption of insecurity or known hacks or eavesdropping etc.
> > on a Frame link.  IMHO  if you think Frame is insecure, then you might as
> > well assume that ALL public telecommunication is. (This includes "private"
> > leased lines).
>
> I think this hits the nail squarely on the head. If the data owner believes
> that attackers have the means and motive to intercept their traffic as it
> traverses public telecom networks, then additional security is warranted.
> If the data owner doesn't believe the attackers' benefits will outweigh
> their costs, then encryption is unnecessary.

I have news for you. The public telecom networks are *not* all that
secure. I was fighting a battle of sorts last year with some hackers
and they easily hacked into the phone system to fake a message that
their were no parts for my car at a Ford dealer. This was an
*interactive* reply to a query sent out on the phone wire! I would
advise you that telcos are far more vulnerable than you want to
believe.  In part, what you are depending on is that you do not have
the kind of information a hacker may want. This is not an unreasonable
assumption. But if you have anything you consider at all critical,
ENCRYPT IT!

> In certain industries you do have national level eavesdropping
> organizations (NSA or NSA like) spending lots of money listening to
> commercial traffic for a variety of reasons (trade secrets in critical
> technologies, info to support trade negotiations, strategic assessments,
> etc). But if the data owner doesn't think it's a risk, then the data owner
> isn't going to spend the money. Often the information is accessible through
> several easier channels anyway.
>
> However, it's important to keep in mind that lots of systems still rely
> heavily on reusable "secret" passwords for authentication. This may give
> attackers a really juicy target and might make costly attacks seem
> worthwhile.

Agreed. Any system you consider for longer distances would be
best if it had time-based passwords. Please, let's not get into
a discussion of the hacker stealing the password generating
algorithm.


HHH

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