Re: (Q) wireless networking classroom cheating examples

["Bruhn, Mark S." <mbruhn () INDIANA EDU>]

Frankly, I doubt that ECPA disallows jamming of the sort being suggested
for this context.  It would be analogous to just unplugging the network
so it isn't available to users within the scope of that room.  ECPA
would also allow monitoring of the traffic in that room as well, in my
opinion, if 1)  there wasn't supposed to be any network traffic
emanating from that room anyway, and, more importantly 2)  if the people
were told it was being done in advance.  A classroom where an exam was
being administered would not be a public forum by any stretch, and I
think the institution could exercise complete control over the facility.
M.

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Mark S. Bruhn, CISSP

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-----Original Message-----
From: stanislav shalunov [mailto:shalunov () INTERNET2 EDU] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 10:17 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] (Q) wireless networking classroom cheating
examples


Omar Herrera <omar_herrera () BANXICO ORG MX> writes:

> There exists technology that actually "jams" wireless signals [...]
> There is still some issues with this kind of technology: It might be
> illegal in some states and countries, so you should check the
> legislation first.

IANAL, but I had to read the relevant FCC regulations.

In the US, I would expect this kind of jammers to be frowned upon by
the FCC---intentional harmful interference by an organization can
result in large monetary forfeitures.

Since the easiest way to cheat this way would be to use a web-enabled
phone (they are currently the smallest devices that allow one to
browse autonomously), monitoring of traffic would go counter to FCC
regulations, too.

What could be legal (but check with the counsel, of course) is
monitoring of *presence* of radio activity enamating from the exam
room.  However, some pacemakers might possibly trip very sensitive
alarms.

Further (and I don't think any technological solution would work
against this), there exist watches that can accept fairly long pages
over the radio without transmitting anything.  They look more or less
like normal watches.  They can be configured not to beep when they get
a page.

--
Stanislav Shalunov              http://www.internet2.edu/~shalunov/

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