Re: Newspaper Article about Cable Modem security

["Eric Toll" <etoll () syracusesupply com>]

The sad part is that even if they have file and print sharing turned off, you can still be hacked and or hijacked, 
cable modem networks are not distributed star, but more like a bus network  ( think of it like a river ) and anyone can 
get a sniffer and "drink" packets and look for "password" or capture 40bit encryped https sessions, save them and crack 
them later to reveal credit card numbers etc.

Do you guys think we have kiddie scripters reading this stuff?  I'd hate to think so.

> > > Neil Ratzlaff <Neil.Ratzlaff () ucop edu> 10/28/99 11:09AM >>>
At 23:12 10/26/99 -0700, Michael Kelly wrote:
> I spend more time lurking in this list than I do contributing. However,
> I read the newspaper article located below and had to share it with all
> of you.
>
> http://www.detnews.com/1999/technology/9910/26/10260168.htm 
>
> Talk about spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt!

My uneducated impression is that cable modems are much like an unswitched,
unfiltered LAN, and therefore subject to the perils mentioned in that
article. 
I think a little bit of Fear might prompt users to protect themselves  --
sort
of like the early days of spam.  I try to avoid M$Windows, but if they do
share
by default, users really are wide open.  (I do sometimes have to deal with
WindowsNT administrators who think that if the machine is actually running its
applications, everything is fine and secure.)  So can someone please tell me
what is incorrect or misleading in this article?

Thanks,
Neil