Re: Newspaper Article about Cable Modem security

[Frederick M Avolio <fred () avolio com>]

At 08:09 AM 10/28/99 -0700, Neil Ratzlaff wrote:
> 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.  ... So can someone please tell me
> what is incorrect or misleading in this article?

Nothing really is misleading, except that Windows 98 does NOT come up with 
file and print sharing out of the box. Some people do set up systems this 
way at home, on home networks. In a 2 PC network it makes sharing so very 
easy. Then they get cable and forget to change their settings (default 
workgroup named "Workgroup," no passwords, etc.  Of course, network 
neighborhood will show your machine even if it is locked down... kind of 
like ruptime information.

The vulnerability is real. I was at The Internet Security Conference and 
stayed at the Seaport Hotel. The Seaport has a LAN with connectivity to the 
Internet.  I plugged in... got an address... and immediately clicked on 
Network Neighborhood. :-) I'm sure none of those machines I saw and the NT 
domains I saw were wide open. But they were all there. I could have 
targeted particular vendors (since they used their company name as their 
domain name and it stayed with the mobile PC).



Fred
Avolio Consulting
16228 Frederick Road, PO Box 609, Lisbon, MD 21765, US
+1 410-309-6910 (voice) +1 410-309-6911 (fax)
http://www.avolio.com/