New attack vector: Wireless USB?

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

http://news.com.com/Wireless+USB+devices+arriving+by+September/2100-1041_3-6
046560.html?tag=nefd.top
 
By  <mailto:stephen.shankland () cnet com?subject=FEEDBACK:Wireless USB devices
arriving by September> Stephen Shankland 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: March 6, 2006, 5:18 PM PST 
 
SAN FRANCISCO--The first devices using a wireless version of the Universal
Serial Bus connection technology will begin arriving in the third quarter,
the leader of an industry group overseeing the standard said Monday. 

Wireless USB promises help for consumers frustrated with PCs sprouting a
profusion of cables linking their PCs with printers, digital cameras, music
players and external disk drives, said Jeff Ravencraft, chairman of the USB
Implementers Forum and an Intel technology strategist.
<http://news.com.com/Intel+takes+aim+at+computer+cable+madness/2100-1041_3-5
842879.html?tag=nl> Wireless USB permits the same 480 megabits-per-second
data transfer speed as the current wired USB 2.0 standard, but requires
small radios inside PCs or devices rather than the cables. 

"Early movers are going to be external hard drives, cameras and printers,"
Ravencraft said in an interview here on the eve of the
<http://news.com.com/Intel+to+tout+new+dual-core+Xeon+at+IDF/2100-1006_3-604
4294.html?tag=nl> Intel Developer Forum. "You'll begin to see products move
in the third quarter through the back half of the year." 


To make wireless USB practical, though, some aspects of the technology had
to be ironed out. On Monday, the USB standards group announced a new element
to that work, the Wireless Association Specification that makes sure only
authorized connections are made between PCs and devices. 

USB has caught on widely as a way to connect cameras, scanners, mobile
phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), DVD burners and innumerable
other devices to PCs. The Wireless Association Specification governs how the
PC end of the wireless USB connection will be able to connect to as many as
127 devices, Ravencraft said. 

...

 

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