Re: Sen. Brownback Spotlights Chinese Order to Spy on Olympic Hotel Guests

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

For email, another simple option is to connect one's POP3 and SMTP servers
via SSL.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: Tomas L. Byrnes [mailto:tomb () byrneit net] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:59 PM
To: Jim Murray; Richard M. Smith
Cc: funsec
Subject: RE: [funsec] Sen. Brownback Spotlights Chinese Order to Spy on
Olympic Hotel Guests

In general, using Internet from a hotel without using a VPN client is
just crazy. Of course, the Great Firewall will probably block your
SSL/PPTP/IPSEC VPN 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org 
> [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Jim Murray
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 10:54 AM
> To: Richard M. Smith
> Cc: 'funsec'
> Subject: Re: [funsec] Sen. Brownback Spotlights Chinese Order 
> to Spy on Olympic Hotel Guests
>
> Richard M. Smith wrote:
> > I wonder what company is supplying this Chinese government spyware 
> > "software"?  It seems like the spyware would have to be some sort 
> > pack-sniffer box that gets installed in a hotel and then 
> periodically 
> > phones home with activity logs.  I wonder also how room 
> registration 
> > information is matched with Web surfing activities.
>
> If the hotel charges for internet access (and many do) it's 
> actually fairly trivial to match activity logs to room registration.
>
> All of the major players in the hotel internet access market 
> interface to the hotel's front office systems for billing 
> purposes already which gives them the first part of the data 
> (the guest's name/room number). 
> Users are generally authenticated by MAC address so a unique 
> identifier is present in the traffic passing the billing gateway.
>
> It's not a huge step from there to recording the history for 
> full analysis later.
>
> If you want security, use a VPN to a known-secure location. 
> At least then all anyone snooping will get is the endpoint IP.
>
> Jim.
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