[Cu-wireless] Dept. of Defense Claims Wireless Could Kill Soldiers:

[Mike Lehman]

Reading between the lines...it appears that EMSM is simply a way for the 
military command to control the use of wireless and other connectivity 
on their own hardware in combat zones. My take is that this involves 
only their own units and would not interfere with other users. It is a 
form of operational security, akin to the old idea of radio silence, 
that would be remotely manageable. They would also be able to 
selectively enable connectivity of military computers as needed away 
from combat zones, if I'm reading this right.

But I would not be surprised if they have other systems that via jamming 
would deny others the use of their own 802.11b and other hardware. But 
it doesn't sound to me that EMSM will do that.

Hoping we don't end up in a war zone,
Mike Lehman

Sascha Meinrath wrote:

> here's a scary story about building into military computers the ability to
> remotely silence 802.11b and "can disable any wireless, wired or modem
> traffic in dangerous areas." it's only for military right now, but the
> idea of "dangerous areas" extending into other areas is a bit worrisome.
> 
> the part i don't understand is how 2.4 GHz radio communications would
> interfere with DoD communications (which would be on different bandwidths)
> -- can anyone speak to this?  is the military actually using radio
> frequencies that can be jammed by removing the wire mesh on the front of a
> microwave oven?
> 
> anyone?
> 
> --sascha
> 
> ***
> 
> from: http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25371-1.html
> 
> 03/23/04
> 
> Rugged notebook, software brew up a STORM
> 
> By Susan M. Menke
> GCN Staff
> 
> When users early last year began buying notebook PCs with the Intel
> Centrino wireless processor, they didn't anticipate the fast rise of
> wireless hacking or the Defense Department's imminent need for radio
> silence in war zones.
> 
> "DOD was violent: they said, 'Just get it out of there,' " Panasonic
> Computer Solutions Corp. national sales director Jan O'Hara said today at
> FOSE 2004 in Washington.
> 
> "Intel Corp. hadn't considered" that soldiers' lives might depend on
> silencing IEEE 802.llb radio frequency communications. Instead of simply
> unplugging a USB wireless fidelity add-on or PC Card, Centrino users would
> have to return their notebooks to the factory to remove the chip.
> 
> To silence Centrino via software, Panasonic today announced a partnership
> with Senforce Technologies Inc. of Orem, Utah, and reseller GTSI Corp. of
> Chantilly, Va., to bundle Toughbook Centrino notebooks with Senforce's
> Enterprise Mobile Security Manager 2.5 application.
> 
> EMSM can enforce use of a virtual private network for wireless connections
> and disable USB ports and Centrino for wired ones. It also mitigates
> denial-of-service attacks and radio interference, Senforce officials said.
> 
> The Secure, Tough, Online/Offline, Reliable, Mobile bundle, or STORM,
> sells "for about 1.5 times as much. as a semirugged notebook, O' Hara
> said.
> 
> The EMSM security policy, set by an administrator and downloaded to client
> systems at selected intervals, can disable any wireless, wired or modem
> traffic in dangerous areas, Senforce technical marketing director Kip
> Meacham said.
> 
> The network-aware EMSM "binds the hardware below the application layer" of
> Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP notebooks so that wiping the disk and
> reinstalling the operating system cannot circumvent the protection, he
> said.
>