As the 2008 Beijing Olympics draw closer, China is testing
wireless local area networks (WLAN) to determine which one is
safest.
China Mobile, the country's largest mobile operator and mobile
communication partner of the Beijing Olympics, is carrying out the
tests.
Test results to date show that the current WLAN technology
802.11i has big security loopholes and is easy to attack, said Ma
Benteng, senior engineer with China Mobile.
The Beijing Olympics will be the first to use WLAN in the Games'
history. Journalists would be major users of the networks.
At a meeting held by China Mobile recently, media users were
skeptical about the safety of the current WLAN technology.
Results from more than a month of tests carried out by the
national safety research center on information project show that
802.11i has serious technological defects and safety risks, said
Ma, who is in charge of mobile planning for the 2008 Olympics.
Researchers said that articles on the technological defects of
802.11i were freely available on the internet, as well as tools for
exploiting the defects. The internet also provides methods for
decoding the technology.
Anybody who can connect to the Internet could download the
software and steal private information from others, said Ma.
That would potentially cause users huge losses, especially media
users whose Olympics stories, photos or visual clips could be
stolen during transmission, said Ma.
As system operator, China Mobile would be expected to assume
some of the responsibility if this were to happen. Ma called for
concerned departments and companies to pay close attention to the
safety issue and propose safer technologies.
The current WLAN technology, based on the 802.11 series, has
drawn criticism from experts and customers because of its safety
loopholes. At a seminar held on September 11 this year, researchers
used tools downloaded from the Internet and decoded protection
passwords in just five minutes.
Intel and IWNCOMM, a private Chinese company, have separately
developed 802.11i and WAPI to remedy safety defects.
Analysts said that 802.11i's poor test performance may give
China's WAPI an opportunity. WAPI was adopted as China's national
standard in 2003.
(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)