CertiGuide to Security+  9  Chapter 5:  Operational/Organizational Security (Domain 5.0; 15%)       9  5.1  Physical Security            9  5.1.3  Environment

5.1.3  Environment 1 5.1.3.2  Location

While not as ‘cool’ as the relative high-speed nature of 802.11x, other wireless technologies have been around for upwards of 10 years. Generically, we refer to these as cellular phones. While voice is the major use of cellular, data cable adapters have been available for cellular phones for a long time. Today, only very rural areas do not have cellular phone coverage.

Before jumping to the table of the speeds available, consider how much damage could be done if email from select accounts was secretly transmitted. Note that email text does not consume a great deal of bandwidth, so it doesn’t take a tremendously high speed connection to move a significant amount of email data.

Now consider the data in Table 1.

The table illustrates the total bandwidth, and like Ethernet, about ½ of this speed is the real throughput. Now even with 1^st generation wireless, which means over 400 characters per second of email that could be leaked without anyone knowing. Then think about the 2.5 G PCS phone plans that offer unlimited data usage for about $100 a month.

Given an AC adapter to a PCS phone on one of these plans and 16,000 characters per second of email could be sent to virtually any location in the world.

Nextel uses IDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) that is based in TDMA, and offers private 2-way radio. Nextel is specifically mentioned because we know that setting an IP address on a Nextel phone is very easy.

5.1.3  Environment 1 5.1.3.2  Location